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inthewilderness

Tenderfoot
Feb 6, 2013
60
0
Canada
OHHH, OK, yes, I've watched that movie many times.

I didn't realize you were talking about THE award winning movie "Look Out the Window." Nominated for Emmy, Oscar, Pulitzer, Nobel and Academy awards. Obviously, in my mind, it is an overwhelming, clean sweep. Film of the year for the last 17. :) We go to the theater twice a year to watch the movie.
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
Bush planes are low and slow. You get to see stuff.
Start with blue sky and the engine sound track, rock her up on the step and see the horizon.
Twist off the suction and bingo! We are truely on our way (batteries or not!)
 

mrcharly

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jan 25, 2011
3,257
44
North Yorkshire, UK
I didn't grow up somewhere remote as a kid, but the roads were not great, so small planes were part of many people's lives. Quite a few of early settling families had big spread farms in several locations, so they'd get a pilot license, grade out a dirt runway on the farms and own a 4 seater light plane. Now and then we'd get taken up by a neighbour for a flight. Takeoff was always incredibly bumpy and dusty, then we'd get to watch the in flight movie for a while before the very terrifying bumpy landing.

I think I'd prefer a float plane takeoff. At least there would be no risk of kangaroos on the runway.
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
You need clean water for a float plane takeoff. The float tails on a loaded Norseman are nearly 4' down before there's enough speed to rock the floats up onto the steps.
All you see is sky and you just assume the pilot has a straight-line plan. 12 imperial gallons of avgas and that Norseman is in the air.
Glassy calm has enough suction to be hard to break free. Some pilots would taxi around just to mess that up.

With 'Roos on the runway, I'm thinking outback in OZ?
In any case, can you recall what those farms of the day were doing for electricity?
 

mrcharly

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jan 25, 2011
3,257
44
North Yorkshire, UK
Yes, australia.
Electricity? They either did without or had a genny in a shed. We had a genny that was rigged to come on demand, but didn't use it much. Just managed with kero lanterns, candles and no food refrigeration for a couple of years, until my parents could afford to pay the electricity board to run power to the property. We weren't really remote, so food could be bought regularly.

'coolgardie fridges' used to be common. They were a kerosene (paraffin) powered fridge. Prior to that people had a 'meat safe' which was a cabinet with flyproof mesh covered sides, you'd cover it with hessian sacking, soak the sacking and keep the cabinet in the shade where the breeze could blow on it. We never used one but there was one of those out in a barn.
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
Propane refrigerators are still very common, here. Saw adverts just yesterday!
Meat safe won't work here = rock solid in winter (-17C this AM) and the bears will rip into it in summer.
Some really old houses in the village still have an earth root cellar underneath.
My head isn't in the right place for a lifetime of no electricity.
 

mrcharly

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jan 25, 2011
3,257
44
North Yorkshire, UK
What was possibly almost unique in Australia was the pace of change; in less than a generation areas went from no electricity, dirt roads, no telephone, to mains electric, tarmac roads, telephone that you can dial direct to the entire world. My first school is now preserved as museum to show what rural schools were like and I'm only middle-aged.
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
Rural electrification. Probably much the same pace in the agricultural areas of western Canada.
From kero lamps to mains and more.
The old grids were vulnerable to lightning strikes. Us city kids thought the kero lamps were wonderful.

Honestly, I don't know what size of solar system would take me off the grid, entirely.
Other than an obscene capital cost, there's no point in the actual village except to bridge
the usual and unexpected power outages. Hell, we can go 2 weeks without one.
 

Nomad64

Full Member
Nov 21, 2015
1,072
593
UK
When I was an 'active' stove collector I really wanted a paraffin/kerosene fridge, popular in parts of the USA and Australia I never did find one in the UK :( Still made but quite expensive https://www.lehmans.com/product/dometic-kerosene-refrigerator/refrigerators-freezers

Funny, when I was living off grid in Africa a few years ago, I looked at that Dometic kerosene fridge but rejected it on grounds of initial cost and (iirc) the amount of kerosene it used. Made do with an Engel 12/240v fridge for meat and drink which lived in the Landy and the twin battery split charging system got topped up when it drove and just a traditional wire mesh "meat safe" for veggies.

