Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

Thats 12 tonnes that can legally be driven by anyone with a license? Over in euroland everything over 3,5 tonnes requires a new license… which may be overkill on the other side of the spectrum….

Yup, most people don't come close to that on a normal basis and those that tow trailers seem semi-careful (at least if they value what is in/on the trailer.
 
Over in euroland everything over 3,5 tonnes requires a new license… which may be overkill on the other side of the spectrum….
I did that license last year and can’t say I came out much wiser. The vehicle I learned on wasn’t even big. It was a dually VW Crafter but with the shortest possible body config, so it was like driving a slightly beefier VW Transporter.
 
... couldn't find another appropriate thread for this, so here goes:
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Someone decided to vandalize a Munich charging station by stuffing the plugs with minced meat. WTF were they thinking? Only vegans drive EVs, that'll really show them??? ?

Well woman got fined in Finland for using minced meat as a imprompty weapon......
 
That's more or less what my license allows. 7.5 tons plus 3.5 tons. I got that license last year (upgrading from a normal plebian car license) and I can't say the course material or test contained anything that wasn't common sense anyway.

Unlike @Perc i don't have a trailer licence, but for some weird reason i got myself truck licence, which allowes me to drive upto 5 axle 44ton truck.

which i want to own, preferably 10x10 military offroader
 
EVs, and the fact that some people dare to like EVs, really seem to grind people's beefgears.
Considering they use domestically produced electrics, employing non-foreign (ferrrrrnerrrrrrsss) workers in solid careers... wouldn't it be of national pride to drive and own an EV..?

Heh, that reminds me of something. Comedian Jasper Carrott on getting pulled over while driving in the US:

Cop: "Hey, you're a pretty good driver!"
Carrott: "Am I?"
Cop: "You sure are, you've been endorsed three times."

Over here, endorsements are bad things that have accrued points.
They use Endorsement/Restriction interchangebly in North Englishland. https://www.dol.wa.gov/driverslicense/cdlspecial.html
 
I did that license last year and can’t say I came out much wiser. The vehicle I learned on wasn’t even big. It was a dually VW Crafter but with the shortest possible body config, so it was like driving a slightly beefier VW Transporter.

Interesting. I only have a pleb drivers license testdrove both the crafter as the VW Transporter van/minibus thing And found the van to be much more robust and nicer to drive but also less comfortable. Also, the transporter is technically a bus aswell since it seats 9 (3 rows of 3 seats)… so not that different from the us afterall, aside from the size and weight of the car, I can also legally endanger 9 people. But they’re just closer together in a much lighter vehicle
 
Interesting. I only have a pleb drivers license testdrove both the crafter as the VW Transporter van/minibus thing And found the van to be much more robust and nicer to drive but also less comfortable. Also, the transporter is technically a bus aswell since it seats 9 (3 rows of 3 seats)… so not that different from the us afterall, aside from the size and weight of the car, I can also legally endanger 9 people. But they’re just closer together in a much lighter vehicle

Tangentially related: European roads are full of full-size heavy-duty MB Sprinters, Iveco Dailies, Renault Masters and the like that are registered as light-duty vans < 3500kg. Usually there's a fiberglass sleeper pod on top of the cab. Downgrading the van leaves a legal carrying capacity of sod-all, but the vehicle itself is technically capable of much more and they're loaded according to that and then some.

< 3500kg means no speed governor, no mandated rest/sleep and no tachograph, so you can drive until your eyes bleed and then chug a couple cans of energy drink and continue grinding another couple hundred km's, flat out if you're on the Autobahn. Not to mention it can be driven by anyone with a pulse since it just requires a B license. If the cops get you, your Romanian boss replaces you with someone else.

But I digress.
 
....you're new to modern cars, aren't you?
I mean down inside the ignition barrel.

Although yes, I am well out of my depth when it comes to post 1980s automotive tech. As soon as the carbs and points ignition vanishes I start getting lost and by the time computers get involved I'm entirely checked out...
 
All this U-Haul talk reminded me of this gem from '07. Are they supposed to be that softly sprung or are these just the worst heaps in the fleet?


That one probably has blown shocks, that said, U-Haul's aren't maintained unless they have to be, but this looks like some employees fucking around before opening or at the end of the day. :D

These things are set up like a car, no air suspension, no air brakes, you have regular car style hydraulic brakes and you have no cruise control.
 
Teboil are just now building a brand new unmanned fuel station a couple blocks from me. They have 95, 98 and diesel. No adblue, and I can’t even see any EV chargers being installed. Doesn’t feel very 2021.
 
Teboil are just now building a brand new unmanned fuel station a couple blocks from me. They have 95, 98 and diesel. No adblue, and I can’t even see any EV chargers being installed. Doesn’t feel very 2021.

Why are new fuel stations being built without a charging station?
 
Why are new fuel stations being built without a charging station?

Damned if I know. Then again it’s a “cold” station so there is no restroom and nowhere to go for a coffee while your car is charging. It’s just a roof with two pairs of fuel pumps.

Also no adblue, which is just as confusing.
 
Damned if I know. Then again it’s a “cold” station so there is no restroom and nowhere to go for a coffee while your car is charging. It’s just a roof with two pairs of fuel pumps.

Also no adblue, which is just as confusing.

Yeah, and it's the same here in terms of no charging. We seem to be in the midst of trying to make fuel stations less like a station and more a destination where there's a "restaurant" with "fresh food" in it. If we're going through that effort, why not put charging stations in? Plus, the power here in the north is almost entirely nuclear.
 
Yeah that makes no sense. The BP station here should have chargers by now too instead of peddling Marks & Sparks food.
 
All this U-Haul talk reminded me of this gem from '07. Are they supposed to be that softly sprung or are these just the worst heaps in the fleet?

The 1980's truck in the background is the giveaway.

UHaul vehicles go through a lifecycle - new ones go to large markets or earmarked for long hauls, and as they age and wear they get gradually moved to less and less valuable markets until they hit real backwaters like York, PA which have a handful of okay-ish vehicles and vast armadas of absolute heaps that they keep going with part swaps (they usually have a few old boxes up on blocks around the back to swap on when somebody crashes into an overhead obstacle), and peel the stickers off the ones that are close to the end and sell them out to the 'general public'.
 
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