90F150XLTBilly

so disconnect the battery cables if this is a threat.

Cowboywrench

2 reply questions for you:

1. What is the realistic potential for this situation to exist? I mean really. What would have to happen for this to be an issue?
2. If this extremely unlikely event did take place, would the truck be able to run very long without fuel? If this sort of attack did happen, it would also affect the pump systems and supply lines of fuel, making getting the fuel to run the points and carb motors as worthless as the electronic driven motors. Unless you have a store of fuel supply large enough to run for any amount of time, then I think that it is a mute point to be able to run the electrics of a motor with an empty tank.
The difference would be for the diesel trucks. There are many locations where diesel is stored in large quantities at homes for farm use. Tractors and trucks that are old enough to be pre-electrics would still run. Beyond that, it would be a schwinn world.

Scraptor

We could pump out the in ground fuel tanks with a hand pump, and drain gas from all the abandoned cars that didn't t survive the pulse.
But mechanical diesel would be the way to go, especially with furnace oil etc being able to be stored longer than gasoline. Lets hope we never find out.
I m old enough to remember when we did duck and cover drills in school, cause the Russians might drop the bomb.

Warlockk

EMP fields will usually destroy a computer or electrical system.in one of 2 ways. The field itself can erase any thing stored magneticly like tapes, floppy, hard disk, etc. The pre 96 ecu is solid state. It can't be reprogrammed without adding a new chip. So there is no magnetic media to erase. I'm not certain about the obd2 system. It uses eproms and I'm not sure they can withstand EMP. The second risk is electro static discharge created by the magnetic field. This destroys the fine traces in micro circuits. In the early days of computers bad chips were common because they were handled and packaged without esd protection. However a vehicle is so well grounded ( properly connected and maintained ) that static discharge travels through it directly to earth ground. A car can take a hit from lightning ( natural esd ) and not suffer at all. You can weld your frame without pulling your ignition system. So in theory pre 96 trucks anyway should be fine. Hmm after thought...alternator and battery may be succeptible to EMP. Magnetic fields drain batteries. Alternators own field would fail in a stronger field. But because they use electro magnets and not permanence magnets it should be fine after the pulse.

th25

^ smart!

oppie2005

1: The realistic potential, while others may disagree, i would say is a fair chance, maybe not high, maybe not low....perhaps in the middle. Maybe not. With everything that is going on in the world, the huge hype over iran, north korea...Everyone wanting their own nuclear weapons. I think it could all come to a head and burst. China and Russia back Iran and North Korea in their decisions to create the weapons. I think it is possible that nuclear weapons (or maybe just EMP weapons designed to attack our electrical grid/electronic devices) could be used against us. I, personally, would like to have the spare parts on hand to fix the issue in that sort of event.
2. I dont really have an answer for that except.....store fuel and additional additives to keep the fuel fresh? or, like you said....make sure you have a bicycle.

To the question about the point of having the parts if they would get destroyed during an EMP attack. If you have a shelter that is designed for this sort of thing.....keep the extra parts stored in there, then they will be good

To Warlokk: Nice!

sylver91

In any case of this happening, I'm counting more on my 1964 and 1979 Honda CT 90's motorcycles to still be running. Plus I don't have to fill em for almost a month of driving

jefpel

Cool topic, never really thought of something like this occurring. I guess us old truck guys will be laughing at those people driving civics....

M&D

faraday box

cgossett

i guess that's why my other ride is an 82 mercedes turbo diesel sedan. mechanical everything! one of the only automatics that can be tow started if need be, as well.