Your Ideal Doomsday Survival Situation/Prepper Thread

[3catcircus]

Originally Posted by ET2SN

Lucky for me, I did all of the small engine work in my Dad's garage when I was growing up.

Small engines have a bad habit of failing.
If you blew off your end of season maint. on the lawn mower or chain saw, chances were good you would need to see me the next spring.

This was up in northern Maine, where people are supposed to know better.

I got a nice Generac ac/dc unit after we had a freak heavy snow storm followed by an ice storm. Most of the state lost power for four to five days. I had an electrician buddy do the wiring and switches on the house and I did stuff with the generator like using high grade synthetic oil in the crank case and using fuel stabilizer in the fuel I would cycle through to keep it fresh.

The big problem was that the freak storm was just that, a freak. The generator was just sitting around. The biggest hassle was that my folks had modernized the house to being all-electric and tossed out the old wood stove in the living room, which was all we really needed for the emergency.

After a while, I kept the house wiring in place but sold the generator to a carpenter. He used it for a year or two before he burned the piston and trashed the anti-vibration mounts.

The lesson being- don't trust a totem to save your ###.
A portable generator is little more than a nice idea that lets you feel safe.
In practical terms, folks either don't know how to use them or they forget.

Shutting a generator down the right way becomes a pain and the carb gets glazed up with varnish from old gas and the oil turns to sludge. Your modern Briggs and Stratton gas engine is supposed to only last for 2-5 years before it wears out, Honda isn't far behind in terms of quality. Gasoline and oil plus plastic parts is trouble waiting to happen. Its better to build them cheap and sell more. It was designed that way, which is why you see so many junk lawn mowers sitting by the edge of the road during the summer.

Now, before you need to argue that-consider that the old pot-bellied stove was all my folks needed for the emergency.

Maybe it's just me, but it seems that we have a veneer of civilization but most people in Western societies will die or become enslaved should a major disaster cause society to fold and we go all Mad Max. We see what lawless maniacs most cityfolk turn into if they lose electricity for more than a few hours... Not many of them know how to grow their own food, hunt, repair an engine, drive in snow, or build a fire.

[Sean C]

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[Skybird]

Stumbled over this reader'S comment and found it interesting to know, I did not know the inherent trickeries of prepping for a Diesel generator. But one should know them.

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" And since I work professionally with emergency power systems, here are a few more tips on diesel fuel. The diesel commercially available in Germany is known to contain up to 7% biodiesel. This "bio" portion prevents the unlimited shelf life, since biodiesel is hydroscopic in contrast to normal diesel and draws water over time. This then leads to contamination, the so-called diesel plague. Please google it yourself. In fuel tanks for emergency systems, the fuel is turned over and replaced frequently , or measures are taken to prevent contamination. This is done through drainage or disinfection systems, through the addition of substances that inhibit bacterial growth or, best of all, through the use of fuel without bio components. Large customers can buy this fuel if they are tax-exempt or tax-privileged At the refineries it is called "low-sulfur heating oil according to DIN EN 590". This is practically diesel fuel as it used to be common, but which you cannot actually buy privately. The use of normal heating oil is no longer possible nowadays, as heating oil there is no red-colored diesel fuel! Heating oil does not have to comply with fuel standards, which is why cheap additives are added to heating oil today. The quality varies greatly. Above all, commercially available heating oil today usually does not meet the requirements relating to the minimum cetane number (ignitability). Modern diesel engines do not start with commercial heating oil, or only start with a delay and when they run, then not on all cylinders. They produce very white smoking exhaust gases (unburned fuel in the exhaust gas). Modern diesel engines only run reasonably with heating oil when they are preheated to operating temperature. So if you want to use heating oil or bio-oil, you should get an antechamber engine that is as old as possible. If you have a new unit, you need suitable fuel."


LINK

[Skybird]

I made a nice deal, a household clearance, they sold it as "new but unused", and it indeed even was factory-sealed. They found it in the garage of the person that had deceased. The rocket stove I already had, but the cast iron pot is the item I talk of, a "Dutch oven". In that size and of that weight it usually costs 70-100 taler, depending on the brand - I got it for 30. I almost had bought one of these some years ago, by Petromax, and if I would have done that, I would have paid three times as much.







That oven, btw, is great, it burns not only wood and bio mass, but charcoal and brickets as well. I have used it for fun severla times in the past two years, with a wok pan or a swedish cast iron pan.

