czettlera

Today we got a new JEEP to the family. Check it out on the picture, together with the proud owner. And a vote: what type is it? For me the front is Wrangler, but the chassis is more XJ, or ZJ

dave1123

It's a Liberty! Can't you tell? Cute kid! Now hand over your keys, lol!

czettlera

Maybe you got it right, I was a bit confused by number of the doors. And thanks I also think she's very cute, like her much. The new Jeeping Generation

dave1123

I just hope honest-to-God jeeps are still around when she's ready for them. Can you imagine an electric hybrid jeep? No fun anymore.

czettlera

Then it seams it's my responsibility to save one for her BTW I have read and article what says that the 30% of the CO2 emission is generated only by the transportation and aprox. the 30% of this is caused by cars, so I don't really get why the so strict regulations are needed against car manufacturers. If we wouldn't ship everything from Chine, maybe the amount of transport wouldn't be so high. But than where would the profit come from?

dave1123

Since the 1900s, the world's love affair with private transportation has boomed, especially so after WWII, when our soldier's came home and wanted to start families and live outside the cities. I'm not aware of the actual numbers, but the majority of American families own more that 1 car. When air quality in the cities first became intolerable, these vehicles were the FIRST thing targeted by the government to reduce emissions. Then it was the factories and power plants. Our entire society is built around burning fossil fuels and to change that will drastically change our lifestyles.

The internal combustion engine is still the cheapest, most efficient, and durable motive power for anything that moves across the face of the earth and will be for many years, and has basically remained unchanged for over 100 years. And then there is the EXTERNAL combustion engine known as the steam engine. It still uses fossil fuels for power and has been around for about 200 years. It has been improved to include turbines which evolved into gas turbines and aircraft engines which, by the way, still use fossil fuels.

The problem is the IS NO viable alternative to using fossil fuels and until the dream of cold fusion becomes a reality, there will be none. Electric cars need to be recharged using power produced by fossil fuels. Hydrogen is produced in 2 ways, separation from natural gas or electrolyzed with electricity from power plants. Solar cells are expensive to produce and don't have a long useful life. Wind plants are expensive to build and maintain and can't produce enough energy to meet demand. The only form of "free" electricity comes from gravity, as in falling water or ocean tides.

One university study said that if all the electricity used today was from atomic power, the world would by out of radioactive material in 10 years.

And don't EVEN get me started on Global Warming!!!

czettlera

And don't EVEN get me started on Global Warming!!![/QUOTE]

I wouldn't want to do that . All I wanted to say is that if the figures I know are correct, than less than 10% of the pollution is generated by the cars.
Every "green" power has also side effects, if we want to use it in a big amount.
The only big advantage of the electrical or hybrid cars is that the LOCAL CO2 emission can be reduced in the cities.

dave1123

Oh, I agree! One other thing that would help is to convert existing cars to natural gas, but people don't seem interested because the refueling infrastructure isn't there. In my city (Syracuse, NY) the city buses run on natural gas and people can refuel CNG cars at their terminal, but no where else yet. As far as State regs are concerned, people can install conversion systems that will use both natural gas and gasoline, but the system has to be installed by a qualified technician.

What I find amusing is there are people who are building drag racing cars powered by natural gas! They are using equipment designed for propane powered engines for industrial forklifts and such.

How did we get off on this discussion? Oh, I know! It was about jeeps when your baby starts to drive.

czettlera

Yes we got a little far, but check tis out, how it looks like installed to my Jeep. Actually it's not CNG, but LPG, not a huge difference.
For drag racing it can be good because it's at least 120 octane, and the gas-gas mixture has better and faster burning like gas-fluid.

dave1123

WOW! I like that! You really are an engineer, aren't you?