Showing posts with label Driving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Driving. Show all posts

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Driving And Back Pain - Is Your Car Seat Causing Lower Back Pain?

A lot of us caress lower back pain whilst driving. A number of researches have investigated the connection between driving and Back Pain, which uncovered uncovered some appealing results. One looking is a comparison of drivers in the Usa and in Sweden found that 50% of habitancy questioned in both countries reported low back pain.

So what is the connection of driving and back pain?

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So far research has found three factors for low back pain whilst driving. The first one is the vibration from the motor (something that you can not change), the sitting position is the second factor and the third one is the distance of time that we drive.

Scientists at laboratories have researched the effects of vibration of our body whilst driving. The Lumbar Spine(lower back) plainly resonates at a frequency of 4-5 Hertz and from research they found that this natural frequency can be distorted. This distortion can follow into higher spinal loadings (compression) in the lower back, therefore causing an increased opportunity of low back pain. As mentioned before you can not convert the vibration of the engine, but what you can do to sell out the effects of this on your lower back is to drive shorter periods at a time.

It is a lot easier to get comfortable in your seat when the car is stationary, a bit like sitting in a normal chair. But once you start driving the body will be subject to assorted military like accelerations and decelerations, lateral movements from side to side and whole body vibrations.When we sit on a chair our feet, when on the floor, are used to withhold and stabilise the lower body. Whilst driving our abdominal muscles can not provide sufficient stability to our upper body and arms when turning the wheel. This will follow in a primary growth of torsional stresses in the lower back, which in return will significantly growth the risk of low back pain.

To start with we should address one more important issue first - we all are guilty when it comes to adjusting our car seats correctly! In 2004 one of the largest car guarnatee associates (I won't mention a name, after all you may think I am paid to write about this), released the findings of a research into how we sit in our car. (about 2.000 habitancy were complicated in this).

The research resulted in the following -

The headrest was found to be in an incorrect angle when driving of 61% of habitancy complicated in the study. This will growth the opportunity of ruptures of the spinal ligaments or worse when complicated in an accident.
50% showed a slouched or hunched position over the steering wheel.
About a third of the drivers had back pain whilst driving.
25% tilted their heads or shifted in their seats each time they had to look into the 'rear view mirror'.
Wearing unsuitable footwear or clothing happened to 34% of the drivers.
Please find below a list of 10 ways that can help to improve your seating position, make your driving caress more comfortable.

The Seat

Make sure that your lowest sits all the way in the back of the seat - where the base and the back of the seat meet. This will help to make you sit more upright and profess the natural curvature of the spine, minimizing the stress on the spinal ligaments. If your seat has a lumbar roll built in have this all the way out - most cars with lumbar withhold that i tried do not allow sufficient withhold fom this lumbar roll, therefore it would be best to have it all the way out.

The Base distance and Height of the Seat

The base of the seat should never touch the back of your knees and the front of the base should be slightly higher then the back, helping to provide more withhold and allowing you press the pedals without changing your spinal posture.

The Backrest

First relax back into your seat, place the seat at about a 10-15 degrees incline from the vertical position. If this feels unnatural to you then it probably means that the backrest is not upright sufficient for you. This can follow into neck strain and / or coccyx (sitting bone) pain. Move the backrest more upright or if that doesn't help you can place a small towel (folded in three) against the midspine, between the shoulder blades.

The Headrest

Have you ever noticed when watching an American movie that the headrests are often missing from the seats - it makes me crinch each time i see this (ooch). So much for giving a good example to our children. The position of your headrest will not only help to minimise the injuries of an crisis but also to help to allow a better posture. The bony bit at the back of your head (known as the 'inion') is a good guiding point, the headrest should be level with this. There should be about 2.3 cm's (1 inch for the non -metrics) between the back of your head and the headrest, when you are in the sitting position as described earlier. This to Ant. Eject shock as much as possible. This allows for the ligaments and the muscles of your neck to control the posture of your head better and giving better withhold in case of an accident.

Seat - Pedal distance

Make sure you have the distance between seat and the pedals so that when operating the pedals this does not cause you to over strech your legs or twist your body in any way. Thus your legs should not be level when pushing the throttle or clutch all the way down. Obviously your knees should not be bend to the point you cannot genuinely move from one pedal to another. It is ordinarily adviced to have your knees bend about 45 degrees.

