How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It
Page 23
For the sake of versatility and flexibility, I highly recommend that one of the vehicles at your retreat can run on propane.
Diesel Vehicles
I recommend having at least one diesel tractor and one diesel car at every retreat. Although they are fairly scarce, in my experience, a pre-1986 Mercedes diesel 300D-series station wagon (on the W123 chassis) is worth looking for. These share a drivetrain with the much more common 300D-series four-door sedans, so parts are readily available.
Ready Made Resources offers an affordable small-scale biodiesel-making system. The recent spike in diesel prices will give you a big advantage in bargaining for a price when buying any diesel vehicle.
For short-term low-amperage power requirements, a vehicle with a diesel engine can act as an impromptu power generator. As long as the engine is left running at low to moderate RPMs, then using a vehicle’s alternator as a power source—for DC loads and/or to run a small 120-volt AC inverter—will not cause excessive wear and tear on your battery or alternator. You may have to rig a manually controlled set throttle. Just keep in mind the usual safety precautions, such as carbon-monoxide venting and making sure that the transmission lever does not get bumped into Drive. To conserve your precious fuel, it is best to buy a bank of deep-cycle (golf-cart-type) batteries that you can charge whenever you run the engine.
Rather than using jumper-cable clamps, for safety it is best to attached heavy-gauge battery cable and terminal lugs. Use a detachable high-amperage-rated twelve-volt DC polarity-protected pigtail block connector, in parallel with your vehicle battery cables. That way you can quickly disconnect and still be able to drive your vehicle without a time-consuming cable-unbolting procedure. Ideally, your battery bank will be the heart of an alternative power system that will also—as your budget eventually allows—include some photovoltaic panels.
For twelve-VDC devices “downstream” from your battery bank that draw thirty amps or less, I recommend standardizing with Anderson Powerpole connectors rather than flimsy cigarette-lighter plugs and jacks.
Run-Flat Tires
Run-flat tires are available on BMW 3-series cars, as well as the Toyota Sienna. Many tire manufacturers now produce them for after-market installation for a variety of cars and light trucks. These include: Bridgestone RFT (run-flat tire), Dunlop’s DSST (Dunlop self-supporting technology), Firestone RFT (run-flat tire), Goodyear EMT (extended-mobility technology), Michelin ZP (zero pressure), Pirelli RFT (run-flat technology), and Yokohama. These are all “self-supporting” designs, meaning that they are supported by special sidewall designs rather than a rim-mounted insert. The latter would be preferable. I suspect that run-flat tires will become commonplace in the next few years, since car manufacturers would surely prefer to save on the space and weight of carrying a spare tire.
For maximum mobility, the best of all possible worlds would probably be a vehicle with a central tire-inflation system (CTIS)—such as that used on the military High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) and its commercial Hummer H1 counterpart—used in conjunction with a Michelin PAX-type auxiliary supported tire system.
EMP
If you are concerned about electromagnetic pulse (EMP) disabling your vehicle, then buy either a diesel or a pre-1975 gasoline-engine vehicle. Some later vehicles can be retrofitted with traditional ignition systems that don’t have microcircuits. (Ask your local car mechanic.) With diesels, the main EMP issue is that the newer vehicles use microcircuits in their glow-plug circuitry. You should have an experienced diesel mechanic show you how to bypass the glow-plug switch with a clip lead from your battery’s positive terminal. Keep that clip lead in your glove box at all times.
The major U.S. (Detroit) car and truck manufacturers started using electronic (“computer”) ignition systems in or around 1975. Chrysler was the first of the Big Three manufacturers to abandon the traditional “points and condenser” for an electronic ignition. That was in about 1974. Ford and GM followed with most of their product lines around 1975. The conversion in ignition systems usually took place in automobile product lines before trucks. By 1976 or 1977, virtually all gas-engine cars coming out of Detroit had electronic ignitions. Trucks all transitioned to electronic ignitions by 1978.
