Air bags again (relocated from another thread)

[T and C]

Mr. A,

The nutty things that Boy Scouts (and other adolescent boys) do are amazing. Ever play "spread"? Two boys stand facing each other and throw their scout knives into the ground near the other's foot. The kid then has to stretch his foot out far enough to touch the knife. As the game goes on the legs get stretched out more and more. The first kid to fall down loses.

Did you know that a 14" tent spike can be thrown all the way through a foot, then through the sole of a tennis shoe into the ground? I learned that in the Boy Scouts. Fortunately by observation, not personal experience.

Here's a fellow that wishes his hitch had broken off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jPz1...eature=related

Tom

[ShrimpBurrito]

That video is hilarious......

Dave

My brother once lost a boat he was towing.

Connection to tow ball failed. Safety chains both snapped. Boat and trailer went across 4 lanes of traffic. Trailer became lodged in the center divide fence. Boat snapped all connections to trailer and became airborne.

Boat clear 4 lanes of traffic and hits the front bumper of a Greyhound bus.

No damage to the bus. The largest piece of the boat was 2 feet by 2 feet.

Though it happened in Sausilito CA, it made the newspaper in Milwaukee, where my uncle read it.

This has nothing to do with air bags. It is just another story about things going wrong when they were not anticipated.

How do you know that your safety chains are large enough that they will never fail?

Bill,
On to another can of worms...you mentioned in an earlier comment about the loss of power with gain of altitude. I am told that in "newer" engines that computers are much more adept at calculating and adjusting air intake and gas mixtures etc. And therefore loss of power is much less of an issue than in the good old days of carburetors and no computer technology. Could this be?

Computers can optimize your settings, but cannot over come physics. No air is no air. Newer cars may do better than a carb not jetted correctly, but the loss of power is still about 4% per 1000' of elevation gain.

I've driven both over the years, newer cars are definitly smoother, but you still need the HP to gets up the hill.

Bill will explain it better I'm sure, I apologize if I butted in......

[scrubjaysnest]

Originally Posted by moaboy

Bill,
On to another can of worms...you mentioned in an earlier comment about the loss of power with gain of altitude. I am told that in "newer" engines that computers are much more adept at calculating and adjusting air intake and gas mixtures etc. And therefore loss of power is much less of an issue than in the good old days of carburetors and no computer technology. Could this be?

With our Dodge I have noticed no difference in power at higher elevations.
per redhawks post there maybe some but at 10 k feet last year I think I would have noticed a 40% drop in power. All this may mean is the decrease isn't linear.

[Bill]

Originally Posted by Redhawk

Computers can optimize your settings, but cannot over come physics. No air is no air. Newer cars may do better than a carb not jetted correctly, but the loss of power is still about 4% per 1000' of elevation gain.

I've driven both over the years, newer cars are definitly smoother, but you still need the HP to gets up the hill.

Bill will explain it better I'm sure, I apologize if I butted in......

John -

Well said. I think your answer is exactly right. Thanks for posting it. If there is less air coming into the engine, the computer will maintain a proper fuel-air ratio (we used to call it "mixture") by supplying less fuel. And of course the net result of burning less fuel is less power.

Bill

[T and C]

I once crossed the pass through the Eisenhower tunnel on my way from CA to Denver. The altitude is over 11,000 feet. Actually, I did this several times, and then back again. But on this occassion I was driving a 1980 AMC Alliance with a 5 speed transmission and a roaring 54 horsepower. It did, however, have fuel injection. It went up that "hill" in 3rd gear passing all sorts of other cars that were "gasping for breath". It did better than all other cars I had experience with except for a fuel injected Saab. The other cars were all carburated, and included a Dodge 318, Chevy 305, AMC Matador 304. So the fuel injection seems to make a difference even w/o a computer.

On that same trip, a friend's Cadillac Diesel had to be towed. It just couldn't get up the hill.

Tom