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I Bought A Firetruck

geckodesigns.kinja.com

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Re: I Bought A Firetruck

#121

Post by revelation »

fizx wrote: post #36
geoka9 wrote: post #22

I wonder if the author realizes what a waste it is to drive a big car (let alone a fire truck) to the grocery store. We all love nature. We go out of our way to live in a place where it is more spectacular. And yet we do our best to shit on it with the damn gas guzzlers. Because, you know, it's fun!

The grocery store is perhaps a mile away, and he perhaps goes twice a week? So that's 100 miles/year, two orders of magnitude away from the national average. It's also substantially less co2 production than a flight from SFO to Hawaii.

Catalytic converters have a minutes long warm-up period beforce they approach a narrow interpretation of "effectiveness".

Oh, and since we are talking about diesels, they produce diesel particulate matter, ultrafine particles that can cause anything from cancer to nausea. Even modern diesel engines can't completely filter them.

Re: I Bought A Firetruck

#122

Post by LarryMade2 »

nateabele wrote: post #116

It turns out there are no actual aircraft carriers for sale on eBay. I am disappoint.

They just don't come up for sale too often...

http://www.kungfo0.org/theweb/ebay/carrier.html

Never know what you may find on ebay...

http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-050902a.html

Re: I Bought A Firetruck

#123

Post by stuffihavemade »

AlexMuir wrote: post #104

I just bought a warehouse. Similar - I always wanted one. I'm going to turn it into a house and put a roof garden on it and put a sweet garage in to fiddle with cars and set up some office space and generally cause havoc in there. I could drop dead tomorrow. It's nice to tick these ambitions off, although my ambitions always seem to make it more likely that I will drop dead tomorrow. (It's in Manchester, UK if anyone…

How does that work zoning wise?

Re: I Bought A Firetruck

#124

Post by Retric »

sliverstorm wrote: post #57
Swizec wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a European I don't understand the american fascination with impractically fhuge cars for every day commuting. Okay I get it, you want a big car for that roadtrip or vacation. Understandable, I do too. But for everyday stuff? My hatchback does perfectly fine around town ... hell, it does perfectly well on most vacations and long drives too.

There's no complicated fascination . It is simple. People like big cars because they are spacious, feel safer, provide a higher vantage point, and a host of other reasons. Your hatchback is perfectly fine around town, but it can't tow a boat, and most people don't like to have multiple cars. So, what winds up happening is people buy the most car they think they will need. It's totally overkill driving to work, and pl…

You might be surprised. 50 years ago it was a major issue, but now engines are powerful and small so all you need is a tow hitch and a small boat. EX: Toyota Corolla can tow 1500 lbs which is a fair sized load.

Granted if, you want to pull a 22' boat that's another story. But, for lake fishing it's fine.

Re: I Bought A Firetruck

#125

Post by zevyoura »

fzzzy wrote: post #98
jonknee wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can take steps to reduce carbon emissions in cars (smaller car, drive more efficiently, etc), but you can't with planes other than not flying. Luckily, it's in the best interest of airlines to reduce emissions since that means less jet fuel and more profits.

Indeed, this is true. Thanks for this. The realization that it is also in the best interest of an airline to reduce emissions, especially as the price of oil increases, really helps make me feel better. Not flying doesn't really reduce emissions though... Those planes are going to fly whether or not you are on it.

>Not flying doesn't really reduce emissions though... Those planes are going to fly whether or not you are on it.

On an individual level, sure, but not flying reduces demand, which in turn reduces the number of flights.

Re: I Bought A Firetruck

#126

Post by sib »

Danny Hillis, co-founder of Thinking Machines (maker of the Connection Machine), bought and drove an old fire truck around Cambridge, MA, in the 1980's. I guess that was a lot harder than getting around Montana!

Re: I Bought A Firetruck

#127

Post by fnordfnordfnord »

Retric wrote: post #119
fnordfnordfnord wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My bus/RV conversion weighs about 18 tons. It has 6 ton front axle and in the rear it has an 11 ton and an additional 6 or 8 ton axle. While a fire truck has a ridiculously strong suspension, if you used that for an RV, you would get a punishing amount of vibration and shaking. I guess you could ballast it, but you'll waste a lot of fuel hauling ballast around, in addition to being dangerously underpowered in some si…

If you significantly increase the bus's weight your going to want to change the suspension anyway. So, really it's just a question of how much of a conversion are you doing. With a bus you can just rip out the seats add a bed and a fridge and call it done as you keep the weight about the same. However if you going wild and thinking about adding your hot-tub then I think a firetruck may be a good option.

I tore so much industrial strength junk out of it. The seats? They were incredible, built to last many years of transit system abuse. Another example, a wheelchair lift that looks like it came from an aircraft carrier, and could lift an aircraft. I don't see ever re-adding that much weight. The most significant thing I've ever had was 300 gallons of potable water (and 8 companions + gear) for our last trip to BRC.

Re: I Bought A Firetruck

#128

Post by sliverstorm »

Retric wrote: post #124
sliverstorm wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no complicated fascination . It is simple. People like big cars because they are spacious, feel safer, provide a higher vantage point, and a host of other reasons. Your hatchback is perfectly fine around town, but it can't tow a boat, and most people don't like to have multiple cars. So, what winds up happening is people buy the most car they think they will need. It's totally overkill driving to work, and pl…

You might be surprised. 50 years ago it was a major issue, but now engines are powerful and small so all you need is a tow hitch and a small boat. EX: Toyota Corolla can tow 1500 lbs which is a fair sized load. Granted if, you want to pull a 22' boat that's another story. But, for lake fishing it's fine.

First, plenty of boats weight more than 1500lbs, especially if you include the trailer. Trailers always weight more than you think. For example, U-Haul's smallest utility trailer is 630lbs.

Second, there are more issues than power. Towing 1500lbs behind a Corolla puts a lot of strain on the car that it wasn't particularly meant to handle on anything other than an occasional basis, especially with things like automatic transmissions. Also very important, a Corolla is 2700lbs. 1500lbs of trailer starts to get sketchy, and the trailer can start yanking around the tow vehicle.

Edit: yes, you are right, lake fishing in a rowboat, you don't need a dedicated tow vehicle. Thing is, people dream they will get that 22' boat in a few years, so they buy the F-650 or whatever.

Re: I Bought A Firetruck

#129

Post by fnordfnordfnord »

Goopplesoft wrote: post #37
shurcooL wrote: post #31

Isn't $3600 kinda ridiculously inexpensive given that a Civic costs over $15k? What's the insurance and mileage on that thing like?

Article says the milage is 47k, crazy low for its age.

Engine hours is where it's at. I bet the engine has been rebuilt several times.
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