Category: Vehicles

Three Letters Re: Motorcycles as Bugout Vehicles

Jim: I’m sure this subject has been well covered before, but I will interject my thoughts. I ride a lightweight dual sport motorcycle in Colorado and personally believe it is an excellent tool for everyday use, and even more so in rough circumstances.  If we look around the world at less developed countries and areas without much infrastructure the use of motorcycles and scooters is very prevalent. This is due in part to the relatively low initial purchase cost compared to conventional cars, fuel efficiency, ease of maintenance, and flexibility of use. I also often look to my experiences in Afghanistan …


Two Letters Re: Motorcycles as Bugout Vehicles

James; I too have consider the motorcycle-for-TEOTWAWKI option. E.M.P. covered the pros and cons pretty well and I can add just a couple of thoughts. I have a family, which means while there are a number of possible TEOTWAWKI uses for a motorcycle, actually bugging out isn’t one of them. This is obviously viable only for the single, unencumbered prepper. But I can see other, perhaps invaluable uses. A [high field strength EMP event – A motorcycle is small enough that it could actually be kept stored in a protected enclosure. Or failing that, it would be far easier to …


Letter Re: Motorcycles as Bugout Vehicles

Hi James, After seeing and living through the nightmarish traffic jams and rerouting during the Colorado wildfire last summer, I started thinking about the wisdom and utility of having a motorcycle in SHTF scenarios.   There are pros and cons to it that I can think of, but I’d like other’s opinions.  An off-the-top of my head list:   Pros: 1)  Bypass traffic jams and stalled/out of commission cars. 2)  Saddle-bags can carry a lot more than than a human 3)  Much faster than on-foot bugout. 4)  Handles off-road with suitable tires 5)  Fewer people could drive it compared to a …


Letter Re: IED Awareness

I received the following from an embedded mil-blogger friend.  His personal information has been redacted: Sir,  If I may, I would like to share some information with you.  Some is based on personal experience, and some comes from experts I know and trust.  What you do with this is up to you, but I wanted you to have it to think about just in case.   First, I can commend an I-phone app (should be available for other platforms as well) that the Army had suggested to me called IED Aware.  It is actually pretty much the basic Army awareness course …


Letter Re: Micro-Gasification Stoves – Taking it to the Next Level

Jim: Thanks again for the recent posting on my piece: Local Food and Energy from Top Lit Up Draft Micro-Gasification Stove. That was much appreciated! Are you tracking woodgas powered vehicles? You may have heard of it from WWII stories and FEMA manual. The old systems worked in emergencies, but were not really practical for long term use. Wayne Keith has a new book just out on practical applications, Have Wood Will Travel. In it are detailed instructions for building, operating, and maintaining a modern woodgas powered vehicle. Wayne has tinkered his way into the first system that is practical …


Two Letters Re: Surviving Snowmageddon

Dear JWR: You don’t always need a snow plow to to free up the streets in a snow-bound neighborhood. I found a video that shows a U.S. military surplus M35 2-1/2 Ton (“Deuce and a Half”) truck being used to pack down snow. – Solar Guy   Mr. Rawles, We in dry Central Texas are having the opposite problem from your “Snowmageddon” contributors: Dry wind-blizzards. On Monday, February 25th we had dry, sunny weather combined with high winds all day and night. I stepped outside after lunch to check the mail. Uhh-Ohh. The brush pile fire we had burned almost …


Letter Re: Emergency Bags for Your Vehicle

Dear James, I wish to make a comment about the article on preparing an emergency bag for your car. This is a prudent and good idea. I currently have one for each vehicle I own. The only problem with the article is the choice of food. I have a tendency to leave my emergency bag in my car. The problem arises in the summer when the outside temps start to rise. With the outdoor temp at 100 degrees F the car’s inside temperature is 120 to 130. The MRE entrees only have a shelf life of 30 days at 120 …


Emergency Bags for Your Vehicle, by Z.T.

