Zombie-Proof Vehicles

A couple of weeks ago, I sketched out a design for a vehicle appropriate for traversing a zombie-dominated landscape. There were some good comments about my design.

Jeff the Baptist put his engineering skills to use:

Just use a diesel. You get the torque you want, better mileage, and you can run it off any vegetable oil you find if you use the proper seals, lines, and gaskets.

Solid rubber tires are only for Car Wars. You need a good contact patch to get all that torque to the ground. Consider a tracked or half-track vehicle instead if you are worried about standard tires not being rugged enough.

I considered a diesel because of the low torque that I consider necessary. A zombie-proof vehicle should be able to, from a dead stop and completely surrounded by a mob of zombies, push its way forward. That's a lot of zombie flesh to move without any interia. I decided against it because of fuel availability. But if vegetable oil can work as a substitute, then it's best to have a diesel engine.

Kurt Boemler reflected from his military experience:

Humvees use a magnezium "donut" inside thier tires as a run flat technology. If something gets through the thick bias ply tire, it can still roll about 30 miles at a top speed of 30 mph.

The problem with such a design is replacing the old tire. I would suggest having one spare, spares cached at friend's and families' homes (with food and water supply) and a catalog of lacations spares can be found. You'll need them already mounted. Otherwise, you need to learn how to mount a tire on a rim, know where you can find the tools to do it (the big pneumatic ones found at garages) and practice it for time.

You may want to also equip it with a central tire inflation system (CTIS) which will allow you to continually refill the tire with air as you roll. It can also be used to power air tools or maybe even homemade defensive/offensive weapons on the KAZCV.

Speaking of water, you probably want a high water fording kit like on Marine Corp HMMWVs. You'll also need a rain catch and filter system. Remember the rule of threes:

Humans can survivethree:
hours without shelter
days without water
weeks without food

Last but not least: cover you butt. In other words, get a wide crossmesh for your toilet exit. Small (former children) zombies could be industrious and come up the toilet.

These are all very sensible ideas that I will incorporate into the design.

Kurt brings up the "Rule of Threes". There's one applicable to surviving in the open in a zombie-dominated area. You have at most three hours. Zombies are slow, but they never get tired. You, however, will. So if you can jog and weave around attacking zombies, you can keep going. But only the fittest of athletes will be able to do that for more than three straight hours. That's how long you have to find a more or less permanent shelter, because as soon as you stop, you will be beseiged.