Van measurement ... Feet v Metres.

[Old Techo]

Jock,

If we were to truly manufacture to exact metric wheel sizes perhaps they could be rounded as below.

Rather than dealing with more digits just use cm.

13 = 330.2  new rounded size 330.0  but called 33
14 = 355.6  new rounded size 360.0  but called 36
15 = 381.0  new rounded size 380.0  but called 38
16 = 406.4  new rounded size 410.0  but called 41
17 = 431.8  new rounded size 430.0  but called 43
18 = 457.2  new rounded size 460.0  but called 46
19 = 482.6  new rounded size 480.0  but called 48
20 = 508.0  new rounded size 510.0  but called 51

[Deleted]

So mine must be a 49-1/2. (19'6")

[Old Techo]

Them's pretty big wheels Mike

[ken]

As a retired Engineer I found that metric was used universally in my industry from the day Australia made the change. All lengths were in mm, even if it meant many thousands of mm. We all made the change quickly to metric (decimal) currency because we used it exclusively from very early on. Nobody talks about degrees Farenheit now. Nobody talks in miles per hour or gallons of petrol simply because cars don't show mph, maps don't show miles and petrol is bought in litres. Having 10 as the common factor just makes things easier. I can't tell you how tall I am in feet or how many stones I weigh. We go shopping and buy goods by the kg or litre. Nobody really knows what an acre is but it's not to hard to visualise a square measuring 100 metres x 100 metres. We call that a hectare. Nobody under the age of about 50 learnt anything other than metric at school. Metric will catch on eventually, its only been 50 years so far.
As far as caravans go, my Coromal is designated as 612. Yep, 6.1 metres long but still described as a 20 footer. By others.

[Old Techo]

On 12 June 1970, the Australian Metric Conversion Act passed by the Australian Parliament was given assent. This Act created the Metric Conversion Board to facilitate the conversion of measurements from imperial to metric. A timeline of major developments in this conversion process is as follows:

1971 – the Australian wool industry converted to the metric system.

1972 – Horse racing converted in August and air temperatures were converted in September.

1973 – all primary schools were teaching the metric system alone: many had been teaching both imperial and metric for some years. All secondary schools were now using the metric system.

1974 – large scale conversion across industries, including packaged grains, dairy products, eggs, building, timber, paper, printing, meteorological services, postal services, communications, road transport, travel, textiles, gas, electricity, surveying, sport, water supply, mining, metallurgy, chemicals, petroleum and automotive services. Most beverages, aside from spirits, also converted to metric units by the end of the year. The conversion of road signs took place in July. There was a publicity campaign to prepare the public.

1976 – the building and construction industry completed its change to metric measurements (within two years) by January.

1977 – all packaged goods were labelled in metric units, and the air transport, food, energy, machine tool, electronic, electrical engineering and appliance manufacturing industries converted to metric.

1987 – the real estate industry, the last major industry holdout, converted to metric.

1988 – with Western Australia finally making the change, metrication was completed, and the metric system became the only system of legal measurements in Australia.

[Deleted]

Jan 13, 2021 11:58:58 GMT 10 Old Techo said:

Them's pretty big wheels Mike

Sorry OT, was half asleep and thought we were discussing Van size. I'll try to pay attention more!

[spaceland]

Jan 13, 2021 7:18:58 GMT 10 jock said:

Geez! OT...cant agree with your theory here...Tyre sizes are already quoted with a mix of Metric & Imperial..e.g. My Terracan tyres are 255 (metric) x 55 (aspect metric) x R16 (Imperial)...Allthough, probably due to my age, I, personally prefer the imperial sizes, I cant see why rims cant be quoted in metric...I dont think dropping the fraction of a mm would make any difference..e.g. a 16" would be called a 406mm... 

When it comes to the air seal with tubless tyres, you would have to go for one or two decimal points to make sure of a satisfactory seal. That is the reason given for sticking to imperial measurements with wheel rims.

[nsgnomad]

There is one industry that you have not mentioned but you should be aware that still uses a mixture of units, OT. It is the Aviation industry.
While aircraft dimensions are metric, as are runway lengths, aircraft fly at altitudes measure not as the media reports as so many metres above sea level, but as feet AMSL or flight levels based on feet. Distances between locations are measured in nautical miles (6080 ft) and speed measured in knots.

[Old Techo]

Yes Roger, rather slack of me to forget where I worked for 43 years

I don't know when runway lengths went metric but my hardcopy of ERSA dated year 2000 shows metric.

A nautical mile relates to the pole to pole circumference of the earth. In these GPS days we all understand latitude and longitude measured in degrees, minutes and seconds and historically a nautical mile is the distance between 2 points one minute apart in latitude.

You can work that out if you know the circumference of the earth and that is 24,860 miles. Divide that by 360 degrees then divide by 60 again to get minutes. Thus 24,860/360*60 = 1.1509 miles x 5280 = 6077 feet.   In more recent times it has been redefined in metric terms as exactly 1852 metres and that equals 6076.115 feet.

It is hard to imagine deviating from the nautical mile given its tight relationship to lat/long.

As for aeroplane flight levels in feet I wonder how that could be changed.  Presently 1000 feet is adequate vertical separation.  From Melbourne to Sydney odd flight levels are assigned and Sydney to Melbourne even flight levels. That way traffic in opposite directions cannot accidentally be assigned to the same level.

If we went metric for flight levels we would lose 2 thirds of current levels if rounded metric levels were used i.e. 10,000, 11,000, 12,000 metres etc.

[GerryP]

Sockets... they come in 1/4", 3/8", 1/2" & 3/4" drive. I have yet to see a metric version.

[stoney]

When booking online for Sunshine Coast Parks. They now ask for the length of the van including drawbar and rear overhangs in meters. Not sure how long ago that changed. No more than a year or two

[Deleted]

Jan 14, 2021 12:55:19 GMT 10 GerryP said:

Sockets... they come in 1/4", 3/8", 1/2" & 3/4" drive. I have yet to see a metric version.

Don't forget the 1" drive.

[jock]

Couple more thoughts on the subject....Spaceland,..I really dont think a fraction of a mm would affect the 'sealability' of a tubeless tyre. It's a matter of opinion whether one finds hectare measurements easier to understand than acres. In days gone by the optimum house block was 1/4 of an acre..I still relate land sizes to acres but also use metrics in my mind when converting the 1/4 acre to 1000metres..I use parts of metrics easily now when relating to block sizes being less. In the 'old' days we used ridiculous terms such as perches, roods....As mentioned before, many Real Estate agents still use acres in their ads. