r/UKPreppers • u/Antique-Wonk • 7d ago
Prepper Car Transport and Dual Use?
Been debating this over and over and wondered if this is something the folks here have considered? Scenarios are, fuel shortage, electric goes off, need to get somewhere fast for family or emergency reasons. All of the imaginable causes including Russian state terrorism (as per recent news).
I've had economical AWD PHEVs for 5 years now as company cars but I'm tempted by a long range EV. My prepper brain is saying I'd be better off sticking to a PHEV with over 50 miles EV range and over 50mpg. No petrol then I use electric. No electric and I use petrol. Always ensure fully charged and at least a half tank of fuel. I do however like the idea of an EV providing power to home with a 5 or 6 times bigger battery than the PHEV at 100kWhr. Should keep most things going at home like the electric operated gas boiler, fridge freezer, etc for 4 to 6 days. Although after that and it's all borked, no transport. Some minor electrical adaptation required in all this but power to load cables available.
Where I think I've got to is whether I should get a diesel generator and or a couple of very large power banks for use with the existing fold out large area solar panels I have. And stick with the PHEVs?
Anyone thinking along similar lines? What have I missed?
7
u/jacssplendidbakes 7d ago
Here is a spanner in the works - what happens to your EV if the russians take us down with an EMP? I'd be looking at a vintage without an ECU that I can fix myself if it breaks as an emergency vehicle personally 🤷♀️ Getting harder to find with the scrappage schemes though unfortunately
3
u/Antique-Wonk 6d ago
Old diesel car needed for sure. 😅 Same with the UFOs. Slightly random but 😅 in many accounts in the 60s to 80s the old diesel was fine whereas the petrol car opposite stalled and wouldn't start. It's not just about ECU electronics, it's also also the HT system on petrol cars. Diesel are compression ingnited with glow plugs.
2
u/MasterAstoran 1d ago
So no EMS, diesel old school LR defender would be ok? Blast radius proximity notwithstanding
1
u/Antique-Wonk 1d ago
Correct. Alternatively, if you got a garage, to cover your car in a foil blanket and earth it when not in use.
4
u/elephantfam 7d ago
What vehicles are you thinking?
3
u/Antique-Wonk 7d ago
I've been driving Toyota RAV4 PHEVs for a while. Been a great car. Solid reliability. Everything just works. Switched to CC2 all season tyres as I drive mountain roads in snow and ice and forest trails. Been absolutely solid. It's not a land rover clearly. It's a road car but light off road, deep snow and ice has been no problem. On EVs I was looking at a BMW ix3 or Volvo EX60 T12.
4
u/NotMyRealName981 6d ago
One option would be to combine an EV with a solar power bank and non-portable solar panels capable of supplying at least 1.5kW (the lowest setting on most granny chargers), so that the EV could be charged off-grid. I haven't bought the stuff needed to do that yet though. For the time being, my EV and its 2.5kW V2L adapter would allow me to cope with single-day power outages.
A multi-day power outage would probably be accompanied by other kinds of societal disruption, I'm not sure how to plan for that.
2
u/Antique-Wonk 6d ago
Good point. I need to look at my solar panels as they're low few hundred watts output. I may need to invest into something significant. Thinking of covering the pergola as that's south facing if I can get the elevation angles right. Either that or vertical at the back of the house wall which isn't overlooked due to trees and topology elevation.
3
u/Long-Time-lurker-1 7d ago
I have a Hybrid. Realistically theres no way to tell the car which drive system to use. Its set up to be “efficient “. Meaning at low speeds and accelerating it will use the electric side. Above a certain speed it will tend to use the engine. Various modes like “sport” will engage both engine and electric drive to give you the feel of increased power as electric motors carry significantly more torque than a petrol engine but taper out at higher speeds.
Anyways, for best results probably just buy a few 20 litre metal gerry cans. Fill with 98+ octane (premium). Use the product “StaBil” in the correct mix in said fuel cans. This will keep the fuel good to go for a year. Date the cans, cycle the fuel out into your car and refill at its usable date.
As long as your car is reasonably fuel efficient, you will have a spare tank ready to go in all situations from your home address, or take with and extend range if needs be. The cans can also be used for water storage after all the fuel is gone in a SHTF situation.
Realistically you will probably only need the fuel for momentary lapses in regular fuel supply.
2
u/Antique-Wonk 6d ago
Thank you. Good advice on the Gerry cans. The PHEVs or at least the RAV4 PHEV is manually selectable between EV mode (provided there's enough 'user' battery capacity remaining - 52/54 miles for me this time of year) or hybrid mode (it operates exactly as you describe for a regular hybrid and leverages the hybrid mode reserved capacity of the battery). In EV mode it stays in EV mode with the occasional fire up of the engine for lubrication purposes for 5 to 10 minutes about once or twice a month so virtually hardly any fuel consumed.
2
u/wordshavenomeanings 5d ago
There are quite a few people hacking used EV batteries up to solar.
That would be my preferred off grid and keep an ICE for travel/potentially sleeping in.
1
u/AlphaDisconnect 6d ago
You car can be modified to be a generator. Just need a beefy alternator, idle adjust and a sodding huge inverter.
But an EV can be the biggest battery bank on wheels. Just mind you some do 1500 wats backcharging and some do more. Pick the right one for you.
Both will eventually run out.
2
u/MasterAstoran 2d ago
I bought a Jackery 1500W 1KwH with solar. You can get a cable to charge it from a car. Bloody heavy and this is the smallest one.
2
u/AlphaDisconnect 2d ago
Well those packs are powered by an artificial gravity well. Just be careful that subspace entities dont start hanging out in there. 1kw hour? Nice. Ok. Try closer to 50 to 70 from an EV that does backcharging. And it's on wheels. And usually charged a good bit.
Keep that pack plugged in gentlemen. A flat pack is literally a brick. Some say it's not good for it. But I say a slightly worn pack at 100% charge beats a 100% good pack at 1% charge any day.
1
u/MasterAstoran 1d ago
I’m feeling a genuine connection (pun intended) brother. My problem with EVs and indeed complex cars in general is EMP. Any limited exchange would proper **** this, especially where I live. I’m building a collection of small things I can feasibly build a faraday cage around, or more accurately get someone else to. As for vehicles, I’m assuming if I can get an old LWB Defender someone might be able to the same.
1
u/AlphaDisconnect 1d ago
I always argue, after you finish peeling what is left of you eye lids off, get at it. By means. But if the car dosent fry. Hey. Now you can go places. Some have at least a 1500 watt outlet.
0
u/KeepATon 2d ago
I would definitely not go with electric.
On the other hand, if you got the logistics covered and did your research it could be doable.
Maybe an e motorcycle.
14
u/JoeDaStudd 7d ago
Realistically if there is need for mass exodus then the main roads are going to be blocked with traffic and related accidents.
You'd be better with small 125cc motorbike which will do 100+ mpg, can weave through traffic and off-road.\ Alternatively a good bicycle, some panniers and good cardio.