A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.
Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.
Bikes are the apocalypse ideal vehicle. They are immensely underrated on apocalyptic media.
Fuel I need to constantly scavenger? No thanks.
Noise that would attract the zombies? No thanks.
The highway is collapsed and my RV cannot go through? No thanks.
A bike would get you quite good through many apocalyptic scenarios.
Or just use Heelys like a normal person.
Omg just imagine the war boys from fury road gracefully gliding down the road screaming 'witness me' 😂
Mad Max the musical now on Broadway
Bigger problem is going to be old fuel. Gasoline degrades over time and becomes less combustible. It also gets gummy in small passages like fuel injectors, especially with ethanol. Wiring insulation gets hard and breaks, wires corrode. Animals intrude and eat wires. Brake and fuel lines rust through, brake hoses swell shut from the inside.
You want a carbureted small block Chevy or Ford. It might still be effort to make it run, but it’ll be far more likely to scrounge up the very generic spare parts and supplies needed.
You want a carbureted small block Chevy or Ford.
Nope.
Pre 1990 mechanically fuel injected, naturally aspirated diesels. 7.3 or 6.9 IDI, 6.2 Detroit, most Cummins industrial engines.
Diesel lasts significantly longer in storage (2+ years) than volatile gasoline (6mo max). I've even seen some non-mixed diesel last 10+ years when stored right.
But the biggest deal is that compression ignition engines can basically run on literally any vaguely flammable liquid substance. You can make biodiesel from a ton of stuff ranging from oil bearing crops to animal fat. They run way longer on oil changes because they don't dump as much thin gas into their oil. And there are no real consumables like spark plugs, distributor caps/rotors/points.
In a post-society situation real fossil fuels or petroleum lubricants or parts will not be available.
But the biggest deal is that compression ignition engines can basically run on literally any vaguely flammable liquid substance. You can make biodiesel from a ton of stuff ranging from oil bearing crops to animal fat
I'm always annoyed that you don't see more wood spirit(aka methanol) in the post-apocalypse. They'll make en ethanol still and then complain about a lack of fuel for their diesel generator as they're standing next to a forest.
Yeah diesels are always going to be first choice, but in the US at least, there's just not very many of them that aren't semi trucks.
You'd be surprised. They're less common in urban areas, but you can find multiple in any parking lot in more rural areas.
Old petrol engines do have something making them worthwhile though - they're easier to run on wood gas. A gasifier would open options for fuel availability considerably as wood is a lot more likely to be accessible.
Diesel. Still same problems, but diesel will burn a lot more fuel sources, some that can be made far easier than gasoline.
Oh yes, and an old diesel with mechanical injection will be best.
Tires are another problem. One thing that makes me laugh about the recent Mad Max movies is that all the vehicles have brand-new knobby tires (IIRC the original Mad Max had a lot of properly fucked-up old tires). Since those movies are mostly practical effects, they needed good tires for safety but it's totally unrealistic for a post-apocalyptic world. In reality they'd use old tires until they exploded - like most of the world today.
Refining gasoline is unlikely enough in these scenarios, but they'd have no way of sourcing the rubber for new tires, let alone the capacity to manufacture them.
What i learned from doomsday preppers is that you need guns and food and shelter. Apparently it doesn't matter that you're an unfit fuck that can't walk 20m without a car.
Or that you wouldn't last a year without your statin.
I think modern apocalypse movies should show someone grabbing solar panels off apartment balconies to recharge an abandoned electric car.
Not even close to enough energy to be practical in the real world, but close enough for movie logic.
Electric vehicles can charge from a standard outlet. I would imagine if you gather enough of those panels that actually plug into a standard outlet, you could charge a car (though slowly). Your average EV can put on about 10 miles to its “tank” every hour of charging at 120 volts. I don’t know what the amps of those panels are though.
The alternative would be if the protagonist found a home with solar panels and backup batteries. These exist today, and are becoming more common. I don’t know if sodium ion backup batteries have a longer life than LFP or lithium ion.
In a real apocalypse scenario, those BEVs would get scavenged to create electric ~~bikes~~ generators, grain mills, and water pumps. The original cars are not useful in a world without deliberately car-dependent economic systems, and it's just not a proper apocalypse if you've still got an automotive lobby.
Edit: BEV motors 2 big 4 bike
it's just not a proper apocalypse if you've still got an automotive lobby.
Mad Max
It would be easy to find enough solar panels to charge an electric vehicle in most sunny areas, though it would probably be easier to just look for a large enough existing install and skip all the DIY. (Just look for the shiniest roof.)
