A look at one of the early replacements for the horse

[Pat Holscher]

Does anyone have any experience with a motorcycle with a sidecar? I'd have to think it rather unbalanced, but I don't know that.

[Pat Holscher]

British motorcycle equipped dispatch riders, 1914:

[Pat Holscher]

U.S. Army, pre WWI:

[Pat Holscher]

Nebraska National Guard, pre WWI:

[Couvi]

Military builds wild galloping robot

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/10/07/ ... =obnetwork

Video:
http://www.livescience.com/40193-wildca ... video.html

[John M Φ]

Nebraska National Guard, pre WWI:

[John M Φ]

Nebraska National Guard, pre WWI:

There's room on my horse...I mean bike....for two....

[Gordon_M]

John, no Rolf Harris jokes - shhhh

That looks like a stretcher on top of the sidecar?

[John M Φ]

Sorry...!. And, yes it does look like a stretcher.

[Pat Holscher]

Sorry...!. And, yes it does look like a stretcher.

I'd have to think that an amazingly unbalanced load.

[Pat Holscher]

A Riker truck, just been shipped to the U.S. Army at the time of the Punitive Expedition.

[Pat Holscher]

A little on Riker, which was previously unknown to me:

http://www.kcstudio.com/riker.html

[John M Φ]

Interesting....early electric cars, racers and trucks. P resumably did not catch on with the public..?

[selewis]

Interesting....early electric cars, racers and trucks. P resumably did not catch on with the public..?

I think it fair to say that they didn't, couldn't, catch UP with the public.

It was an interesting series of articles, one of which mentions the major problem with electric vehicles then and now: the batteries. They are heavy and range is limited.

Battery technology has made great advances: I use cordless tools on the job everyday and they are wonderful, very handy. The new lithium ion batteries charge quickly and deliver power at a consistent rate-until they don't. Meaning that they almost instantly go dead, but that's not a problem as you have two or three batteries at hand. But they have their drawbacks. The batteries are expensive and have a limited lifespan, moreover: sometimes you need more power and more power longer, and then it's time to stop messing around and grab a tool with a cord.

Regarding using batteries for transportation the same problems obtain. I often travel hundreds of miles a day. No electric vehicle can practically do that. Also they are expensive, and though electric motors are very reliable and efficient, the cars they put them in are far too complex and technically sophisticated for my taste- but that problem isn't unique to electric cars and could be solved by applying some sane stop and go engineering.

The reason that electric cars haven't caught on with the public is simply that they can't come close to competing with petroleum as a concentrated energy source. The amount of energy contained in a gallon of gasoline or diesel fuel is astounding if you really think about it-and most of that energy goes out the tailpipe in the form of heat! Compare digging a ditch by hand to digging one with a backhoe or hauling all your tools in a handcart 20 miles down the road (about the mileage/gallon my F-250 gets) and the cheap miracle of petroleum, even at five times today's prices, becomes apparent.

Eric Hoffer wrote "it's a dull tradesman who doesn't appreciate a good tool." I quite agree and would switch to an electric truck in a heartbeat, as I did with my cordless tools, if it could do the job. But, as of yet, it can't.

[Couvi]

A Riker truck, just been shipped to the U.S. Army at the time of the Punitive Expedition.

Note that the truck has no bed. The intention was that Escort Wagon bodies could be bolted to trucks to haul cargo. Upon arrival at Columbus, N.M. it was found that the bolt holes did not match up. The nascent Army Air Corps had the only drill. It really shows how ill-prepared we actually were for that war.

[Pat Holscher]

Just looking at it, I'll bet it was a horrible thing to ride in.

[Pat Holscher]

Truck Company No. 28, Mexican Border

[Gordon_M]

I'm seeing one 4 x 4 Quad just to the right of the split but don't recognise the rest.

[Pat Holscher]

I'm seeing one 4 x 4 Quad just to the right of the split but don't recognise the rest.

Shoot, I didn't even know that there was a 4x4 in the Army's inventory at this time.

Mechanically, how similar would they be to the solid front axle 4x4s of today?

[Gordon_M]

Not very.

Very solid, heavily built, but that's it. Look at the height difference required to get a front axle drive under it - quite noticeable.