Who knows, this winter with all the electricty instability and gas reserves empty... I have enough wood and coal for 6 weeks of hot meals. Then, if not collecting wood in the "wild", i would switch to gas cookers and other alternatives I have. These stoves are great, they are just fun to handle, and open fire always is great.

[Skybird]

I confirm everything he says, this model works great.

Rocket stoves produce not even half as much smoke thna open fires, they burn hotter than open fire if sticks are small in diameter, and you need two thirds less burning material than for an open fire. Most rocket oven like this are models meant to burn biomass and wood exclusively, only designs like this one (two doors) are good for burnign charcoal and brickets as well - and they do no compromise there. Great stuff!

Ooops, you need to watch it directly on Youtube. Click the link in the banner.




Why do you want one?

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by Skybird

That oven, btw, is great, it burns not only wood and bio mass, but charcoal and brickets as well. I have used it for fun severla times in the past two years, with a wok pan or a swedish cast iron pan.

Who knows, this winter with all the electricty instability and gas reserves empty... I have enough wood and coal for 6 weeks of hot meals. Then, if not collecting wood in the "wild", i would switch to gas cookers and other alternatives I have. These stoves are great, they are just fun to handle, and open fire always is great.

That's awesome!

[Jimbuna]

Are these intended for outdoor use only Sky?

[August]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Are these intended for outdoor use only Sky?

Of course they are, they burn wood and coal. You guys are acting like these are new inventions but these jet stoves have been around for decades.

[Onkel Neal]

Yeah, I didn't mean to imply these are new tech, but in conjunction with the dutch oven and the casters, it's a pretty neat set up.

[August]

Originally Posted by Onkel Neal

Yeah, I didn't mean to imply these are new tech, but in conjunction with the dutch oven and the casters, it's a pretty neat set up.

I understand. But do you really think so? To me Dutch ovens were designed to bury into live coals so that the heat surrounds it and cooks the food evenly. They weren't meant to sit on top of a burner like a soup pot.

[Skybird]

"Rocket oven" not so much means a new gadget, but a principle of maintaining a cooking fire in the open, and efficiently. You find a comparable principle in socalled Dakota fire-holes. It means in general that fresh air gets to the fire from a separate second air intake, instead of just through the "chimney" opening where the cooking pot of meat or pan is placed. That way, more air gets delivered to the fire, you reach higher burning temperature, less smoke, less use of fuel. The thick isolaiton also focusses the heat on where it is wanted, instead of radiating at all directions.


I have build similiar constructions by use of brickstones and wild debris/stones.


"New", or modern, is that these specific types of ovens have been produced in huge quantities for delivery to households in the third world where they have no access to gas, coal and so forth.

For campers it is interesting that the fire is strictly controlled, the danger to set a forest ablaze by flying sparks is very small with these items.

Jim, always use these outdoors. If you fire these well and maybe use a ventilator, the flames can shoot like a rocket fire 30-50cm out of the chimney, I have seen that in real life. These ovens then even hiss (fauchen). Impressive. Usually not needed.

I will try some pulled pork in the Dutch oven sometime in the future. Good brickets on the rocket oven and on the pot's lid. I mean I cannot make an open camp fire on my balcony...

[Skybird]

BTW, I red on the website of the manufacturer of the Ecozoom why they raised their prices from 120 to 170 coins, and have problems to deliver. Its because of shipping containers. Usually, half a container, they write, costs 500 coins. Currently, at the time they posted it on their website, half a container costs 9500 coins...

[ET2SN]

Originally Posted by August

To me Dutch ovens were designed to bury into live coals so that the heat surrounds it and bakes the beans evenly.

Corrected slightly.


There is nothing better than New England Baked Beans, especially when cooked outdoors in an authentic bean hole.

[August]

Originally Posted by ET2SN

Corrected slightly.


There is nothing better than New England Baked Beans, especially when cooked outdoors in an authentic bean hole.

Oh yeah. Lotsa molasses and brown sugar. Served with home baked corn bread.

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by ET2SN

Corrected slightly.


There is nothing better than New England Baked Beans, especially when cooked outdoors in an authentic bean hole.

Originally Posted by August

Oh yeah. Lotsa molasses and brown sugar. Served with home baked corn bread.

My Massachusetts-born wife cans everything incl homemade baked beans, jams, tomato sauce et al to serve with chicken or turkey hotdogs since I avoid red meat these days...deeeelicious!