Buy a trailer (instead of a pickup truck)

[chefdave]

One plus i found on my volvo when i had fitted towbar was a 1 mpg improvement. My towbar sits inside the rear valance thus removing the valances parachute effect. Yet to get a trailer but keeping my eyes open. Both vehicles me and the wife drive daily have towbars. Hers is a 2.0 turbo diesel mine a 2.0 petrol. Small trailer for hauling crap to dump or for collecting free stone to build garden wall would be ideal. Have loads of space to store a trailer.

[oil pan 4]

Now remember a cubic yard of rocks can easily weigh between 3,000 and 4,000 pounds.

[freebeard]

Well then, that explains this:


http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2015/06/i-just-wonder-how-in-world-this-was.html

Another roll-back, also on justacarguy:


http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2015/06/masahiko-aidas-68-charger.html

[Fat Charlie]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Well then, that explains this:

No, that's what happens when you let the new guy load a helium shipment.

[Hersbird]

Originally Posted by Fat Charlie

No, that's what happens when you let the new guy load a helium shipment.

I had to look it up but apparently a 53' semi trailer is about 3800 ft3 and 1000 ft3 of helium will lift 65 pounds. So best case it lifts about 245 pounds. So clearly this is an improperly loaded chunk of star matter.

[chefdave]

Hi
taken your advice about buying a trailer and put two bids on trailers in a local auction. As i have found a supply of stone for building a wall and 20 tons of earth for levelling my garden all free of charge. When i as about it the owners of above begged me to take it away. As i pass it everyday on my daily commute pick a load up every day so not damaging my mpg or making extra trips to collect.

[Xist]

Originally Posted by Fat Charlie

While I was deployed I never saw a member of the United States armed forces driving a HMMWV outside of a base, but you would not drive around in a big truck if you did not need to, so you might do something like that. Also, in one mission, I transported a Soldier, his HMMWV, and his HMMWV trailer to set up a check point. The HMMWV was not considered safe enough to drive, so we loaded it on my truck, and then I pulled the trailer. I kind of felt bad, because the trailer lights hit the ground a few times and broke.

For those that do not know, that is the Load Handling System, which I drive regularly. It has a trailer that fits another flat rack, which yes, is similar to the civilian truck shown, although the hook grabs from the other direction. In Afghanistan, we loaded up flat racks, and then drove to a forward operating base, where they were supposed to have their own flat racks loaded. We drop ours, load theirs, and charley-mike (continue movement).

That never happened. Also, if anyone else loaded anything, we needed to redo it, then stuff still fell off.

We periodically asked the driver behind us how our load looked and they always said that it looked fine. Then they would tell us something fell off. Whenever possible, the local nationals tried to grab those falling things.

There is another version of the LHS called the Pallet Load Handling System that has a fifth axle and an ability to control tire air pressure. I am supposed to drive a version with a 2,500-gallon fuel tank and pump attached, but I do what I am told.

[Edit] At least for my current unit, drivers' training on the road is more important than moving vehicles at one fort or another, so we take every operational truck we have. However, when I was in Flagstaff a week or two ago, the engineers brought an M915 dump truck on a semi trailer, pulled by a variant of the LHS that I had not seen before, while we had an M915 semi pulling a fuel trailer. I did not understand why they did not just drive the dump truck, it was basically the same truck that our Soldiers drove.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Xist

The HMMWV was not considered safe enough to drive

Why? Lack of armoring?

[Fat Charlie]

They're not meant for driving in traffic. But because they're a "light" (compared to a tank) vehicle, people expect them to act like cars.

Then there's the problem of being in a combat vehicle in an accident- those interiors aren't built for comfort or safety.

[Xist]

cRiPpLe_rOoStEr, they came out with armored versions of the HMMWV that may have equaled what was on the current trucks, but in truck versus IED, the lighter it is, the higher it would go, the higher the clearance, the greater the amount of force will dissipate, and a flat bottom absorbs all of the blast, while a V-shaped hull would direct some of it outwards. So, current gun trucks are heavier, with a higher clearance, and have V-shaped hulls, with all of the problems that come with added weight and a higher center of gravity.

This is the latest HMMWV, with a V-shaped hull:

This is the M1117, which the Army has used since 1,999, and some say we should have had in Iraq and Afghanistan, instead of the HMMWV: