6 Family EMP Proof 36-38' Expedition Rig

shade

Well-known member
The Australian gold rush(s) was an interesting event, and desert survivalists (or prepers) can take many lessons from it. With water quite rare, every town would have a couple of stills to render water from salty brine (often from salt flats, etc). Horses were eschewed and instead camels were used. In fact the Afghanis camel masters were brought in to teach their camel skills, and care for the animals.

In very dry years the cost of water could increase by 100X! When they finally tapped the Great Artesianal basin, it allowed inland settlements to final grow, as reliable water was available.

Interesting to see how much the water level has dropped.

The American camel experiment:


Curse the mule lobby and their Machiavellian schemes. We could be riding camels in Grand Canyon today.
 

rruff

Explorer
People find the post-apocalyptic idea somewhat exciting etc. If the prepers were really planning for it, they would dump all their modern tech. And basically revert to Amish style living. Or at least early 20th century living. Brush up on your animal husbandry, traditional farming methods. Start growing heirloom crops, and get really good at blacksmith work, sewing, and DIY construction with natural materials.

Survival in the 1st week or month or year will require very different preparation vs the 10+ years time frame. In the early days, you'd ideally want a stockpile and to be hidden... ie nobody knows you exist. Otherwise people with bigger guns will take what you've got.

I don't take any of this seriously, but it's sometimes fun to speculate. It would require a sudden disaster of apocalyptic magnitude for things to really get out of hand, and the odds of that happening are pretty tiny. On the other hand, the odds of eventually dying of one thing or another are 100%... ;)

Getting back to the OP, I don't believe having a "bug out vehicle" to live in is very sensible in any case. You'd be much better off living far from any big cities and have a secret underground shelter (not where you live but not too far) that can sustain you and your family for however long it takes for things to shake out.
 

shade

Well-known member
I don't believe having a "bug out vehicle" to live in is very sensible in any case. You'd be much better off living far from any big cities and have a secret underground shelter (not where you live but not too far) that can sustain you and your family for however long it takes for things to shake out.
Agreed. Having a place to bug-out to is the way I'd be thinking. Otherwise, you're tied to a large vehicle with limited supplies, meaning it's time to join a band of marauders, or try your hand at solo marauding. I've seen case studies on those scenarios, and they don't always work out so well. Exciting, though.

 

Todd n Natalie

OverCamper
I always thought it was odd that they obsessed about the precious juice for their vehicles while they were in the middle of a desert. I get that the Lord Humungus has his fleet to maintain, but I didn't see a single lemonade stand in the wasteland.

I always thought it funny they were after gas which is in short supply but all drove vehicles that get 2 mpg...

xgigahorse-800.jpeg.pagespeed.ic.WUqcDYCWFX.jpg
 

zimm

Expedition Leader
An interesting side note on this, it's possible that higher-tech products are more resilient against induced electromagnetic radiation than lowish-tech products. For example the FCC requires some shielding or other measures to limit EM/RF emission from non-mains powered devices operating above 1.705mhz and not for devices which principally operate below. Devices using solid state switching circuitry may also be inherently more robust against EM than linear and analog devices simply by virtue of having fewer inductive inputs and fewer low-Z paths open to accommodate an induced current. It would be pretty funny to see a spurious solar flare take out every 1980's Toyota while BMW i3's are still cruising around like nothing happened.

gotta love unintended consequences.
 

burleyman

Active member
People find the post-apocalyptic idea somewhat exciting etc. If the prepers were really planning for it, they would dump all their modern tech. And basically revert to Amish style living. Or at least early 20th century living. Brush up on your animal husbandry, traditional farming methods. Start growing heirloom crops, and get really good at blacksmith work, sewing, and DIY construction with natural materials.

Not Amish, but born in a house built by my father and family, with electricity connected four years before my birth. No house payments. One 20 amp, 120vac circuit. No running water, no bathroom, wood heat and stove for cooking. 40 acres, chainsaw, small tractor and a few implements. One milk cow, hogs, chickens, and a garden. No deer or turkeys in our southeastern area then. I still have the large cast iron cook pots, chain fall, singletrees, hog hair scrapers, blacksmith and woodworking tools from that era. Also, the axe with the short broken handle my mother used for chicken head chopping. All food scraps went into a disgusting slop bucket for the hogs.

