myDUMBESTideaEVER. early April Fool's?
 

what if you were driving along at 60 mph, or 115 mph, and you stuck a hose...

(like maybe a hose from, say, a vacuum cleaner)(but leave the motor part of the vacuum cleaner at home in the closet)

...out from inside your car into the vortex of swirls and low pressure zones and vacuums trailing along there directly behind your car?

could you vacuum up crumbs and gravel from your floormats and seats with that set-up?

in other words, could you vacuum with the vacuum?

mods - feel free to delete

I think the vacuum in the engine accessories is greater than the vacuum behind the car, so it'd be better for cleaning up. I can just imagine having to clean all the hoses, nooks and crannies of the engine from the crumbs and dirt I clean up ;)

That's the beauty of the design, it never needs cleaning. Or rather, it likely would never need to be cleaned because the motor would be destroyed by the first pebble or coin sucked in.

I suppose if somebody was crazy enough they could mount a vacuum cleaner bag inside a large diameter plastic pipe, and then fit both ends of that with tubes. One end for the "vacuum" part, and the other end to replace the entire air intake upstream of the air filter. Of course, the car is going to run like crap, but just think how much easier this would be than dragging the vacuum cleaner from the house to the garage!

It's not totally crazy, and probably would work after some tinkering. but I wouldn't want to be on the same road with you when you're trying to vacuum while driving :-)

Something similar: older airplanes sometimes use a venturi effect to drive the artifical horizon & gyrocompass.

ahahahahaha

OH, man. This is funny, if the vacuum created by the air passing over the car were able to initiate the cleaning of your floor mats, it would only work because of the syphon effect of not having a filter, or bag system. Once the particles begin to be drawn up they might just keep being drawn up, although only the lightest of them of course. If you were going 150+ mph you might get enough suction to clean a floormat or two.

Well your passenger could I suppose, you shouldn't be trying if you are holding the accelerator down and steering. (on the salt flats or the autobahn where these speeds may be legal under certain conditions.) lol

:eek:

oldpecan -

I would try to design it to be passive, aka just holes for the dust to fall out of. That wouldn't get the big chunks, but maybe it would make a difference.

I always had a similar(?) idea for houses. Instead of just letting the dust settle onto the floor over time, have outlets at the base of walls with outward facing fans in them. The dust bunnies would be "pulled" to the outlets, which would have to be cleaned out periodically. You'd still have to clean, but maybe not as much. It would work best with a concrete or wood floor that doesn't "grab and hold" the dust.

CarloSW2

While reading this thread my rusty light bulb came on :)
A moving car has a vacuum behind it, it's tailpipe is also in the rear. The vacuum goes through the exhaust system to the engine, where it enters through the valves and "sucks" the piston upwards, causing the the drivetrain to move the car forward. That's just soooo neat. It took me so many years to understand it. But, well, I ain't no geenius ;)

:confused:

Considering people seem to care more about convenience these days than fuel usage or engine longetivity, OMG, I can just hear it now.

"Tired of lugging that big canister vac from the house, and then trying to find a long enough cord? And car wash vacs cost a fortune. hi, BILLY MAYS here for the engine vac. Just raise the hood, hook up the adjustable end to the air intake, and start the engine for a clean car anytime, anywhere. And cleanup is a breeze, just remove the dirt cup and empty. But I'm not done yet. I'm also going to include the crevice tool. But wait, order in the next 10 minutes and we'll double size your order, 2 engine vacs with the standard floor tool, and 2 crevice tools, for the price of one.