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Upside down car carrier

 Store every other car upside down on trailer
  (+8, -3)
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Given the shape of most cars, the carrying capacity of car transport trailers could be greatly increased if half the cars were loaded upside down, hanging from the trailer's roof. I'm not a Tetris player but if you are, you'll see what I mean.
—nick_decusa, Oct 03 2007

Riding the Cage http://www.metacafe...ts_riding_the_cage/
[nuclear hobo, Oct 05 2007]

Car on wall of death http://www.livevide...eath-car-stunt.aspx
[david_scothern, Oct 06 2007]

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       Makes sense to me. (That's not a good thing...)
—blissmiss, Oct 03 2007
   

       I'm not sure, but I suspect that hanging a car upside down for long periods would have bad effects on its fluids. I'm pretty sure that the cap on my screenwash bottle isn't leakproof, and I suspect that one or more of the oil/brake-fluid/aircon refrigerant/power-steering fluid/ automatic transmission fluid/fuel/battery systems would not be happy.
—MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 03 2007
   

       Well, that's simple enough to resolve. Design the trailer like a cement mixer drum, so that the bed and cars reverses polarity continually.
—normzone, Oct 03 2007
   

       That would be cool. At sufficiently high revs, the cars wouldn't even need to be held in place. You should post a "centrifugal car transporter".
—MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 03 2007
   

       //centrifugal car transporter//   

       Loading and balance would present interesting problems ...
—nuclear hobo, Oct 04 2007
   

       That's when the straps lock on.
—shapu, Oct 04 2007
   

       Cars could be equipped with fluids tanks that rotate so the cap is always up. That would be worth it given the savings on transport.
—nick_decusa, Oct 05 2007
   

       The centrifugal car transporter would solve all these problems
—hippo, Oct 05 2007
   

       heh, hippo - a turbocharged cement mixer would probably do the trick.
—lostdog, Oct 05 2007
   

       Could be started for new cars. Those would receive their self reversible fluids tanks from day one, in the factory.   

       Additonal benefit: you don't lose lubes / refrigerants / screenwash if you ever have a roll over accident.   

       Of course, Hippo's idea has merit and is more spectacular. The centrifuge could be made transparent. It would be fantastic promotion for new models being launched, on their way to the dealer.
—nick_decusa, Oct 05 2007
   

       On behalf of a friend who's too shy to post: the centrifugal principle could be applied to many other things. The example he gave me is passenger aircraft (special training required for the stewardesses).
—nick_decusa, Oct 05 2007
   

       The cars could provide their own centrifugal force if they were driven around the inside of the carrier [link].
—nuclear hobo, Oct 05 2007
   

       Just try and make a turn with that centrifugal carrier.... Mega Gyroscopic action would prevent it.   

       Back to the original idea, fluids, yes, but also structure. Most cars don't have roll bars or ways to support the whole weight on the roof well.
—sophocles, Oct 05 2007
   

       [21 Quest] I don't think a car needs to be too advanced to do it successfully (link)
—david_scothern, Oct 06 2007
   

       This really seems like a case of a solution that is more trouble than the problem could ever be.
—Psudomorph, Oct 06 2007
   

       You wouldn't actually save any space by doing this, cars are already packed in pretty tight when they're loaded onto a car transporter. Next time you see a car transporter have a look at how much clear space there is between the cars - it's not much. Modern transporters can even tilt cars right up to almost vertical (after you've strapped them on). The main restrictions are length and height, whatever you do you got to keep within these limits.
—mecotterill, May 11 2008
   


 

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