An oddball question....

[LP]

...Anyone know if cars in Ukraine are positive or negative ground? Considering how many I've driven over there I should know but I've never had the need. Now I do. I'm assuming negative but I need to know for sure.

[ARTILLARY]

... in response to An oddball question...., posted by LP on May 3, 2005

Back again. Got an e-mail from my bud in ukraine. The lada and skoda are both neg. ground.

[JohnL]

... in response to An oddball question...., posted by LP on May 3, 2005

Hey LP
Be a Man and take the Lada, youll get pixie points for that.

As I have spent more time under the lid of the Lada (4 x4) than under my sheets on a couple of bush trips, I can confirm that Lada is definately negative ground (in FSU). And no I dont own one either. Poor old Oh would roll over in his grave, Lada defies E=RI just about any place you care to look ! The sig socket has been removed (for obvious reasons), sorry cant comment there.

Have fun.
J.

[LP]

... in response to Re: An oddball question...., posted by JohnL on May 4, 2005

...a Lada is driving along and meets a donkey. The donkey, never having seen a Lada before, asks: "What are you?"

The Lada: "I am a car. What are you?"

The donkey: "Hahaha, I'm a horse.

What's on the last page of a Lada's owner manual? The bus schedule. Why do they have heated rear windows? To keep your hands warm while pushing it. What do you call a Lada at the top of a hill? A miracle. How to double the value of a Lada? Put gas in it.

No more Ladas for me, no way. I won't bore you with too much detail but there was the time I had to change a flat on one in Moscow. You ever seen the tools and spare on a old Lada? What a nightmare that turned into. Not to mention every Russian guy who walked by laughed his azz off at the Yank sweating and cursing in the summer heat just to help out two chicks. I was a chump to do it but it was either that or we all walked.

Then there was the time I was hurtling through a Ukrainian forest in one, out in the middle of nowhere. The roads (roads?) were deeply rutted and nothing but sand, beach sand at that. It's nothing but under the topsoil in that part of Ukraine. It was like running the Baja 1000 except this Lada had such a poor power to weight ratio if you didn't keep the speed up it'd instantly bog down. I should have known this beforehand because the carb on it was the size of a walnut.

Anyway, I was doing pretty well when I lost it and ended up smacking a tree. Just me and this girl, no one else around for miles. Lol, if you think pulling the old "we're out of gas" trick fails to impress, try hitting trees. Took an hour of more sweating and cursing to pry the crumpled fender away and dig it out, after which the thing refused to start. I came close to torching it right there. Speaking of which, another time I was a passenger in one that caught fire. No real damage but that was the last straw.

[BubbaGump]

... in response to Somewhere in the middle of the FSU..., posted by LP on May 4, 2005

I paraphrase:  Owning a Lada is more embarassing than having a knocked up teenage daughter.

[Philb]

... in response to Somewhere in the middle of the FSU..., posted by LP on May 4, 2005

[This message has been edited by Philb]

And if its not the cars it's the militia, or the roads, or even the traffic signals.  I know they don't use them everywhere, but you gotta love those traffic lights that turn yellow BEFORE they turn green.  Everyone is either power braking, or upping the rpms just waiting to drop that clutch and then there are the ones who are saying to hell with it and just going through the intersection.  

I'll never forget the look on the policeman's face in some little village between Novosibirsk and Novokuznetsk when, after being pulled over, I handed him my Wyoming drivers license

I will be driving from Kiev to Mirgorod on this trip and just around Kiev in general.  I can't wait...

Oops,I just looked at the time. I need to get packing.  My flight leaves tomorrow morning at 1100

[LP]

... in response to An oddball question...., posted by LP on May 3, 2005

If anyone cares they're negative. It's not exactly the biggest revelation here but guess what: Don't try asking FSU chicks these kinds of questions

Patrick, clean up in aisle three...

[ARTILLARY]

... in response to An oddball question...., posted by LP on May 3, 2005

German and Japanese cars are positive ground and there are plenty of those there, so we would have to know if you're talking about the lada or even the skoda. What car will you be using?

[LP]

... in response to Re: An oddball question...., posted by ARTILLARY on May 4, 2005


Well Arty, I drive a Toyota Supra and it's not positive. My best friend has a BMW and it's not. Or did you mean only those in Germany and Japan? See my point? I know many older UK cars were positive using Lucas (The Prince of Darkness) components but I also own a car made in Ireland and it's negative ground. It depends on what market the car was built for.

The rentals I usually get are newer so I assume they're negative but I don't know what car I'll be using this time because it's a kind of special situation. I doubt it'll be a Lada (at least I pray it's not). It could be anything from an old truck to an ancient high end model (a Ziln?) formerly used by the elite of the Soviet government. I dunno, I don't have much of a choice in the matter. Guess you're right, I'll have to wait and see. Thanks for your input however.

It's no big deal. As I said, I'll rig something up direct to the battery if I have too. Now that I think of it I may have to anyway as I also don't even know if FSU lighter sockets have the same form factor as ours. I was just curious if anyone knew what the standard, if any, in the FSU was. I'm guessing negative.

[romachko]

... in response to Re: An oddball question...., posted by LP on May 4, 2005

My 4-runner has also negative-grounded.

Be like a Uke man and carry every spare part. My driver pulled his car off a highway (or, lowway?) and changed one of the wheel bearings. He carried it as a spare! His car was not Lada but Volga.

[ARTILLARY]

... in response to Re: An oddball question...., posted by LP on May 4, 2005

What the ell am I thinking? I can't believe I said positive ground. So sorry. I meant a NEGATIVE GROUND!! My friends there have a newer toyota and it's definately a neg. grnd. Ha!, remember the old jags? Posi and what anheadache when they had to be repaired. It's quite easy to to wire straight from the battery if you ned to.

[Michael B]

... in response to An oddball question...., posted by LP on May 3, 2005

I imagine they are negative. But if they aren't, instead of going through the fuse box or cigarette lighter outlet, just wire your electronic stuff directly to the battery posts and it should work.

[Philb]

... in response to An oddball question...., posted by LP on May 3, 2005

A friend over there is having me bring her a car stereo (they are quite a bit cheaper here of course).  A friend of hers says this will work no problem in her car (Seat Ibiza).  He is somewhat of an electronics wizard and should know.  He told me that radios purchased here will not work out of the box but can be reprogramed.  I don't know if any of this is of much help.

I will be over there in a few days and can give you a definitive answer then if you still do not know.

[LP]

... in response to Hmmm...., posted by Philb on May 3, 2005


Thanks Phil, see what you can find out. It never comes up here but I'm knowledgable in electronics myself (among a bunch of other things) and I see no reason why our stuff shouldn't work from a power standpoint. FSU vehicles are 12/14 vdc as far as I know, the only issue would be how they're earthed. Even then that's easy enough to get around. Now reception, frequency bands, etc, for radios, that's a different story.

I need to know because I require charging of video and camera gear, plus operating some line powered gadgets, during several 10 hour days on the road come later this summer. There is little to no utility power available where I'll be so I may even have to haul a small inverter over. I can always MacGyver something up if I have to but I'd rather just use the lighter socket in the car.

[wsbill]

... in response to Re: Hmmm...., posted by LP on May 3, 2005

Look on your electrical device transformer if it's Japanese made it should be 100-240VAC and just use one of those adapters to charge you battery to your video camera, digital camera, laptop.