Camouflage Painting?
My general advice is to camouflage vehicles only after you have made it to your retreat, and only if it is a truly Schumeresque situation. In the present day, a camouflage-painted vehicle will attract unwanted interest—either from malefactors or from law enforcement. A flat paint job in one earth-tone color will not attract suspicion. You should also keep the materials handy to spray-paint, Bowflage-brand paint, or camo-tape over any chrome parts, if and when things get really bad. (Bowflage paint seems to be best for reducing infrared signature.) But in most parts of the country a camouflage paint job simply screams “Prepared guy!” Be sure to weigh the costs and benefits.
When parked, vehicles can be made far less visible with military camouflage nets (supported by spreaders to break up any expected vehicular outline), and burlap sacks to cover high-albedo windows and headlights.
Horse Power
For the really long term, learn as much as you can about horses, and change your purchasing plans if this approach matches your needs and the pasture-carrying capacity of your retreat. There is a lot to this: horsemanship, hay cutting (preferably horse-powered), hay storage, pasture fencing, a barn, tack, veterinary supplies, and so forth. Here at the Rawles Ranch, our saddle-horse money pit may soon have some new friends in the pasture.
Hay and grain prices have been sky high for a full year now, so this has pushed the price of horses down tremendously. As this book goes to press, in much of the western United States good saddle horses are literally being given away. Just ask around. If you are not yet an experienced rider, then limit your search to older, gentle, “bomb-proof ” mares or geldings. If you have plenty of pasture and hay ground, take advantage of the current low prices for horses. Buy them while they’re cheap. Watch your newspaper classified ads and Craigslist for horses as well as tack, hay mowers, and a horse trailer. In addition to saddle horses, think in terms of working horses. While you are searching for saddles, also look for wagons, buckboards, horse collars, long reins, log chains, and other workhorse tack.
Fuel in a Grid-Down Collapse
You will need to access gasoline in underground gas-station storage tanks if electrical pumps become inoperable. Typical retail gas-station fuel tanks are less than fourteen feet deep, including the height of the filler necks, so a fifteen-foot draw hose is more than long enough.
Every well-equipped retreat should have at least one “field-expedient” twelve-VDC fuel-transfer pump. These pump rigs are popular with dirt-bike, ATV, and snowmobile enthusiasts. They are very simple to construct. Here are the materials that you will need:
(1) Automobile or truck electric fuel pump (The least expensive pumps come from automobile wrecking yards.)
(2) 15-foot lengths of heavy rubber hose—approved for use as fuel line—of the proper diameter for the fittings on the fuel pump
(2) Stainless steel fuel-line clamps (such as Breeze Aero-Seal brand, or similar, which are tightened with a screwdriver)
(15 to 20 feet) 16 AWG (or heavier) gauge insulated two conductor wire (This will be the power cord for the pump.)
(1) Cigarette-lighter-type male plug, available from any Radio Shack store (for the power cord for the pump)
(1) Roll of black plastic electrician’s tape or, better yet, some thermoplastic “heat-shrink” tubing
(1) Scrap of ⅜-inch-thick -inch-thick (or greater) plywood, measuring roughly 16 by 16 inches (to mount the fuel pump)
If you’d like, you can add an electrical switch to the power cord for convenience, but make sure that you get a high-amperage switch that is rated for DC, and that you position the switch within a couple of feet of the dashboard plug so that the switch is inside the cab of your vehicle. That way there is far less chance of generating a spark inside a ga
s-vapor cloud.
If your vehicle uses an electric fuel pump, then I suggest that you use a pump identical to that used in your vehicle as the basis for your transfer-pump project. That way you will have spares on hand in the event that your vehicle’s fuel pump or any portions of your fuel system’s flexible-fuel lines ever fail.
You can also add an in-line fuel filter to your fuel-transfer pump rig. Again, it is best to use a filter cartridge that is identical to that used in your vehicle. (Always think: “Spares and redundancy, spares and redundancy.”)
