So What IS ruined after an Apocalypse?

[(E)]

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

Any suggestions?

Rough Science, though I would recommend looking up an episode guide to narrow down the search.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RlD1Mu_4Yvg

Edit
The Wikipedia page serves as a good guide
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rough_Science

[Christopher R. Rice]

Awesome. Thanks, (E)!

[Christopher R. Rice]

So I'm wondering about cars now. Obviously, those out in the weather will rust and break down, but what challenges might a survivor face if he finds a vehicle in good condition? Any particular vehicle that might fare better at surviving the apocalypse? Any one that might fare worse?

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

Any particular vehicle that might fare better at surviving the apocalypse? Any one that might fare worse?

For a vehicle to survive an extensive period in a usable state, it will need to have been properly prepared for long term storage. This largely involves draining fluids (oil, coolant, battery fluid, etc) and of course having a storage location, plus figuring out something to do about tires, though over a long time period you'd want to do things about the suspension as well. This will tend to favor collectible vehicles, as those are the most likely to be stored in a way that is unusable but possible to bring back to operation in a short time period.

[(E)]

Originally Posted by Anthony

For a vehicle to survive an extensive period in a usable state, it will need to have been properly prepared for long term storage. This largely involves draining fluids (oil, coolant, battery fluid, etc) and of course having a storage location, plus figuring out something to do about tires, though over a long time period you'd want to do things about the suspension as well. This will tend to favor collectible vehicles, as those are the most likely to be stored in a way that is unusable but possible to bring back to operation in a short time period.

On a similar line of thought there might be various car dealers, mechanics and performance centers with a small stock of new parts. No whole vehicals but possibly enough bits to build or rebuild something.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by (E)

On a similar line of thought there might be various car dealers, mechanics and performance centers with a small stock of new parts. No whole vehicals but possibly enough bits to build or rebuild something.

Parts are quite likely to be stored in ways that handle time better than intact vehicles (that includes fluids). One thing that will be tough is rubber parts (belts, hoses, seals), as those won't handle time well even in storage.

[giant.robot]

Originally Posted by (E)

On a similar line of thought there might be various car dealers, mechanics and performance centers with a small stock of new parts. No whole vehicals but possibly enough bits to build or rebuild something.

Also whole cars that can act as part donors. Many moons ago in T2K campaign taking place in the southwest US the group was really good about scavenging cars. One clever scavenged item was spare tires. A lot of cars have full sized spares meant to be stored a long time without being used so they're often under inflated and mounted such they're not resting on the walls. So a car that's been sitting a while might have messed up tires but a usable spare.

Unusable tires make great makeshift barriers though. You stack them and fill them with dirt or sand and make walls out of them. Tire walls made this way are heavy and fairly study and resistant to all but the heaviest small arms fire. In a pinch you can burn them to generate concealing smoke to GTFO.

As for the best cars to survive storing, a well preserved diesel I think would be best. For one Diesel engines are naturally sturdy due to the way they work. They also don't use electrical timing for operation so there's fewer components to preserve and restore, they can even have entirely mechanical starters so can get by in many environments without electricity. Diesel fuel would be much easier to come across as diesels can burn a number of fuels without modification.

[Christopher R. Rice]

I guess the only thing you could use for rubber is maybe a metal version you could smith together. Or I guess duct tape the messed up hose till it runs right. Hmmm.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

I guess the only thing you could use for rubber is maybe a metal version you could smith together. Or I guess duct tape the messed up hose till it runs right. Hmmm.

There are plenty of things that were used for wheels before rubber became dominant, it's certainly not an impossible problem, just a problem that will require some figuring.

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by giant.robot

Paper books will definitely survive. There's thousands of public libraries, book stores, and university libraries...basically everywhere. Not to mention people's personal collections. There's a lot of subjects that won't have to be rediscovered in their entirety. Even things like blacksmithing that are extremely niche subjects have books and documentation that people can read to get up to speed on.

In principle, yes. In practice, it'll be much harder.

Books about practical skills and subjects can be useful, but they tend to assume a lot, too. Furthermore, more practical technical skills hinge on the availability of a support network.

Let's say there's a library full of good texts and references about electronics available. Further assume that some of the material is written with introductory users in mind. So far so good.

But someone has to have a motive to study it. That's not as easy as it sounds. In a post-apocalyptic setting, survival is job one. Gotta get that crop in, have the meat animals ready to slaughter, have the shelter ready for winter, etc. Gotta. Gotta.

All that takes a lot of time and work. So you either need people with enough spare food and shelter that they can afford to spend time and energy on studying. It doesn't matter if successfully mastering these skills will really help the family and the community 5 years from now, if it means you don't deal with the Necessities first. Big Benefits 5 years from now are useless if you starve to death in the upcoming winter first.

Once you're studying, you're likely to run into problems that the books never anticipated. "If the device fails to start, check the britman."

The book doesn't mention that a 'britman' is a 25 cent component named after somebody or other, because that was common knowledge once. It also doesn't mention that the supply of britmans came from a dozen factories in southeast Asia at the time of the apocalypse. Nor does it mention that making a britman from scratch is going to be an involved and difficult and expensive process because you aren't set up for mass production.

Blacksmiths need access to metal. Doctors need drugs and instruments. Etc.

It's true that all this stuff won't have to be redeveloped from scratch, but it's also true that once the system breaks down, restarting it is going to be a long, difficult, and painful process. Even the easy stuff will suddenly be very hard.

For a historical illustration, when Classical Civilization broke down, tons of useful information was still theoretically available, in monastic libraries and other places. But it sat mostly ignored for generations, for various reasons, but it large part because the societal context to use it was broken.