But I think the real problem is in the EV itself. Batteries self-discharge and chemically degrade over time, so unless the apocalypse was recent, a lot of EVs you find might have damaged batteries, especially if fully discharged to begin with.
You could cannibalize one or more EVs to cobble together enough good cells to get past the safety cutoffs, but it would take a while and you would need to be careful since internal voltage in EVs tends to be high (like 400-800 volts).
TLDR: if this is a movie depiction, definitely use a montage.
Kinda wrong.
You can't get enough solar energy to directly drive a car any practical distance, but you aren't actually driving your car most of the time. When you look at weekly energy requirements, most drivers would be able to accumulate enough energy for all of their driving with just a few decent panels. You would need a battery to take advantage of this, or only drive at night.
Also, check out the solar cannonball run. A guy made a mobile rig of like 40 flexible panels and drove a Model three across the US using only solar charging.
How about pulling the batteries from a remote control and using them to start an electric car? After all, it’s electricity and we all know batteries don’t go bad after sitting idle for 10 years, right? Movie logic. It just works.
>Survivor finds car
>plenty fuel
>pry open gas cap
>siphon
>go back home and run generator.
> Its electric
collect batteries and add it to the solar/battery bank back at base.
I knew hauling around a random jerrycan would pay of some day
shit, this thing is heavy when it's full
They'll be dragging classic cars out of people's garages and sheds.
If you were going to be realistic about this, it would be old, mechanical injection diesel engines still going long after the apocalypse. And bicycles, of course.
If you are being realistic, your best shot is probably EVs and having solar panels, those can maybe last about 20 years.
Diesel and Petrol will go bad in a year.
Either way you are on a finite resource, so the actual best bet is having horses
You think you’re going to drive anywhere 2 years after the apocalypse?
After a winter or two, between abandoned vehicles and lack of maintenance, the roads are going to be impossible to navigate for any distance that you couldn’t just walk or bike.
Depends where you are, in my neck of the woods there are plenty of roads that have been largely abandoned for 20 plus years and are still drivable. Not a comfy ride but still a drive none the less.
Most road damage comes from being driven on so assuming it doesn't get undermined most would still be usable even ten years after abandonment, not factoring in getting buried or flooded.
Diesel lasts longer then a year. If you can get a commune going, you can grow diesel fuel from seed oil, but only with older diesel. Not that you'd want to direct too much food resources to transportation, but if you have enough farm land, diesel tractors are much more common then electric and easier to work on.
You can also run modified gas engines to run off of Wood Gas and wood could be scavenged from most places. Probably the best option for any fast scouting operations, although you would need to let the system idle. The start up process takes some time.
Keyless start using too much an issue. You can start card with dead key transponders. This new phenomenon of subscription will be an issue though.
Imagine dragging a Stellantis vehicle and using the satnav. You stop at an intersection to get your bearings and the screen same you to extend your warranty.
It still amazes me the number of people who think if the battery in their key dies they cannot get into or start their car. It will probably get to be that way some day because people don't demand more from automakers. But right now these fobs include physical keys for the door. Read the manual how to get to the key and lock before you're locked out of the vehicle.
You can also put the dead key by the start button or some other designated place in the car to start it with RFID.
These are the kinds of things you want to have figured out in the first few days of car ownership. See also how to open your Tesla from the inside when the battery is dead. That's a life or death situation in some circumstances.
Even right now. Look at how people have to wait in huge lines to get some gas every time there is a natural disaster, or extreme weather. After a few days, or even hours, it's mostly gone.
This was a thrill ride to read high wow
well-written, too. this would make a great short film.
edit - i just remembered my favourite quote from Spaceballs: "Fuck! Even in the future nothing works!"
Aside from the battery in the keyfob, what about the car's battery? If left connected most cars would drain theirs within a month or two. Also, if left discharging/ed like that for too long, the cells can start to sulphate, leading to a bad/non-working cell.
All this fuel talk when IRL you can't drive anywhere if fuel in the tank is older than several weeks.
It takes much longer than that for gas to go bad... I have left untreated gas in lawnmowers, motorcycles, boats etc for entire off-seasons (plus a couple months on top of that) and the gas still goes boom just fine. I wouldn't race with it... And I'm sure it would test at a lower octane level, but it will still run an engine
Correct, I have let gas sit for over a year and it still works fine in carbureted engines like my mower and motorcycle. I just pick up the gas can and swirl it around vigorously to stir up the parts that might have settled. Also this is only non-ethanol gas being stored, probably would be worse with the ~10% ethanol blends that are standard.
I feel like any apocalypse is going to see lots of people try to rush to or from somewhere leading to clogged roads that make cars virtually useless until one gets way way into the boondocks.