Electric cars.

That's what I like about them. They sound like a how I always imagined a machine should sound. Unpretentious and purely functional. The sound of a diesel engine says, I was built to do a job, and I will darn we'll do that job, no other job, just this job, right up until some very expensive part of spontaneously explodes.

 

Seemingly, brake and clutch fluid is responsible for more fires after collisions than petrol. It is highly flammable and contained in plastic bottles. If the bottle splits and the fluid hits a hot exhaust it combusts. Petrol on the other hand needs a spark as well as a hot exhaust.

 

It's true. Modern cars (by modern I mean since about 1990 or maybe even earlier), huge focus has gone into preventing such things. From the stuff I read when I briefly considered retraining as a mechanic, I remember reading that the fuel tank has a mechanical valve that isolates it if the car rolls, the collision detection that sets off the airbags also switches off the fiel pump, in crash tests they look at how forces might rupture the fuel tank or sever the fuel lines. Lots of different things. Of course you still occasionally hear of car fires, but they're pretty rare when you consider how many cars are on the roads. And I hope I'm not tempting fate but I don't think I've ever heard of a car exploding (except engines going pop, which from experience create plenty of smoke and mess and can be quite scary but usually not that dangerous).

As a tenuously related aside, I remember Myth Busters testing if you could really cause a pressurised gas cylinder to explode by shooting it. They tried all sorts of guns with different types of ammo, and in every case they ruptured the cylinder but the gas didn't ignite. I think they eventually got one to blow but they had to use something crazy like an anti aircraft gun with tracer rounds in it, and even then it took quite a few rounds before they got one to blow up. Completely unrelated to cars, but I thought it was good.

 

They even had to use tracer to ignite Zeppelins full of Hydrogen in WW1.

But its more usual for lorries to catch fire I find, there seems to be one most days on the M25 or maybe its my imagination.

 

Usually, with lorries, it is a tyre that deflates and because there are so many axles (and wheels) the driver has no clue a tyre has gone. The deflated tyre heats up, ignites, and sets fire to the trailer side. The rest is what you see as you drive by.

 

Most lorry fire are usally down to poor maintenance, and brakes not ajusted up properly even worse in cold weather as the air in the brake system can freeze but that if they haven't put the additive in the air system to stop it freezing

You will know it if you have a blow out with a lorry the bang can be heard and seen from the cab, and if you have a punture this can also bee seen in your mirrors but you have to look, a good driver will know what to look for but as with every thing not many care in today world

I once worked for a big hauler and 1 day i pick up a trailar which came in with a night driver which had problems but the driver didn't say anything to me, i picked up the trailar and done all my checks then started out on my trip, as soon as i got onto the road the trailar brakes were not working as i thought, so stop and got under neath, to my the rear brake chambers were missing and the brake pipes were bent over and a pair of mole grimp clamping the pipe to stop the air from coming out, so i turned it around and back to yard and that was as far as it would go until repaired but some drivers will not check things and just carry on

 

Hi,

I love the sound of our Yeti diesel engine and even if it was louder I wouldn't mind; being trained as a mechanical engineer in the pit I'm fascinated by powerful machines of any kind with the exception of huge deafening compressors; steam powered winding engines are a thing of beauty and put many modern machines to shame for sheer reliability and longevity many still like new at 100 years old. The downside was carrying the Whitworth spanners and other heavy tools in the tool bag made of old conveyor belting; returning was better; at the hopper near the face I'd jump onto the fast running huge conveyor and a short while later the hopper operator would drop my tool bag onto the belt; this conveyor was very long indeed and to get off I used a small spanner on the exposed bell wires as I neared the pit bottom; as the belt slowed I hit the ground running and having grabbed the tool bag then sent the start signal; the guys in the pit bottom always had a moan but it sure saved me a lot of work. This belt traveled down an incline where it then leveled out meaning to ride on it when it was empty would be deadly because it used to run against the roof. Things aren't made to last these days although when I make something it's definitely made to last. We live in a throwaway society and I fear all these modern electric cars will go the way of white goods; how many guys these days actually repair anything; I'm a dinosaur, Happy memories.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

Hi,

Thanks John; yes highly dangerous but not as dangerous as working in a huge woolen mill making blankets where I also worked for quite a few years; in a nearby mill my best friend suffered an horrendous death being dragged into a carding machine; the mill I worked in had two very special departments called S11 & S12 top secret in their day due to the American needle looms; S11 the older department had four carding machines feeding the loom the new department I was in charge of had two massive carding machines; whilst fettling the swifts two of us would lay on our backs directly below the swift using fettling combs whilst the mill engineer nudged the machine by applying short burst of power; I've also worked as a glass fiber laminator and even as maintenance engineer in a chemical works maintaining chromic acid pumps; I've had some truly wonderful jobs during my working life (NOT).

Work was very hard all those years ago but strangely people knew how to be happy and smile; here's the mill I worked at; it was deafening so we all could lip read;

WORMALD AND WALKER BLANKET MILL, DEWSBURY

Kind regards, Colin.

 

I have a couple of theories about that, but take this with a pinch of salt because I've always had cushy jobs.

Theory 1.