Most preppers probably have a pretty good handle on how to assemble a bug-out-bag (BOB). And, it’s probably so large and ungainly, that it gets stuck in the closet, just like mine. Let’s be honest, are you going to have it when you need it? I think we have covered the likelihood of being at home when “it” happens in plenty of detail in the past. We have seen that the chances of you being at home on your couch with your BOB beside you are slim. What about all the other situations? In other words, where to you spend …


Two Letters Re: Bug Out Vehicle Advice

Mr. Rawles, I have not seen the subject of a 2WD with a limited slip differential versus a 4WD addressed on your blog. If it has, I have missed it. Most 4WD vehicles have “open” differentials and if one wheel on that axle spins, then the other stops. I have seen 4WD trucks spinning the driver side front wheel and the passenger side rear wheel and nothing from the other 2 wheels (dead stop). There are vehicles with limited slip front and rear but they are uncommon unless you special order them that way new or have aftermarket parts installed. …


Letter Re: Bug Out Vehicle Advice

Mr. Rawles, I have a question that I’m hoping you could provide some insight on.  I’m looking for a Bug Out Vehicle (BOV), but can’t figure out what might be best.  My options are truck, SUV, or van.  I can think of pro’s and con’s for each myself but I can imagine that there are things that I’m not taking into consideration as well that could sway my decision.  The biggest thing is being able to use the vehicle for other things rather than it just sitting around waiting for the Schumer to Hit The Fan.  With that being said …


Pat’s Product Review: Maxxeon WorkStar 2000

Way back before computers completely took over our lives, life seemed a lot simpler. If it were up to me, I’d live without computers, microprocessors, cell phones, texting, e-mails and tweets (whatever that is). I long for the time when cars were more simple to work on, I used to love tinkering with my own cars, improving on them, repairing them, and just playing around with them. Heck, I even worked as a dune buggy mechanic in Hawaii for a time. Today, with all the computers running cars and trucks, I can’t hardly figure out anything on new vehicles, you …


Letter Re: Diesel Fuel Storage and Dyed Diesel Issues

Greetings, In a short response to Simon S. from “Across the pond” and his letter about using heating oil for diesel vehicles, please let me add one small bit of first hand advice;  The heating oil that you buy for your home is not only dyed differently for tax reasons, it isn’t filtered as well either.  I also live in Europe and I got the idea to burn heating oil in my diesel vehicle once most people started converting (wrongly I might add) to Natural Gas from Russia.  The people who converted were expected to pay a lot of money …


Helicopter and Fixed Wing Drones for Retreat Security, by Long Jim

I recently stopped by our local farmers market, and while ambling along with a fresh home-made fig newton, I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw what one vendor offered. There amongst the crafts, and farm produce, was an enterprising fellow standing behind a table with a large three rotor drone helicopter. Marketed as the “Draganflyer” it has 3 dual sets of rotors stacked in pairs atop each other. It was equipped with a gyroscope-stabilized digital video, and still camera, set-up. He was contracting with folks to fly his drone over their property and take very detailed pictures of …


Letter Re: Thoughts Trailers and Towing Capacity for Times of Fuel Scarcity

Jim: InyoKern’s comments [about living in trailers] are right on. My brother is [living] in a 21.5 foot long toy hauler and it is built stronger than a conventional trailer and you can haul a lot in it. It is very comfortable and has extra large storage capacity for fuel, water etc. He has 200 watts of photovoltaic panels on the roof and four 6 -volt golf cart batteries cabled together to provide most of his electrical needs. I have a 9 foot truck camper and though its good the trailer is much more versatile for moving about from city …


Letter Re: Thoughts Trailers and Towing Capacity for Times of Fuel Scarcity

Dear Jim, I’ve been having blinding flashes of the obvious lately that I wanted to share.   A friend of mine just got a few AS degrees in IT, not realizing just how FUBAR the business world is for his new profession. IT professionals are no longer employees. They’re contract workers, rarely working in a position more than a year, and often a lot less. They don’t get benefits or retirement packages. They get specific tasks, get done, get paid, and get shown the door. This is not conducive to stable living. The career has changed so much that they …