461: Top 10 Least Reliable Cars (News)

[ST4x4 Podcast]

There are many different types of vehicles and many different models but can you guess what car, van, or truck was the least reliable in 2023? Tyler and Jimmy discussed the Consumer Reports 2023 article Top 10 Least Reliable Cars and some additional new articles that they found interesting.

Want to win some Tires? Our friends over at Yokohama are donating a set of tires for the winner at 750 Apple Podcast reviews. Also, just like before we will be giving away swag packs at every 50 until we get to the main giveaway. All reviews need to be left on Apple Podcast to be entered. Congratulations to TannerIsCooler for winning the 550 reviews swag pack.

CALL US AND LEAVE US A VOICEMAIL!!!! We want to hear from you even more!!! You can call and say whatever you like! Ask a question, leave feedback, correct some information about welding, say how much you hate your Jeep, and wish you had a Toyota! We will air them all, live, on the podcast! +01-916-345-4744. If you have any negative feedback, you can call our negative feedback hotline, 408-800-5169.

4Wheel Underground has all the suspension parts you need to take your off-road rig from leaf springs to a performance suspension system. We just ordered our kits for Kermit and Samantha and are looking forward to getting them. The ordering process was quite simple and after answering the questionnaire to ensure we got the correct and best-fitting kits for our vehicles. If you want to level up your suspension game, check out 4Wheel Underground.

Episode 461 is brought to you by all of our peeps over at patreon.com and irate4x4! Make sure to stop by and see all of the great perks you get for supporting SnailTrail4x4! Discount Codes, Monthly Give-Always, Gift Boxes, the SnailTrail4x4 Community, and the ST4x4 Treasure Hunt! Thank you to all of those who support us! We couldn’t do it without you guys (and gals!)!

The final, end-of-the-year, giveaway is going to be a Holiday gift from Tyler and Jimmy. They are going to be picking two winners and Tyler will be giving a gift to one lucky winner and Jimmy to the other. This is a little contest between Tyler and Jimmy to see who gives the better gift. Tyler won the event last year, will he win again? If you want a chance to win a present from Tyler or Jimmy you need to be signed up for the Giveaway tier on Irate4x4.com

Congratulations Sergio Rodriguez for winning November’s Giveaway with MORRFlate. They have donated one of their 10.6 PSI Pro Air compressors. These compressors are fantastic. They have a gauge built into the compressor so it can read what pressure the tires are at and turn off at your desired set pressure. It’s pretty much set and forget.

Listener Discount Codes:

SnailTrail4x4 –SnailTrail15 for 15% off SnailTrail4x4 Merch
MORRFlate – snailtrail to get 10% off MORRFlate Multi Tire Inflation Deflation™ Kits
Ironman 4×4 – snailtrail20 to get 20% off all Ironman 4×4 branded equipment!
Sidetracked Offroad – snailtrail4x4 (lowercase) to get 15% off lights and recovery gear
Spartan Rope – snailtrail4x4 to get 10% off sitewide
Shock Surplus – SNAILTRAIL4x4 to get $25 off any order!
Mob Armor – SNAILTRAIL4X4 for 15% off
SummerShine Supply – ST4x4 for 10% off
4WheelUnderground – snailtrail for 5%

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[subybaja]

Re fusion: While it's a threshold achievement, it's also massively over-hyped.

The energy out of the reaction is more than the laser beam power shot into the chamber. It is no where near the energy put into the entire reactor, or even the energy used to pump the lasers. They're several orders of magnitude away from turning on a reactor and getting power out.

https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/online/41898/National-Ignition-Facility-surpasses-long-awaited

According to Mark Herrmann, program director for weapons physics and design at LLNL, a laser shot performed on 5 December produced about 3.15 megajoules of fusion energy from the 2.05 MJ of laser light that reached the small cylindrical chamber
...
Yet the amount of fusion energy from the record shot amounts to just 1% of the 300 MJ from the grid that’s required to power the 192-beam NIF laser, Herrmann says. Thus, although the lab’s achievement is a significant step, inertial fusion is still a long way from becoming a viable energy source.

"I'm a fan of fusion." is nearly the same as "I'm a fan of antigravity." Sure, someday it will be great, when it works.


Fission, on the other hand, works now. It's "dangerous" only because the AEC has frozen progress for a lifetime.

The Fukushima Daiichi reactors are GE boiling water reactors (BWR) of an early (1960s) design supplied by GE, Toshiba and Hitachi, with what is known as a Mark I containment. Reactors 1-3 came into commercial operation in 1971-75.

Would you judge automobile safety by a 1960s design built in 1975?

Modern breeder reactor designs create more fuel than they consume.
Pebble bed designs are incapable of runaway reactions.

And maybe don't build them on fault lines.