The car

[Pete Grey]

Just thought, to maintain you macho image paint it CAMO.

[Mortblanc]

I can't paint it camo, it would stick out like a sore thumb! It screams "survival vehicle".

I did drive a camo pickup truck for about ten years, back in the 80s and 90s so I have had that experience long term. It had two faults.

1.When you were parked somewhere everyone and their dog was looking it over.

2. When it was moving no one saw you and people were constantly pulling out of side roads in front of me, crossing into my lane thinking it was vacant, and trying to rear end me.

I am going to keep the little car for now. It's paid for, cheap to operate and runs well.

I am not camping and roaming like I once was so I really don't need the hauling capacity I once required. Up until covid I was spending about 20% of my life sleeping under canvas. The restrictions of the pandemic nearly killed off the reenactment circuit I once followed from historic site to historic site. Many of the local and small museums actually shut down and have not reopened.

A reenactmant camp/demonstration site is not like a modern camp, It requires gear. Canvas tents, cast iron for cooking, 18th century clothing and sleep gear. It's all bulky and some of it quite heavy.

You can do a lightweight version, which I did for many years, but that is really roughing it and I am too dang old for sleeping on the big rocks. I once camped for a long holiday weekend at a French site on the Mississippi River with nothing but the pioneer clothes, a canvas tarp, two blankets and a sheet metal skillet and I had a blast! I was a young kid of only 50 then.

[Pete Grey]

Paint a RED stripe on it, and RED wheels, people always notice RED, RED will do the job.

Remember the A Team’s van, I’ve always thought of you as a mature version of Hannibal .

You always have “a plan”.

[Mortblanc]

Not as loud, flashy of obvious as Hannibal, but my innate passive-aggressive nature does give me a sense of great enjoyment when a good plan comes together.

Also I am better looking than him in a geriatric Indiana Jones sort of way.

[CharlesHarris]

Around here a 20-year old dark green Jeep Cherokee and a 14 year-old dark gray metalflake Toyota Matrix hatchback attract no attention. I keep them in good repair and they are reliable. We're Into evacuate, I certainly would not be heading east towards DC, but West towards Keyser, Petersburg, Moorefield, where I have friends and relatives, but avoiding the larger cities like Cumberland, Pittsburgh, Morgantown. Wheeling.

[Mortblanc]

Charles, you are talking about evacuating where everyone else is headed to!

20 years ago I bought land and moved to where I am to avoid the hassle of evacuation. I am well out of any flood zone, have already weathered hurricane and tornado successfully, I am on a peninsula protected from wild fires. Besides that my recliner and coffee maker are here.

The only thing that would get me out of my lair is the derailment of a train carrying chemical agents. I have two rail lines each two miles from the house.

[Pete Grey]

Just as a reminder, at the moment Esso Synergy Supreme 99 Super Unleaded (and 97 octane Super Unleaded petrol) are both still ethanol free but this will not last much longer.

Ethanol absorbs water from the air and condensation in the fuel tank and when saturated (phase separation) will settle at the bottom of the tank causing corrosion.

With your BOV or any vehicle that’s parked up for some time, keep the fuel tank topped up to reduce the space for condensation, and you can put some cling film under the filler cap to block the breather, remembering to remove it before driving off.

[Mortblanc]

I quit worrying about E85 and water in the tank after letting one of my jeeps sit for 18 months with a tank of E85, then starting it up and running the tank empty.

Water in the fuel has been a perpetual problem down through the years way before E85 was a thing.

Go look at your auto supply store, check out the "gas treatment" you use to remove water from your tank. It's pure alcohol.

As soon as you add fresh gas, with the alcohol in it, the water will bond with the alcohol and evaporate out.

The greatest problem is shellacking the jets and passages in your carburetor, but what modern car has a carb? The fuel injectors work under pressure and clear themselves of most blockages. You wil have more problems with dirt than with water.

[Pete Grey]

(1 July 2023, 00:58)Mortblanc Wrote: The greatest problem is shellacking the jets and passages in your carburetor, but what modern car has a carb? The fuel injectors work under pressure and clear themselves of most blockages. You wil have more problems with dirt than with water.

Modern car ?, Our little family saloon, our GHV is a spritely 21 years old .

However I do use an additive now and again to clean the fuel system.

Thinking about the car it’s about time I checked out all the prep gear again.

[Mortblanc]

Not sure about over there, but over here cars have not had carbs since the late '80s.

My last carbed vehicle was a Mitsubishi pickup from 1988 and it was backed up by a Chevy from 1989 that was fuel injected.

I do not know of a single vehicle that would pass an emissions test without fuel injection mfg in the past 30 years.

I will just about guarantee that anything you are driving made in 2001-2002 has fuel injection and a pressurized fuel pump immersed in the fuel tank. You also have all of the computer assists and controls of any other modern vehicle to regulate fuel flow and exhaust emissions. Your MOT system insures that.

While carbs operate from vacuum and depend on suction created by the engine the FI system squirts fuel in under external pressure and they clear blockages better. That is why they do better with crap fuel and will burn stuff your lawn mower, trimmer or chain saw will not run on if it has sit for two days.