#truck
Nightmare in the mountains
https://img-9gag-fun.9cache.com/photo/axy9eDK_460svav1.mp4
17 sec video w/sound
#truck #ahead #video
Last Saturday...
So, last Sat we drove out to Owensboro KY to look at a truck, a truck I wasn’t going to buy that day, and perhaps not buy at all. And we live in Hazelwood, MO, heck of a drive right?
The truck in question was a 93 Utilimaster Aeromate, something you’ve prolly never heard of, right? It’s a step van based on a Dodge Caravan… Yes, really. It was quite a bit larger than I thought, I mean a Caravan would likely be a bit bigger than I need, but I figured this’d be slightly bigger than that and easy to repair, so it’d be worth considering, but not serious over kill. Yeah, about that. Also it needs some work, but for the price, $2500, it’s a killer deal, $10K is not an uncommon price for these vans as they’re as rare as hen’s teeth, and popular as food trucks. Of course I need something I can drive home.
Admittedly though, like I said, I wasn’t planning on buying it, I do gig delivery work and some have age rules, like Frayt requires the vehicle to be no more than 20 years. My main gig doesn’t care, but something that old brings with it the potential for me to lose a lot if not all of my back up gigs, so if I had wanted it, I was going to have to spend some time pouring over terms of service to see if it was allowed.
Now the funny part of all that, is that we did the trip using my husband’s Bolt EUV. Yep, electric car, and I wound up doing the last portion of the drive. On the drive back, I amused m'self by seeing if'n I could beat the estimate from the last charge to home, 22 miles. Ended with 36, which is impressive considering that this was a long non-stop trip, compared to my job which is package delivery routes with a lot of stopping and starting, which will make good use of the regenerative braking to extend my range. Boy, if'n I can do this on a long drive, what can I do at work?
Considering that my entire vehicle list, or at least the top three is Aeromate, Kei Van and Bolt. Kei van might not be insurable as I need commercial insurance, and regular insurance are big fans of them, so on a commercial policy? Well, we’ll see if'n my current or potential future will allow that.
If not, Bolt, not Bolt EUV, there’s not real advantage in what I do to the EUV. The slightly bigger EUV is a bit squarer, that’s a plus, but the extra size is in the wheel base, specifically the rear foot space, great if'n you do Über or Lyft, but not real useful for package delivery. I mean sure, I could take out the back seat and throw down some plywood which’ll give me a slight increase in space, but it’s prolly not worth it. Why? Well, Bolts tend to run around $15K, EUVs tend to start at $20K. EUVs lose around 5 or 10 miles of range, nothing real special, and they have a slightly larger turning circle. That last one is a big deal for me unlike most people, after all in my job I have to turn around a lot, and U-turns are safer than K-turns. In the end, it comes down to price, I pay more for something that has little to no real advantage.
So, while I’d love a town box (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubis…), likely I’ll wind up with a Bolt, but time will tell.
#travel #KY #Kentucky #truck #Auto #car #þing
@Vik-Thor / Lirleni Hankeshe
When trucks drive trains
https://img-9gag-fun.9cache.com/photo/aqevODQ_460sv.mp4
25 sec video
#video #train #truck
Boeing Whistleblower Found Dead In A Truck From "Self-Inflicted Gunshot Wound"
#Boeing #Whistleblower #Found #Dead In A #Truck From " #Self-Inflicted #Gunshot #Wound "
"The latest twist in what can only be described as an onslaught of horrific news surrounding Boeing - or perhaps the sequel to the Hudsucker Proxy where a mysterious cabal is trying to spark a stock panic so they can buy the company for pennies on the dollar - came this afternoon when we learned that a key whistleblower employee, a former quality control manager who raised concerns about the firm's production standards, **was found dead after an apparent suicide."
...
https://twitter.com/i/status/1767327172673392677
[...]
RIP John Barnett $BA pic.twitter.com/NRFc6ud0K4
— The_Real_Fly (@The_Real_Fly) March 11, 2024
That's some navigating!
https://i.imgur.com/tv142EH.mp4
1 min video w/sound
Part 2, 15 sec: https://i.imgur.com/7cyZpsc.mp4
Congratulations, Russian Army: You’ve Invented A Self-Exploding Truck.
It’s a very bad idea to stick explosive reactive armor on a thinly-protected vehicle.
It’s clear some Russian troops don’t know how their armor works.
Photos that recently circulated online depict Russian Gaz-66 trucks wearing blocks of explosive reactive armor.
The armor won’t protect the trucks. Indeed, it almost certainly will contribute to the trucks’ destruction, if and when Ukrainian forces score hits on them.
That’s because explosive reactive armor—ERA—works by, well, exploding. When an incoming round strikes an ERA block, it triggers the layers of explosives inside the block. They explode outward, partially deflecting the incoming blast.
While reactive armor doesn’t work against all types of projectiles, it can roughly double a vehicle’s protection against certain projectiles. High-explosive shells, for example. Which is why the Russian and Ukrainian militaries both add reactive armor to many of their vehicles.
But note what kinds of vehicles the Russians and Ukrainians usually don’t add ERA to. Jeeps, trucks, mobile howitzers and air-defense vehicles, to name a few.
There’s a good reason for this. All of these vehicles have thin metal hulls. And that makes ERA impractical, or even counterproductive.
“A fair degree of base armor is needed to survive the explosions inherent in explosive reactive armor,” the U.S. Congressional Budget Office explained in a 2012 report. “Thus, reactive armor cannot be added to all vehicles—a limitation that includes, for example, trucks.”
Stick ERA on a truck, and that armor might actually destroy the truck when it goes off, as surely as an incoming enemy round would do.
It’s apparent the Russian crews of those Gaz trucks appreciate the basic risk. They added thin metal plates underneath the ERA, seemingly hoping the plates will protect the trucks from their own explosive protection.
But these plates might not be thick enough, or of the right metallurgical quality, to do the job. “These trucks lack inherent armor, making the installation of explosive reactive armor on them dangerous and ineffective,” the independent Conflict Intelligence Team noted. “Although small plates of thin armor can be seen under the ERA blocks in the photos, this does not change our conclusion.”
The Ukrainians barely need to hit these trucks in order to trigger their reactive armor. At which point they’re likely to do the Ukrainians a favor ... and blow themselves up.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2023/12/05/congratulations-russian-army-youve-invented-a-self-exploding-truck/
#russia #selfexploding #truck #DavidAxe #forbes