Imagine The Walking Dead started in 50 years from now. The way things are going now, picture this scenario:
>A survivor is walking down a lonesome road.
>They arive at a small resort and there’s a car covered in dust and dirt in the parking lot.
>They approach the car and check whether it still has some bio fuel left in the tank.
>Still plenty.
>They look around spotting a decayed body close by.
>They search the body and are lucky to find a ‘keyless’ key belonging to the car.
>There are no door handles and the battery inside the key corroded away.
>They break the glass and open the door from the inside.
>Finally inside, there’s still no way to start the engine without the key.
>They have an idea.
>The digital wrist watch on the body should have the same battery as the key.
>After a bit of tinkering with some tools they get the key working again.
>They press the ignition button.
>The displays light up but the engine remains quiet.
>The displays show error messages:
ERROR CODE: ND47089
Tire pressure sensor subscription expired
Please schuedule service or enter payment information
Engine start failed
>MFW
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.
Wait, you can’t make ethanol from wood? I guess that would make sense, because otherwise you’d see a lot more wood liqueurs, I’ve only ever heard of alcohol made from maple syrup, birch, and pine (but that last one was from a rural Austrian town and they aren’t allowed to sell it elsewhere, so it might be a little more poisonous than the others). This is going to be a rabbit hole.
Edit: you can, but it’s not the traditional way of turning wood into alcohol, and an efficient method has only recently been developed.
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.
Plenty of 250/2500 and 350/3500 series trucks in the US
You’d be surprised. They’re less common in urban areas, but you can find multiple in any parking lot in more rural areas.
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.
Gas goes bad.
That’s … what I said?
Sorry. It’s a reference to last man on earth and I couldn’t help myself.
Man I miss that show, sorry I didn’t get the reference. It got killed off right in the middle of “shit’s about to go down,” and I will never forgive whoever made that decision.
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
bikesgenerators, 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
You would need a lot of panels and days of time to charge to any significant amount of distance. If you set up a solar farm in one location you could use the car for short, regular trips.
You wouldn’t be able to take the panels with you on trips without stopping for several days at a time before traveling another dozen miles or so. Electric vehicles really do pull a massive amount of energy compared to solar cells that the vehicle could haul around.
200 watt/panel. 10 panels. 10 hours of charging. 0.2 kW x 10 x 10h = 20 kWh.
Bad mileage because of conductions, so 20 kWh / 100 km.
That means every 10 panels gets you about 100 km / 60 miles per day.
That’s just very rough based on a lot of debatable assumptions of course.
I think you overestimate the necessity to move long distances in an apocalyptic setting once things have settled. 10miles is actually quite a long distance to move yourself and all your stuff in a day. And since you aren’t expected in the office at 9am, it does not really matter if it takes you 1 hour or 10 days to move somewhere.
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.
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’ 😂
Man those electric stuntbikes with a screen are hot asf. But they are dangerous.
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.
You can also put the dead key by the start button or some other designated place in the car to start it with RFID.
Yeah I’ve had mixed success with that on my Honda. I keep spare keyfob batteries around now.
Check in your manual to make sure where you’re supposed to put the key
Not the new EVs, they don’t have keys
But in an apocalypse type of situation, you’ll find a car that has been sitting there for years or even decades. The battery will self discharge over time, and once that hits zero, the car won’t even wake up, let alone move.
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!”
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.
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.
They did a good job covering that in The Last of Us (season one, episode…4 or 5?): 20ish years post-apocalypse, someone very prepared has kept battery cells in a refrigerator (in acid maybe?) and they have to rebuild the battery before they can use the car, but the battery works.
Literally just rewatched this episode (S1e3) a couple hours ago. Yeah, Bill is a survivalist and has the truck’s battery disassembled and stored in a fridge in the garage. Reading some comments online, this was likely to reduce lead oxidation, the plastic degrading, and keep the sulphuric acid powder dry.
Unrelated, this episode gets me good every time 🥲
I think in 50 years we hopefully have figured out solid state graphene film batteries.
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.
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
>Survivor finds car
>plenty fuel
>pry open gas cap
>siphon
>go back home and run generator.
> Its electric
Boogie woogie woogie
I knew hauling around a random jerrycan would pay of some day
shit, this thing is heavy when it’s full> Realize if I don’t have at least some plan of how to use fuel or a container to put it in, why am I looking for it?
>Either fill the container I brought specifically for this, or abandon this useless pursuit to look for a bit of wire to make snares.
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.