Whatever job we do, happiness comes in part from a sense of accomplishment. Whether it's the hardest, dirtiest, repetitive physical job, or something highly technical and specialised, or anything in between, if you can go home at the end of each day feeling like you've made a solid difference, then that goes a long way to making you happy. Especially if you're surrounded by others who do a similar job and understand the ups and downs as well as you do.

Theory 2. Kind of related, but if the wider society has some sense of what you do, even if they don't understand the ins and outs, then there's a sense of place within that society, and this results in community, which makes us all feel like we're part of a greater whole.

That's my theory.

By extension, I have a theory as to why nowadays so many of us are miserable gits.

In the UK at least, industry has changed. It is no longer true that most of the men in a particular neighbourhood all work at the same factory/mine/steel works etc. You might have a software developer who communicates 100 miles a day living next door to an engineer who goes off somewhere else entirely, who lives across the road from a student who attends college or uni, and nobody understands each others jobs or hardships or highlights. And the sense of accomplishment is lost somewhat when half the things you're asked to do make no sense, and seem to be only required to meet some bureaucratic or legislative requirement defined by someone sat in an office in London somewhere.

Food for thought at least. Or am I miles off?

 

Well, I didn't buy the diesel and I am not going for an EV, yet. Yesterday I bought myself a silver (yuck) Skoda Fabia.

 

Now that I'm retired I miss that bit of job satisfaction and overcoming problems.
But to be honest I don't miss getting up at 5.30am to solve them.

 

Hi,

I agree with you @Clueless 1 v2 unfortunately modern society has bred the bone idle able bodied who have never done an honest days work; not getting political just the way things are these days. When I was 60 years younger kids left school able to read and write and went into apprenticeships etc all having to work if they wanted to eat; it was a much harder but fairer world then.

C'mon @Jocko (yuck) to a Skoda Fabia; in 2014 my wife and I bought a new Skoda Fabia Monte Carlo and it looked gorgeous in black over red; it being the sporty model it rode like a skateboard and we could feel every ripple in the road due to it's ultra low profile tyres but we liked it; in the showroom we looked at and sat in a new Yeti but thought just for the two of us it was too big and would prove expensive to insure and run hence we opted for the Monte.

In 2016 now the Monte at two years old we were invited to a special Skoda event but two days before the event we visited the dealership being nosy; in the corner of the showroom was a wonderful black Yeti on display and we both sat in it before returning home; we attended the event on the Saturday but I printed out the best two deals on CarWow first to take along with us; we were seated next to this Yeti watching customers get in and out; to quote the salesman it made a change "not to dance around the handbags" we were armed with the printouts which he took into the office; he came back with a big smile on his face saying he could easily beat the CarWow quotes and we were amazed as he pointed to the Yeti saying this is a "Pre Reg" with zero miles on its clock; our Monte was gleaming in the sunshine it being like new with low miles; we were offered what I'd seen the value by "Honest John" on the web so we grabbed the deal the only thing we couldn't understand was why the Yeti was still on sale; it was waiting for us?

My wife caught a nasty cold so I had to collect the Yeti on my own the following week; I'd walked past a covered car in the entrance and as we headed out the salesman pulled the cover from our new Yeti; I was gobsmacked to think it was ours; it did cost an extra £240 for the spare wheel and fittings. Better still we quickly found although it being a much bigger car than the Monte and at 2.0L it was quite a bit cheaper to insure and a great deal cheaper on running costs; we paid full in cash. I parked it on our driveway and before I could take my wife for a spin I doubled over in absolute agony crying aloud like a child to be carted off in emergency ambulance then spending the next three days in a side room in the hospital whilst lots of tests were carried out; nothing was found as to the cause but I'm highly intolerant of dairy produce; I still hurt after being discharged but within a few days my wife had recovered from her cold and now I too felt much better; we fell in love with our Yeti and 6 years later it still brings a huge smile to our faces; we missed the Monte but this Yeti is something else and it's a keeper.

When I walked down the factory yard for the last time pete I never looked back; I came to hate my job during the last year of nothing but back stabbing between departments all bent on destroying the company which in fact happened shortly after I left; I'd been employed there 24 years ending up in charge of three departments with huge stress; this stress had to go somewhere when I left; my boss died very young indeed leaving a widow and two daughters; at first I felt guilty but then realized he also could have got out; I volunteered for redundancy and at the age of 53 I'd done my lot; my wife could manage on my works pension so I fully retired never to do any paid work again; one of my departments was home trade despatch and it was like working in a war zone; 1,300 electric motors coming through each day with another six factories feeding us as we became central despatch hub; to this day I hate and detest telephones having had five of these between my three offices also I had a pager but some days ended up with three pagers; I was even kitted out with one of the early mobile phones the size of an house brick but the thing wouldn't work due to all the electrics around all the time; of course when emails came in I was treated to these just to add to my daily load. Endless meetings and training courses looking back how did I ever cope.

I've been retired 22 years this month and have never ever missed the hassle of my job; the best thing in my life is my wonderful wife now 46 years married; I ordered her a big bouquet of flowers online which were delivered a few days ago not for a special day but just to let her know I still love her to bits.

What was the topic I've forgotten but I can put it down to a senior moment?

Kind regards, Colin.