Ever wonder why soviet attack plans had multiple megaton warheads detonated over the central USA before the other missiles hit the targets? Ever wonder why in the modern transistor era most soviet military electronic gear has tubes instead of transistors? Ever wonder why most weaponry in the USA is shielded heavily? Emp. Just how much wire is in a coil? Did you ever make a lightbulb light by moving a magnet across a coil of wire in school? Emp is a big magnetic field moving across the circuit at a very fast speed. If a megaton device detonated at 250 miles up could knock out 60s era electronics (starfish prime tests) thousands of miles away.....what do you think will happen to electronics with thousands of transistors and ic's which one detonated central usa at altitude?

 

Maybe catch up on your reading.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfish_Prime
Looks like most of the damage was to low earth orbit satellites. Frankly, knock out communications and the rest will fall. The enemy really does not care if your EFI remains operational. Nothing will last long. That is the point of prepping. It's not so much about what you will drive as to how you will survive.

I saw an article recently, can't find the link, but it was pretty interesting. American family stuck in some middle eastern country that experienced social unrest. They had 2 neighbors who had prepared for the turmoil and took them in. First family was wealthy and well fortified. The unprepared saw this and they were overrun, looted and murdered. Second family was low key and the rioters overlooked their home and they made it through the conflict. Lesson in all this seemed to be that it was not the political issues, rather the starving hordes that posed the greatest threat. Secret was to remain low key, keep your profile down. The description of the wealthy family's compound being overrun was graphic and the host family did not survive. I think at the end of the article, the guy was trying to sell a book or something, but it was a pretty sobering view on the possible outcome of social unrest.

 

Greetings from Utah, where we have Dugway airforce base testing every experimental weapon developed since the beginning of WWII out in the desert, and waaaay more than our fair share of preppers. In fact, a resident of the next town over is supposedly one of the premiere authors on surviving the post EMP era, but that's a whole different story.

Recently, I got elbows deep into my truck wiring just to get it 100% reliable after almost getting it stuck deep in the mountains this year. Basically, I wanted it EMP proof without the tin foil hat guiding me.
Being obsessive as I am about these things, when it came time to replace the DSII module, I actually called around and spoke to engineers at 3 of the 5 companies that I could confirm actually made (IE , the parent company ordered production) of the module. I then took the info they gave me and consulted my friend who finished his PhD in electrical engineering and bioinformatics, where his specialty is basically integrating HUGE amounts of data into useable bits of information using relatively simple algorithms. Though rudimentary in comparison, the DSII module is fundamentally doing the same thing, but on a tinker-toy scale for him.
Back in college I brought him to traffic court as an expert witness where he provided the judge with a lesson about transient dipole moment lags and the effect it could have between the perception of an observing police officer and a person driving. I had my case dropped.

Anyway, he concluded that all of the units ,including the OEM Motorcraft, except one use the basic cheap doped-silicone switching transistors that are used in most all modern electronics today. There was one part number that used a different (but still very common) transistor type that was significantly more robust both in duty cycle and in it's overload protection as it's architecture was made to handle both back feed and surge protection that standard switching transistors can't handle. Strangely enough, it was the modules marked with "HEAVY DUTY" in the castings that used the run of the mill architecture.

Note: his conclusion was about the architecture of the individual transistors, not their end function. I believe all DSII modules just take the distributor signal and collapse the coil field at a particular time to maintain timing. There is some degree of ignition retard built in for startup, but it seems that variable dwell functions aren't built into the DSII system.

Given the neighbor in the next town over's supposed authority on the subject, I asked the Enginerd friend about EMPs. He basically said that I could buy the beefed up transistor unit to make myself feel better, but mounting the unit inside any metal box like an ammo can would be sufficient to protect the circuitry up to a certain value of intensity. Any "blast in the sky" induced pulse with a φ value large enough permanently disable a boxed DSII module would probably be enough to melt the rest of the wiring of the vehicle (fusable links anyone?). Additionally, any pulse from originating from a flash in the sky that had a sufficient φ would likely also be both nuclear and low altitude, in which case I would have much bigger things to worry about than my duraspark module.

I've grown to accept the prepper mentality given that seemingly half of my neighbors are actively counting down to the apocalypse. At the very least it makes for some very interesting vehicle purchases- in the past year people around me have purchased a unimog, a Land Rover D90, a few Deuce and a Halfs, and a tank-tracked mine-sweeper.

I'd take a Dihatsu in a hearbeat!

 

Probly the best bug out vehicle would be a horse and buggy! No worries to find fuel when the grid is down. Hurricane Charlie show that 10 years ago. Nobody could get fuel as the pumps were down due to the grid blown away in Southwest Florida! Lots of people had horses and used buggys to get around Arcadia till the power lines were fixed. At that time I lived in Cape Coral and had no power for 2 weeks.....Arcadia was down for almost 4 to 8 weeks depending how far down the grid you was.

Anyway, I have my 73 Buick LeSabre with the old breaker points dizzy, no problems there with EMP

 

My neighbors across town bought a horse and trailer and 5 acres of land to grow hay to prep for doomsday. After 10 years they finally decided that it's a lot of work if you're not really into horses .

