Selfsufficientish.com

Martin - that link really has my head spinning.....

I want one!

well..........either go for an old Lister, or an Indian clone - here's a "don't try this at home" film clip - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a6RZFHyIdQ -from one of the Indian makers - you can get one of these for under £900!

I want one! Someone please send me £900....

Martin wrote:well..........either go for an old Lister, or an Indian clone - here's a "don't try this at home" film clip - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a6RZFHyIdQ -from one of the Indian makers - you can get one of these for under £900!

You can still buy an original Lister, I was in the factory in Dursley a couple of years ago. Along with standalone engines they also make rather nice gensets in acoustic enclosures. Typically as with most other manufacturers in the UK they are now a screwdriver shop most of the parts come in from abroad. I think most of the engine castings were from India:(
I'm not sure they will take the punishment of the older engines but they still seemed simple enough to be looked after by just about anyone.

I fear that the "new" Listers are relatively high-revving compared to the 650rpm CSs and their clones - the older engines are built to last, have massively oversized bearings etc. - and at the low revs will do colossal numbers of hours (some talk of 100,000 hrs) - in comparison, people think they've done well if something like a Mercedes lasts 200,000 miles - at 40mph, that's 5,000 hours!
The other beauty of the older ones and the clones is that they're water-cooled - you can retrieve a great deal of the heat generated, and use it for heating water for the home - and they lap up almost any oil you can throw at them - rapeseed, sunflower, and used chipfat!

the push to bio-fuels really worries me:

http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2007/3 ... tages.html

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/f1 ... drcrd.html

the rich (on a global scale, that means us!) start buying foodstuffs for the manufacture of fuel oil, the prices will increase, leaving the poor with nothing to eat. there are already corn shortages in mexico, because corn is being exported to the US for biodeisel.

in the UK the majority of our foodstuffs come from cash crops in poorer countries, often leaving local people with little (in ethiopia during the 'famine' of the 80s and 90s millions of tonnes of food were still being exported to the west). now we are gonna start creating starvation to feed our cars? scary.

I guess it's a good moral test and perhaps one for another thread and poll, is our comfort and ability to travel around the country important enough to see people starve in other countries? In the case of biofuels to see the remaining rain forests eroded for palm oil plantations?

I don't think anyone argues that it's possible for the UK to carry on as we are with home grown biofuels, we can probably run farms, emergency services and maybe some public transport but happy motoring as we know it will end.

The difficult question is when and how many people will die along the way. On the when the experts vary from now to thirty to fifty years away. Even fifty years isn't a long time to re-invent the world.

i see very little in mainstream society to be optimistic about. government is so wedded to the 'business as usual' philosophy that they probably regard people who propose less-consumerism as terrorists!!

i think it is a given that in the near future there WILL be less people, and i am consciously preparing so that i and those close to me will have a better chance of survival. but even 'greens' dont seem to take this seriously.

the estimates i've read is that the earth can carry up to a billion humans, maybe 2 billion if small scale organic agriculture and permaculture are adopted on a widescale (not likely in countries where unequal land ownership and planning laws stop you gaining access to land). the question is whether that will be concentrated in the rich west, with the rest of the world being resource mines to maintain our affluent lifestyles, with oppressive government control. or whether the poor will reclaim their heritage and stop propping up our unsustainability. then many are likely to die in the west too.

i realise posts like this are not gonna win me many friends - denial seems to be the modern way - but i do feel this needs talking about, and preparing for.