One other optional nicety is a one-foot-square scrap of plywood to bolt the pump onto. This will keep the transfer pump out of the mud or snow. It also provides a handy place to mount some large hooks, so that you will have a neat way to coil up the power cord and the fuel-transfer hoses for storage. A fifteen-foot length of hose should be able to reach any vehicle fuel tank, or even down into an underground tank.
There are commercially made equivalents of this fuel-pump rig, but they cost more, and they won’t provide you with a spare compatible fuel pump—in the event that your vehicle’s original pump goes Tango Uniform.
Important Provisos:
1. All of the usual commonsense precautions for handing gasoline and gas cans apply: Use only DOT-approved fuel containers; no sparks; no open flames; don’t turn on any radio transmitters; beware of static electricity buildup, etc.
2. Some later-model vehicles have anti-siphoning filler necks on their gas tanks. Check for this before you head for the boonies with an ATV trailer.
3. Cover any exposed electrical connections with tape or heat-shrink tubing, to avoid sparks or shorting.
4. Keep one eye on your vehicle’s gas gauge and your other eye on the can that you are filling (or pumping from). It is not just an expensive waste to spill gas on the ground. It is also toxic and a fire hazard!
Odds are that you will be able to find the station owner to make payment, at least while there is still fuel in the station tanks. If you build two or more such pumps in advance, then you could probably use the extras in barter—most likely to trade to gas-station owners for some of their fuel.
E85
I predict that within a few years the price of E85 in the U.S. will be about half the price of unleaded gasoline. But the bad news is that by the time this happens, standard gasoline will be probably be up to six dollars per gallon. I am hopeful that within a few years E100 ethanol vehicles will become available. These will run on pure ethanol (grain alcohol) or methanol (wood alcohol). That would be ideal for a survival retreat, where you could presumably build your own still. But for now, E85 vehicles are highly recommended. They are still fairly scarce. To find one for sale near you, do a search for “Flex Fuel” on the Edmunds.com vehicle-search page.
The E85 ethanol blend has a longer storage life than standard gasoline, but it is essential that it is stored in tightly sealed containers. Otherwise, the alcohol will absorb moisture. If enough water is absorbed, the alcohol will separate from the gasoline and go into solution with the water (read: ruined fuel, and an engine that won’t start). So keep your containers full and tightly sealed. The higher the humidity, the faster this will occur.
Pri-G (available from Nitro-Pak) or Sta-Bil (available at your local auto-parts store) brand additives can and should be added to E85 that is stored for more than a couple of months, to protect the 15 percent of the blend that is gasoline. But of course you need only about 15 percent of the additive per gallon that you would normally use to treat standard gasoline. The alcohol component of the blend needs no special stabilization. As with storing standard gasoline, it is best to buy E85 for storage during winter months, when you will presumably be buying a winter blend that has extra butane added for cold-weather starting. This also extends its useful storage life.
If you are concerned that your stored E85 has been contaminated with water, you can pour some of the fuel into a clear glass tube and wait thirty minutes before inspecting the sample. If there is water contamination you will be able to see a separation of ethanol water from gasoline, with the colored gasoline floating above the clear ethanol-water mixture.
Keep all fuel tanks as full as possible for long-term storage, to prevent the empty space above the fuel from passing water into the fuel.
Fuel Storage
Storing extra fuel for your vehicles is a priority for family preparedness. If you use propane, consider buying a larger tank. The bigger, the better. That fuel will be like money in the bank. Ditto for gasoline and diesel fuel. That way you can buy during occasional dips in the market as well as have a reserve that will help you ride through any spot shortages. Consult your local fire code for any limits where you live. I generally prefer underground tanks, for both OPSEC and fire safety.
