zzrmark

How many of these small-dick substitutes actually go off road? My two wheel drive Tundra ( which works for a living, before we start with the smart comments ) looks like it would go anywhere but gets stuck in two inches of mud in the yard every time it rains, mutter, mutter, shoulda bought a four wheeler, mutter, mutter!

And along the same lines, they might as well utilise the bed for something as most people don't seem to use them. Conversely, the manufacturer's have pimped up pick trucks to such an extent that you've only got to chuck a couple bags of cement in the back and the blasted thing is over it's weight capacity.

BenK91

Back in the UK at the moment, first time back in over a year.

First few things I noticed after being picked up by a friend at the airport: 1. I'm sitting too low to the road! (He drives a GTI ClubSport, I drive a truck back in CO). 2. These 'smart motorway'/average speed cameras are bloody awful (completely forgot about them!) and 3. The cars are too small!

Hotscot

And bus lane fines are horrendous...

caretaker

About 4 years ago a friend came out from Calgary to fish with us, and as we left our swim he got his brand new 4x4 Tundra stuck right in the middle of a mud hole, that I had gone through with my old Windstar van 5 minutes earlier. He was teased about that for a couple of years. Some nice young men with a Chevvy pulled him out.

Harveyspecter

It's an interesting technology Pulaski, but one I think is too complex to mass manufacture at least in the near future. It would also be limited to bigger vehicles like trucks due to packaging constraints (too tall for a car unless it's mounting horizontally). The big selling point is thermal efficiency but F1 engines already attain 50% TE and they are 'traditional' V6 1.5 litre hybrids, I think we'll be seeing more of that on the roads before this.

Pulaski

I'm not sure about the "too complex" - as it has no traditional valve gear, so has fewer moving parts that a normal internal combustion engine, but I agree on the size constraints - I guess one might fit into a commercial truck horizontally fairly well.

Here is the post that HarveySpecter cited, but I had deleted due to URL issues: - ETA the URL's are all still bu99ered

I am wondering if/when we'll see this technology http://www.trucktrend.com/features/1811-opposed-piston-engines-making-old-technology-new/ in a vehicle sold to the public. The story has been around for several years, and an independent manufacturer put one into an F150 a year or so back https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/radical-new-engines-make-a-run-at-reality/ to demonstrate the technology, but I haven't yet heard that Ford, or anyone else, has plans to sell one to the public.

If it sounds anything like a Deltic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napier_Deltic (I presume it would have an unusual engine sound - [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j5E3RCkJ_E" there's a Deltic video, but I haven't been able to find a video that captures the distinctive "ticking" note of the Deltic over the regular sound of a diesel engine ) I would definitely be interested!

Harveyspecter

True, but then you have machining issues of machining ports into a cylinder block a la 2 stroke, that males it complex alone. Not to mention the heat source (i.e. combusion) is now right in the centre of the engine and with a mass of intake/exhaust/water ports having to work together in a tight area, I foresee some issues. Channeling intake mixture through all that will present issues too.

Maybe my URL will work:

https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/r...un-at-reality/

Pulaski

Let me try again.

I am wondering if/when we'll see this technology in a vehicle sold to the public. The story has been around for several years, and an independent manufacturer put one into an F150 a year or so back to demonstrate the technology, but I haven't yet heard that Ford, or anyone else, has plans to sell one to the public.

I would definitely be interested if it sounds anything like a Deltic . I presume it would have an unusual engine sound - here's a 25 second video , but I haven't been able to find a video that captures the distinctive engine note of the Deltic engine over the regular sound of a diesel engine. But suffice to say, it is an extremely distinctive sound and quite unlike any other diesel engine used in a locomotive in the UK. The distinctive elements of the sound may be too high a frequency for most microphones and/or the small, cheap speakers used in phones and computers.

zzrmark

That Achates is a mechanical beauty, but I reckon that having spent the last thirty years demonising 2-stroke engines there are few regulatory bodies that will be prepared to walk back all their efforts to scrap them.