 

Do it!

We were thinking of getting a golf cart or something but this thing has turned out to be a great vehicle.
My wife doesn't really go more than 10 miles from town with it, but even still, it will probably pay for itself in fuel savings in a year or 2.

It starts fine at -20, and she runs it for 15 mins, totally warmed up, goes and visits or goes to the store, galavants, goes to the mail, and it burns about 15-20$ a week doing that.
With her SUV, it was 30-40$ every 3 - 4 days or so.

We still have the street tires on it, 40$ each or something lol.
Waiting to pick out nice rims and luggy tires.
Probably drop a couple MPG with that, but oh well.

Not sure on MPG at all, but I can tell you that around town it burns a fraction of anything else we got. Plus she likes putting groceries in the back its convenient.

 

Hey, I've got nothing against preppers, but most of them are a bit heavy on the tinfoil.

Nuke EMP's that will kill the vehicle are also big enough or close enough that you have other issues. Solar flares can be seen coming and aren't a real issue; provided we act. It's entirely possible that we go full idiocracy and don't do anything in fear of creating a panic or something similar...

Now, there are a few real world situations that require prepper mentality. The Ebola scare was one and if it ever did become airborn or got legs in a city you'd have to be able to bug-in for 5-6 months. In the case of airborn you'd have to close the doors and leave them shut for that time to have any chance of surviving.

So I think the idea is what are the likely threats you're going to have in the future, what are you willing to prep against and for how long do you want your preparations to last.

A big heavy fuel thirsty truck isn't the best thing to have when fuel will likely be in high demand. A diesel truck that can run on anything is better. Also, in more rural areas houses are heated by oil. A small capacity lift pump system that can siphon from houses seems like a natural fit. Also, for a heavy truck, or any bug-out truck really, diesel is the way to go.

Anyway, my plans are for transient issues. A week or two disruption in the power grid caused by storms. Also on my list of "issues" is the interruption of government cheese. There is a subset of people that can't function without assistance and who will take matters into their own hands if you know what I mean. Distance from those people; which is really distance from any decent sized city, is a huge advantage. When the zombie apocalypse hits you don't need to be the fastest runner, just a little faster than the guy next to you. The more targets you put between the zombies and you, the better.

So, to get this thread back on target, my large bugout vehicle would be an F250 with a 4bt swap and a manual trans. Dual tanks, or maybe a bed mounted tank along with reasonable tools/spares and a 12v pump system that can lift diesel 10-15 feet so I can scavenge home heating oil tanks.

I would also be interested in any mods to make it more flexible in the fuel used, particularly used oils. There will be a lot of dead gas cars; if you could tap them for their engine and trans fluid and somehow make that your fuel, you'll get farther than the next guy...

EDIT:
https://usfiltermaxx.com/en/content/9-make-black-diesel

Seems easy enough to do and definitely a prepper addition if you really want to get all tinfoil hat. Although it could be good to start a waste oil collection "business". I say that in quotes because to do anything as a regulated business you'll likely be up to your eyeballs in paperwork. Find out who pays for oil removal and ask if you can take some of their waste oil to save them money and then work on your processing to make usable black diesel. In a SHTF situation you can simply harvest from dead cars and mix with harvested heating oil. I suspect gasoline will be in short supply, but if we're talking grid down there may be scavengable gas in storage at your local gas station. A portable pumping system with a 10-15' head capacity would do well. In addition, the ability to scavenge gas would be great for bartering. The addition of 5.56, 7.62 and/or 12 gauge security measures are recommended...

 

I suspect gasoline would actually be easier to find, and be available sooner.
There are more places refining gasoline than ULSD, so gasoline supply should come online sooner.
Also trains, trucks, military all use diesel, so government could hoard it for a while.

 

Watched Transcendence last night. This thread came to mind very quickly. And then there was the late 70's Bronco.

 

Bug out strategies depend a lot on who you are and where you are when SHTF.

Old guy like me, slightly beyond the suburbs, my F-250 isn't going anywhere. I'm too old to run so I'll stay where I am, stock up on food, water, fuel and ammo, lay low if I can and fight if I have too.

If I was younger and lived in the big city, but had family elsewhere, I would be gone at the first sign of trouble, trying to get to my family since there is safety in numbers.

Best situation seems to be well established in a small town. People would tend to pull together for mutual protection. Most people know you and those that don't know you well, will know that you are not a stranger. If you are a stranger you will be watched closely.

Here's an illustration. In the late '70s I moved from KY to a small town in KS. (Gary knows where). Walking down the street to an appliance store to buy a microwave and notice a pickup truck with a rifle in the rear window rack. No big deal, happens in KY all the time, but when I get along side the truck I notice that the windows are wide open. I mention this to the appliance store operator and he says "no big deal; if the rifle was taken, the sheriff would be waiting for the perp. at his front door because everybody knows everybody." I said "what if it was a stranger?" He replied" Them, we watch."