I predict that there will be a long lag time while the price of propane catches up to the price of other fuels. The cost of electricity will also lag behind, especially in regions that have predominantly hydroelectric power. In the long run, however, these prices will also undoubtedly catch up. Exploit this lag time to build up the alternative-energy potential of your retreat. Think through your options, do some comparison pricing, and then get busy. Consider the merits and drawbacks of photovoltaics, wind, micro-hydro biogas, biodiesel, geothermal, wood-fired steam/ co-generation, and so forth. For more on this, see Chapter 6.
13
INVESTING, BARTER, AND HOME-BASED BUSINESSES
We are entering perilous economic times. I expect continued massive layoffs and chronic unemployment in this nascent depression. As the fictional Sarah Connor puts it so succinctly: “No one is ever safe.” Anyone can get laid off. You can be an outstanding worker, in a presumably “safe” industry, yet in a depression you can still lose your job.
This chapter will present strategies for ensuring your financial security. I’ll provide advice on savvy investments to make now to protect your money, suggestions for sources of income, and effective bartering techniques you can use WTSHTF.
Inflation Is Insidious and Inexorable
I recently helped some elderly cousins move from their two-story home of many years into a smaller one-story apartment in a retirement community. During the move, we cleaned out a storage space that hadn’t been touched in more than forty years. Many of the boxes had newspapers used as padding in the top. Pulling out these papers, which were mostly from 1958, was a real eye-opener for our kids. Here are some examples of the advertisement prices that our kids read aloud with much laughter:
Beauty Salon: Ladies’ styled haircut $1; Revlon manicure 75 cents; shampoo and set $1
Flooring Store: Rubber tiles 12 cents each; inlaid linoleum tile 5½ cents; vinyl tile 7½ cents
Grocery Store: Leg of lamb 65 cents/lb; breast of lamb 15 cents/lb; picnic hams 29 cents/lb; a fifth of Johnnie Walker scotch $6.38; Hills Bros. coffee 49 cents/lb
Car Dealerships: Current-model-year Cadillac convertible $4,395; 1957 Chevy (one year old) $2,195; 1950 Buick sedan, “real nice,” $165; 1954 Ford Crown Victoria V-8 $875
The prices in these ads illustrate the slow but relentless debasement of our currency. Before 1965, our coinage was 90 percent silver, and paper money was still redeemable in silver. Granted, wages were proportionately less, but since that time, any savings held in dollars has been inexorably eaten away by inflation, year after year. It is no wonder that the savings rate in the U.S. recently went below zero. Americans presently spend $1.06 for each dollar that they earn, piling up debt instead of savings. The inflation of the money supply is gradual enough that it insidiously goes without raising public alarm. Because inflation is so relentless, I recommend investing in tangibles—things like productive farmland, gold, silver, guns, and common-caliber ammunition. The dollar will surely continue to plummet in value, but for the most part tangibles will hold their value.
The debt merry-go-round cannot go on forever. When the average consumer runs out of credit, when the U.S. Treasury itself is no longer considered creditworthy, and when t
he U.S. dollar is recognized for what it really is (nicely printed toilet paper), then things will get ugly. If you stop making the payments on your car, the banks send a repo man to tow your car away. And when entire nations go into default, it usually signals cataclysmic events. Be prepared.
Inflation and Property Taxes
Creeping tax increases is one of the reasons that it is now nearly impossible for someone to “live off the land” on small acreage. Even if you own your house and land free and clear, property taxes are inescapable. Thus, in self-sufficient mode, although you can feed yourself, you still need a cash-earning job, just to pay the taxes. I pray that at the far end of the coming depression, our debt money system—which is the root of inflation—will be replaced by a system of sound currency that is redeemable in specie. That is the only sure, long-term solution to creeping inflation, and corresponding creeping taxation.
Although the chances of a long-lasting deflationary depression are fairly small (since I suspect Ben Bernanke will try to inflate his way out of this mess), it is prudent to do your best to maintain a cash income as a supplement even if you are able to live off the land.
Residential Real Estate