The Arm position

Your arms should be as relaxed as possible, elbows bend nearby 20-30 degrees. If your steering wheel is adjustable have it in the mid to lower position (make sure the wheel does not partially obstruct the instrument panel), this will help to sell out the stress on your shoulders. Your hands should be positioned at '10 past10' and not as is suggested left hand at 9 o'clock and right hand at 3 o'clock.

The Armrests

If your seat has armrests then it is adviced to use these. As a advice you should position the armrests so that they gradually withhold the elbows, any more will cause the shoulders to rise and growth the convert of straining your neck.

The Mirrors

These should only be adjusted once you have positioned your seat as described above. If not sure then please revisit the facts again how to adjust your seat. The mirrors should be adjusted to allow you to freely look into them without the need of having to move your head much. you either have adjusted the mirrors incorrectly or you are to close to the steering wheel.

Adjusting Seat at intervals

This sound great in principles but for most of us this may be akward whilst driving. For those who have electric seats it is easier (although it always advicable to stop first), just reach for the buttons to adjust the seat without the need to take our concentration of the road. It is said that you should be doing this every 30 mins. To sell out the incidents of back pain. This allows to convert the pressure that is located on the spine is assorted regularly. Once arrived at your destination it would be good to strech! (don't worry if it looks funny, soon everyone in the carpark will join in - you can be proud having started a new 'healthy' trend)

Have breaks

We all have seen the 'take a break' sign along the roads, helping you to avoid falling asleep behind the wheel. Taking a break helps your back as well, so when you need to take a rest you can have a strech at the same time to help your back. An hour maximum is the current thinking, although these tips should be taken as a normal rule. This is a good time to adjust your seating position!

Driving And Back Pain - Is Your Car Seat Causing Lower Back Pain?

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Wednesday, October 26, 2011

electric Pickup Conversion - Save Gas Driving an electric car

The current challenge faced by many car owners is raising fuel cost. Many drivers are looking it increasingly high-priced to run the cars. Some have no choice but to leave their car at home and use the collective transportation. One explication to cut our gasoline expense is to use an electric car. Unfortunately, the current model of electric vehicle from the builder is still high-priced and not very practical. Some car enthusiasts have retrofitted their vehicle into electric via a Diy task from home. If you are planning to do your own conversion, why not choose a pickup truck as the donor car.

electric bicycle

The plan of electric car conversion is to replace the internal combustion engine with an electric Dc motor. The motor is to be attached to the transmission with a customized joining plate. To power the motor, a series of lead acid flooded batteries are used. You will need a minimum of 20 battery packs to supply the electricity. This is where a pickup truck will come in handy. A pickup truck has ample storehouse space at its back. Building a battery box and connecting all the wiring will be easier for a truck. Checking and maintaining all the batteries are also easier because all the batteries are in one location.

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If you are not familiar with automobile maintenance, all the facts above may not make sense to you. You can still enjoy the benefits of owning an electric vehicle by sending you car to a expert mechanic to be retrofitted. To be prudent, you should know at least some basic comprehension on electric car. You can get facts on electric vehicle from numerous electric conversion guides on the web.

electric Pickup Conversion - Save Gas Driving an electric car

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Tuesday, October 4, 2011

galvanic Car Parts - What Are the Main Parts of galvanic Car Driving Systems?

Electric cars are separate from the fuel propelled ones. They have a simpler driving system that provides these cars with the needed energy to roll the streets for a uncostly period of time. Whether it is a golf Cart, Rv, Trike or any other electrically propelled vehicle, its system should have the three main electric car parts, the motor, the controller and the battery.

electric kettle

The electric motor is the most prominent one of all the electric car parts in your vehicle. It is the part responsible for the propelling of the car and it comes in three beloved types, the Dc wound, the Permanent magnet Dc and the Ac motor. The Ac is the most complex one but it is the most sufficient in the same time. It is usually used in these vehicles that need extra power to move and climb steep hills. On the other hand, the Dc wound is the straightforward and the easiest electric motor to install but it produces less power than the Ac one. It is sometimes adored because of its lower cost.

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Number two on the prominent electric car parts is the battery. While some cars would use the standard car batteries as a source of energy, the more industrialized ones use the Ni batteries as more sufficient energy source that gives extra range of carrying out for the vehicle. They want less time to be charged and provides more energy for the motor attached.

