[Ecky]

Could a clutch be added post-transmission to prevent the need for the trans fluid to circulate?

Potentially, but the fabrication required to do so would almost certainly exceed the value of the van.

How many of those Prius dealers are around the country who will service for $140? What happens when the Prius needs servicing in Deadhorse, AK? Or in St. Johns, Newfoundland? Or Eastern Montana? Hellow thousand dollar tow bill! The rig I have can at least be jerry rigged to make it back to civilization, modern cars cant. I think a decent Prius would cost waaay more than 5K, and likely needs major servicing in one year for less than 5K.

You sound quite certain about this, but you're mistaken. You can get a decent Prius for 5K, and it's not likely to need major servicing in less than one year. Priuses (Prii?) are among the most reliable vehicles on the road today. You'd save more than the cost of any potential servicing in fuel costs alone, anyway.

I picked up my 50-70mpg Honda Civic Hybrid for 3K, and it has low miles and the drivetrain will likely continue running with nothing but oil changes for at least another 150,000 miles, and probably much longer.

Nobody knows when the inevitable EMP will hit and fry all modern electronics, the power grid, and all modern cars. Even if the Prius was faradayed, one would have to basically carry a Prius behind their Prius to keep it operational well into the post-EMP world. Due to the hyperspecialized parts and plastic composite body (I wouldn't be surprised if they're working on making car chassies out of plastic composites, if not already in the newest cars), new cars depend more on manufacturing and society working than ever! Most of the parts on older cars can be fabricated in a machine shop if need be.

How certain are you that an EMP will fry modern cars?

Prius uses a steel unibody.

I'd rather be left in a post-apocalyptic world with my Insight than any old American van, because I'm far more certain of its reliability. Aside from a few small electronic bits which I could potentially stockpile, the drivetrain is not very different from that of your van, it's just far more precisely made. It has a traditional 5 speed manual transmission, a rack and pinion steering rack, a piston engine that uses a butterfly valve to control throttle, and a fuel pump much like the one in your van (which is equally likely or unlikely to be fried by said EMP).

Frankly, I'd be most concerned about driving around a gasoline vehicle in a world that has no working refineries. After a few months, when all of the gasoline starts to go bad, you're going to be stranded on the side of the road. A diesel can burn practically anything (used french fry oil, kerosene/expired gasoline, etc.). A modern diesel will also be able to safely burn alcohol blended with these other things, without the alcohol destroying the gaskets and seals.

I thought electric motors have max torque at 0 RPM? Yes; the van would accelerate like a freight train at 22kw, doesn't rapid accelaration and high speed take more energy than gradual acceleration and lower speeeds?

This makes me wonder if you've ever seen a freight train accelerate.

My Insight weighs in at about 1850lbs, and has a 9kw electric motor in addition to the gasoline engine. Even in a vehicle this light, 9kw is not very much power.

Unless the posters know of a fuel injection conversion kit in the low hundreds, it wouldn't be worth it. Why spend 5 grand on a fuel injection conversion kit when another used good-to-great condition van with fuel injection can be had for less.

fuel injection conversion | eBay

I'm getting the idea that you have no idea how much most of these things cost. You're coming in and saying, "I know that X is too expensive, so I'd rather do Y", when Y is almost certainly more expensive.


How would you plan to drive the wheels with your electric drive-train idea, anyway? There is going to be some serious fabrication involved, and anything that requires fabrication is going to cost more than off-the-shelf bolt-on components.

~

The last bit I'll add is, there are plenty of things I'm more concerned with than an EMP at this point. As a person with some basic training in both geology and physics, I can say that a mega-tsunami is likely to happen before an EMP.

An EMP won't necessarily destroy all electronics, either. EMP generate charge differentials over an area, and so long conductors (e.g. power lines) and anything connected to them are what would be most likely damaged, and a simple fuse can probably protect anything connected to these. The smaller the conductor, the less it would be affected by an EMP, and the (very robust) computers in our (already quite shielded) cars are very small indeed. Pocket calculators and wrist watches would almost certainly be completely unaffected, regardless of how big said EMP is.

If you know the EMP is coming, unplug the computer in your car (which will save you thousands, perhaps even tens of thousands in fuel costs over the years while you're waiting for this EMP), and it will almost certainly not be affected, because it's the lengths of wire that dangerous.

Even if I were worried about an EMP, I probably wouldn't live in a van. Instead, I'd get some land and work on making myself secure - things like solar panels/wind turbines, a well, tools and implements, seeds, extra wood, the implements needed to can and preserve food, etc..

You're obsessing over all the wrong things. Get yourself financially secure, build yourself a safety net.