Here’s a look at how FCA – Ram – is dealing with the federal fuel efficiency fatwas that threaten to kill off big trucks and pretty much everything that isn’t a got-damned electric car:
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I am surprised that no manufacturer or aftermarket supplier has made a dual drive system to get around the mileage issue.
Take a 4wd truck, remove the front drive shaft. Install a 30hp electric on the front differential, a VFD and some batteries in the extended cab, under the rear seats. Leave the V8 or V6 to drive the rear when needed. Almost everything is fly-by-wire now so throttle integration should be a snap.
Alternatively, a de-clutch system could allow the front drive to remain, with an added electric drive for low speed.
The truck could drag itself around in traffic on the electric burning no gas, tow or haul large loads on the rear drive when required.
Seems much simpler. Am I missing something?
I wonder how removable a system like this would be. Like when it craps out in 10-12 years, you take it all out and put in a more conventional (and cheaper) system, making it more like the outgoing truck. The hemi engine is otherwise the same correct? Or would the truck still work like a regular hybrid with dead batteries?? I guess since its doing the alternator duties, it would be broke down.
The truly scary/sad thing is, that people still continue to buy these disgusting things….just as they continue to fly.
Those are 2 areas, where if we had just a reasonable percentage of people who still had a spine, some self-respect, and any sense at all; and would merely vote with their feet, things would change quickly- as soon as the respective corps realized that there was a major decline in revenue.
But it should be obvious by now, that such is not going to happen. Uncle knows this, as his subjects have been carefully groomed by pooblik skools and the media into being clueless, spineless lemmings who are not good at math and have no interest in maintaining any semblance of liberty. 🙁
Hi Nunz,
I give the engineers credit for coping with all of these fatwas – and for delaying the inevitable. But the Doom is now visible on the horizon and the car companies themselves are egging it along… I have rant coming that gets into this.
Eric, I think I’d have more respect for the engineers if they just walked away, rather than prostituted themselves by coming up with all of these contraptions which they KNOW are just diminishing the durability and economic viability of these vehicles.
It’s kinda like: If you’re an engineer and you know that what you’re working on will be used to gas the Jews, or by SWAT teams to bash in people’s doors….
I tend to view what these automive engineers are doing as almost fiendish.
If people would just stop participating; just stop going along; just stop aiding and abetting what they know is ultimately a covert war against the average innocent person…..
Thinking about this and extrapolating it out to it’s logical end, one can easily realize why this evil system is so firmly entrenched; because almost everyone plays a part in it- and we’ve been tuaght, like good Germans, to just follow orders and do our work- and that the outcome of that work or ultimate motive for it’s very existence is somehow not our concern; we are just human capital; living robots.
(O-K, I do “get” what you are saying though… 🙂 )
Most engineers don’t put a lot of consideration into what they are working on. They think of the challenge and the pay, not what becomes of it all.
If you think about what you’re working on, where you can work gets limited quickly.
That’s exactly what I’m saying, Brent- and it applies to many professions. We’re taught to “specialize” and have many years invested in edumacation and experience/ladder-climbing, so that if we ever do get around to questioning just who or what our work is really benefitting, or who it may be detrimental to, we’re faced with the prospect of having wasted all of the time and effort we have invested in our particular professions, if we decide to work in a capacity which is integral with our other values and beliefs; or we should want to expose the frauds we see being perpetrated.
That is how the world got to be the way it is. They’ve managed to separate people from their own beliefs, values, philosophies, -and make it seem perfectly normal to just perform a function without any regard for the aforementioned- with the emphasis just being on “Doing your job well”.
That was one of the very things which prompted me to quit high-school. Even in the late 70’s, I could easily see that it would be virtually impossible for the newcomer in any profession to be able to pick and choose something which coincide with matters of conscience (It could happen- but it would just be luck); and that the much vaunted asset of formal education/accreditation/certification would be used as the very rope to hang oneself if they dared to step out of the bounds of ‘just follow orders’.
Funny thing is, I have actually seen that scenario come to pass, verbatim, in the life of a friend. This friend, who has four degrees, including an Ed. D. worked in the administration of a university when I first met her- making six figures. She was repulsed and sickened by what she saw going on at not just her university, but throughout the academic world in general.
She tried transitioning to other jobs in other fields- but in her 40’s, no one wanted someone who was ‘throwing away’ their past. She had to get out though- as she was so repulsed by what she was seeing that it was making her physically sick.
She now does menial work for less than a quarter of what she used to make- but she is happy and unburdened. But the former decades of edumacation, expense and time spent working, are all wasted. She’s got literally nothing to show for her past life- and at late middle-age now, is essentially starting over again from scratch.
I’m glad to know such a person, with such courage of conviction to do that. I only wonder what I would have done, had I not seen the light early on in my life, and had followed the same path?
The whole qualification business is key to how its all done. I want to do something different but the penalty of doing something different is to watch my income drop to half or less of what it is if someone will even bother hiring me. There are numerous things I can do but they are all self taught. I’ve toyed with the idea of everything from computer support to industrial design but I have no formal qualifications in any of it.
At least my present job only hurts my pride due to internal company issues but what I do ultimately supports a lot of small business owners.
And it’s even gotten worse these days, Brent- as now they expect young children to “pick a career path”, when they know absolutely nothing about the world/politics/the system/life.
“Oooopppss! We forgot to mention, that in that field, your only choice of employers will be Monsanto or Uncle…”
Heck, I dated a girl years ago who had spent her life into her mid 20’s to become a nurse. Worked at it for a number of weeks, and realized that she could never spend her life being a part of the medical cartel… So when I met her, she was then preparing to be a teacher 😮 -which I warned her, she would find even more repulsive than nursing.
But the point is, the woman spent over a third of her entire life preparing to work- and I’m sure has acquired much debt doing so- yet still was no better off than if she had merely started working at something when she was a teenager which required no credentials and no debt.
She was a nice girl- one of the few I could say that about- but carrying all that debt and having accomplished absolutely nothing with her life thus far (like: Not even learning the skills of how to be a good housewife) made her a hot potato.
I would imagine too, that even for someone who loves their profession, it must be boring doing the same thing all of one’s life. I’ve always considered myself very blessed to have been able to be work in many diofferent capacities over the years. I couldn’t imagine having done just one all of my life. I like to switch gears every 5 years or so- or else I get burnt-out and bored. There’s nothing like the freshness, energy and enthusiasm ya have when you start a new venture.