Not needed now but one thing still on my to do list is to build an evaporation fridge from the design I found somewhere. Basically an insulated box, with racks, open at the bottom with a cotton "skirt" which sits in a tray of water. The top has a cowl and flue which either has a candle or solar powered fan to generate an updraft. :)
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
That 12V/240V fridge must be like te 12V/117V "Coolatron" fridge boxes that travelers use here.
Just about have a hernia in hot weather.
No substitute for bigger & better but make-do on a trip just fine.
 

Nomad64

Full Member
Nov 21, 2015
1,072
593
UK
That 12V/240V fridge must be like te 12V/117V "Coolatron" fridge boxes that travelers use here.
Just about have a hernia in hot weather.
No substitute for bigger & better but make-do on a trip just fine.

Different beasts. The only things likely to have a hernia around an Engel (Waeco or similar) fridge/freezer is you or your wallet - even empty, a medium, 40 litre Engel weighs 20kg plus and by the time you add in a padded insulated case and a few accessories you won't get much change from GBP1000.

http://www.engelcoolers.com/fridge-freezers/shop-by-fridge-freezer/portable-top-loading/mt45f-u1

The cool boxes you are referring to typically claim to cool the contents to 20 degrees C below ambient and will drain you battery very quickly trying to do it. Engel claim 50 degrees C and draw comparatively little current and can be kept going indefinitely with a modest solar panel.

I still wince at the original cost but my Engel has served me well in some of the warmest pests of the world. :cool:
 
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mrcharly

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jan 25, 2011
3,257
44
North Yorkshire, UK
That's a proper compressor job, Nomad! V impressive. We looked at getting one on our barge but went down the inverter/domestic fridge route.
 

Parbajtor

Maker
Feb 5, 2014
99
8
Surbiton
www.tanczos.co.uk
I just switched to Lithium Iron (LiFe) battery on my motorcycle having had no end of cold starting issues every winter. I tried a GFM (Glass Fibre Mat) Gel battery last year which had very little improvement over a normal battery. The LiFe is half the height, a quarter the weight and you can tell straight away there's more cranking power available. I went for JMT (german company) because I wasn't going to spend a ton on a battery that might not be an improvement on the GFM. The JMT was just under £50 (from Amazon, shipped from Germany)only about £10-£15 more than the GFM. I've seen them going for around £100 from bike shops here. I suppose that'll all change once we Brexit and those discounts for being a member of the EU disappear.
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
Fe is the Periodic Table symbol for ( = Ferrum <Latin>) iron. Some might not know.

Parbajtor: I imagine 12VDC? How many AHr/amp-hours is the LiFe? Do they say anything about the number of charge/discharge cycles possible?
When I bought my big Discover deep-cycle batteries, the vendor said to write it on the wall = might see 50 cycles before they stuff up.
 

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
16,909
1,114
67
Florida
Hello mrcharly,

I have to set the record straight. I misspoke yesterday. This is what happens when one starts to get old. :)

Each battery is about 140 pounds and there are 2 cells to a plywood box. So there were only 6 battery boxes weighing roughly 280 pounds plus the weight of the box that had to be flown in and manhandled, not 12. Sorry about that. Still a brutal endeavor.

I wasn't too concerned with battery cracking since they were in a heavy plywood box with rope handles. It sounds like you have a challenge moving stuff yourself. Nothing is easy, is it? Take care! Ron

I'm off the boat these days, though we still own it ('we' own it, but guess who does all the maintenance?).
Were those battery boxes taken in one flight on a float plane? That's some load? I bet the pilot was, um, careful, with their fuel calculations.

Yes, one load. The Twin Otter is a serious bush plane. You can check out inthewilderness.net The first post has a picture of the Twin Otter and under the "Cool Videos" there is a youtube video of float plane travel you might get a kick out of. But it gives you an idea of just how big the plane is.

I was thinking the same thing as Mrcharly. Six boxes at 280 pounds each comes to 1740 pounds before you add the weight of the boxes. That alone is over half of a Twin Otter's payload (3031 pounds for a 400 NM trip) or a bit less of a strain for a 100 NM trip (max payload of 2061 pounds)
 

Tomteifi

Nomad
Jan 22, 2016
294
16
Carmarthenshire, South Wales
Well- I've looked all through those extremely interesting replies boys- I am still expecting tombear to come up with a float plane he has found in a boot sale somewhere around Accrington. Nothing yet but, i'll keep you posted.
 

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