Oakvillian

I recall way back in the early 1990s there was an Australian company - Orbital, I think - that had a very promising 2-stroke triple that used direct injection instead of crankcase compression to produce a remarkably efficient little engine. IT never took off, squashed by the big makers (they sold it to Ford, I think) at the same time as development of lean-burn technology was displaced by regulations mandating catalytic converters instead. I wonder what happened to that technology...

ETA: should have looked on Wikipedia first, of course. Ralph Sarich was the guy behind Orbital, which is still going as a design consulting business

Steerpike

Drove down the M6/M1 yesterday from Preston to St Albans. it felt like half the journey was through 50 mph 'average speed' zones, which is incredibly stressful - there wasn't too much traffic so you could easily drift up to 55, and you know that since it's averaged, you 'must' even out below 50 so have to drop below 50... I finally set the cruise control and stopped looking at the rearview mirror every 5 seconds, which helped. Lanes were very narrow also, with big lorries seemingly inches from me at all times. I was lucky enough to rent a Kia Sportage automatic this time, which is a half-decent car by UK standards (IMHO - good because it has auto, relatively high seating position, rearview camera, lane-keep features, etc). Drove from St Albans to Leeds today on A1(M), slightly less stressful.

chawkins99

I did Manchester Airport to Birmingham (and back) in December. Even at 4am with very little traffic, you have to stick to 50mph.

I had a Vauxhall Mokka (UK version of the Buick Encore) which was a decent car by UK standards. I drove 7 hours each way to Orlando airport and was MUCH less stressful than the 2 hour drive on the M6. The M6 roadworks have been ongoing for 3-4 years and expected for another 3-4 years.

lansbury

That has really made me look forward to my next trip, when I will have to drive from Manchester Airport to Evesham. Four days later from Evesham to Pickering, followed just over a week later from Pickering back to Manchester Airport.

lansbury

A perplexing problem which took me some time to work out.

Came back from the dentist about 10 days ago, parked in the garage got out and pressed the button in the door handle to lock the doors and nothing happened. Tried the lock button on the remote and again nothing. Went inside got the spare remote pressed the remote and door buttons nothing. Changed the battery in both the remotes, and tried again, nothing worked. Left it unlocked. Went to go out about 2 hours later, push button start, "no key fob detected" wouldn't start. Next day back to normal everything working OK. It was already booked in for a service and I asked them to check the locking system while it was there. No fault codes showing and of course they couldn't replicate the problem.

It worked OK for about another 7 days then Monday when I went to take the grandson to baseball training had to use the key to unlock and it wouldn't start. 30 minutes later it is all working OK again. Thinking about it, it only had happened when parked in the garage, but nothing in the garage had changed. But I had purchase a new piece of ham radio equipment, which was in the spare bedroom separated from the garage by about 10ft.

Some Internet research showed that some car manufactures are using a frequency, for their keyless entry systems, that in the US has been allocated to the ham radio 70cm band. The new piece of radio equipment was jamming the signal between the key fob and the receiver in the Jeep. Easy fix to change the radio hotspot to another frequency, but reading up on it there are quite a few examples where similar frequency interference has happened on a public street causing vehicles to not unlock or stop running.

Steerpike

Good to hear the resolution. I had a variation on this problem recently. G/F has a Toyota Prius; I have a Lexus RX350. If I have my RX350 key in my pocket, her Prius 'fob' won't work properly and she gets the 'no key detected' issue. If I leave my RX350 key at home, no issues. Took weeks to figure out the pattern. So the very presence of one key is affecting the other key. Perhaps because Toyota and Lexus are the same company and share similar frequencies? Yet another variation; I have two keys for my RX350. I sometimes carry the spare in my backpack on long journeys which is in the luggage space. When one 'copy' of the key is inside the vehicle, it's much harder to make use of the second key outside. It does still work, but you don't get all the functionality.