Pork, chicken, beans, collards, cabbage and potatoes. Beef occasionally. Cows are large, hard to process and preserve. I've killed many animals, but never enjoyed it. I still enjoy the aftermath processing.

I didn't realize until being drafted how few from that lifestyle and supposed poverty there were left in the sixties. While others complained of chow hall food, I was amazed at the quantity and variety. By then, times were better and the home place had a bathroom, propane cooking and water heating.

40 acres, of which 20 were trees. By 1978, when my father had to give up wood heat, the trees were becoming much fewer and smaller.

It was somewhat drudgery, and would definitely be now, but I was happy. That was in a community with unlocked doors, and neighbors willing to assist in a pinch. We had a .22 rifle, 12 gauge shotgun, and an old box of shells for each that lasted a long time. For meat.

When I hear and read about prepping and living happily-ever-after, especially by my descendants in person, I just keep quiet and let them dream. Even then we had fuel for the chainsaw and electricity. Given today's environment and my age, my little inverter generator is my best prepper friend for an easy way out. My primary care physician agrees.
 

Martinjmpr

Wiffleball Batter
Survival in the 1st week or month or year will require very different preparation vs the 10+ years time frame. In the early days, you'd ideally want a stockpile and to be hidden... ie nobody knows you exist. Otherwise people with bigger guns will take what you've got.

I don't take any of this seriously, but it's sometimes fun to speculate. It would require a sudden disaster of apocalyptic magnitude for things to really get out of hand, and the odds of that happening are pretty tiny. On the other hand, the odds of eventually dying of one thing or another are 100%... ;)

Getting back to the OP, I don't believe having a "bug out vehicle" to live in is very sensible in any case. You'd be much better off living far from any big cities and have a secret underground shelter (not where you live but not too far) that can sustain you and your family for however long it takes for things to shake out.

I've always thought the idea of a "bug out vehicle" was silly. Where are you going to 'bug out' to? I guarantee that the "secret spot in the woods that only I know about" is well known by thousands of people besides you who will likely get there first. Then what? You going to get into a firefight to try and stake out your piece of ground? How does going into battle enhance your chance of "survival?"

To say nothing of the fact that the OP's 40' long apocalypse-monster RV may be EMP proof but unless it has a helicopter rotor on the roof and is amphibious, it's going to become immobile at the first bridge that's out or road that has collapsed or been blocked. Then what?

If you really believe that society is doomed and that we're all destined for an extinction-level-event in our near future, your best bet is to move to a small community far from the big cities and cultivate life skills like farming, ranching, blacksmithing, primitive medicine, etc. Build a sawmill so you can cut your own lumber and learn how to spin wool and cotton into thread. Learn sanitation and water treatment.

Most important of all is the community of like-minded people to live in, because all the guns and dried food in the world won't give you eyes on the back of your head and you've gotta sleep sometime.
 

Grenadiers

Adventurer
Yeah, but, that community becomes a target by the next group of non-farmers with guns. See The Walking Dead for examples!
 

Todd n Natalie

OverCamper
So now we're preparing for the Zombie apocalypse? I thought it was the EMP apocalypse?

I must be getting my apocalypses mixed up. It's been happening a lot, especially after the great Disco Apocalypse of the 1980's.

Don't forget about earth crust rotation:
2012_2009_2669_poster.jpg

Or wicked fast global warming / cooling:
5c93a061daa507002109d245.jpg
 

shade

Well-known member
So now we're preparing for the Zombie apocalypse? I thought it was the EMP apocalypse?

I must be getting my apocalypses mixed up. It's been happening a lot, especially after the great Disco Apocalypse of the 1980's.


One can have something to do with the other. Here's a documentary about EMP effects on zombies.


I get the feeling some of you aren't taking this seriously.
 

C p weinberger

Active member
If you want to take prepping seriously buy a farm in a remote stretch of Africa, build up supplies, have hydraulic water source for power, build up a strong friendship with the locals, when end times come, their way of life doesn’t change from what it is now and hopefully they will help you and your family survive ..
 

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