The third part of the electric car parts is the controller and this part is responsible for power management, it senses the number of energy needed by the motor and supplies it directly from the batteries in order to get the car to move. The controller is very prominent because it synchronizes the carrying out of both the motor and the battery.

galvanic Car Parts - What Are the Main Parts of galvanic Car Driving Systems?

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Tuesday, July 26, 2011

electric Cars - What Are the Disadvantages of Driving an electric Car?

Range: how far can I drive and where can I recharge?

This is probably the biggest current drawback of electric car technology. Not only are current electric vehicles petite by range, there is minimal current recharging infrastructure in place for high speed recharging of Ev's and batteries come to be prohibitively expensive when trying to increase the range of your vehicle. If you typically do a lot of long length commuting, then an electric car is maybe not the best choice. Ev's are remarkable presently to the city as commuting distances are small and recharge points are more available.

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The Tesla has a range of around 240 miles which is a critical distance, any way comes at a fairly high price point around the 0,000 mark. Less expensive electric cars have a smaller range and top speed and are remarkable more to city driving. These are also more affordable and are much lighter vehicles. Many potential electric car owners define this as their number one disadvantage of current electric car technology.

It should be noted any way that large recharging infrastructure networks are being installed around countries to offer high current low time charging solutions. Some of the faster charging options allow 20-30minute recharge times which is perfect for that coffee and a burger stop. Recharging through a thorough household socket any way will take many hours due to the particular phase 10amp limitation of many power points.

Furthermore, lithium nickel and lithium air batteries are currently being advanced in the Japan and the Us respectively identifying potentially 3 - 6 times the energy density of current lithium ion batteries. Lithium polymer batteries are another good example which show that future battery technology will be far first-rate to that of current electric car battery technology and range will come to be less of an issue as these technologies enter wide spread distribution at lower cost points.

How fast will it go?

This one well depends on how many batteries, what type of batteries (and well how much you want to spend on the electric car or Ev conversion). You will also need a motor which matches the battery and controller combination. Many still think of an electric car as sluggish, any way cars like the Tesla have proven that to be quite the opposite in some cases. The fast accelerating cars will be expensive as they wish high removal batteries, high current controllers and remarkable motors. There is also a pay off with top speed. If you want a fast accelerating vehicle, it may have to be geared lower which will in turn sacrifice the top speed of the vehicle. Generally gear boxes are not required in an electric car any way as an electric motor can rev very high.

Can I get that first-rate V8 hum?

Sorry buddy - electric cars are very quiet. You will hear a bit of an electric motor sound which is kind of cool (sort of mimics the sound of a jet engine), but gone will be the days of the rumbling roar of a V8 if you buy an electric vehicle.

Are electric cars safe?

There have been concerns from past lithium ion battery packs exploding or over heating any way with a battery administration system, these issues are gradually being resolved. The biggest risk is the high voltage wiring inside your electric car which original petrol powered vehicles don't have. The key is to have accelerometer kill switches and self-acting disconnectors which isolate the batteries the moment the car is in an accident. Generally electric vehicles offer better security if well designed and road worthy since mass is distributed lower and towards the perimeter of the vehicle, and there is no flammable petrol or gas on board.

When charging the car special concentration must be given to methods of recharging to avoid electric shock. Done properly through a well designed recharge point is the key to success here.

Finally the need for a gear box is removed, and this allows the driver to join on the road and other distractions rather than changing gears.

Where can I aid it?

Although aid stations which specialize in electric car servicing are minimal presently, there will well be many popping up as more electric vehicles enter the market. Luckily electric vehicles need minimal servicing with only one engaging part on the drive side and no gear box, clutch, oil change etc. There should be one aid point in your city at least and most mechanics will be able to diagnose straightforward problems or refer you to an electrician to fix the wiring.

In overview are Ev's good or bad?

As we have seen there are a lot of downsides to electric cars, the most critical of these being the car's range. If citizen can't drive to their favourite holiday location 400km's away for their long weekend break then it will sacrifice the number of potential buyers right away. The price and car acceleration are also major issues which need finding at. Lastly things like the sound it makes, how it looks, the ergonomics of driving and servicing issues can all lead to the decision to go with a thorough off the shelf gas guzzler. As we see electric car technology increase however, we will no doubt see many changed which make the electric car a clear winner as it overcomes some of these drawbacks.

electric Cars - What Are the Disadvantages of Driving an electric Car?

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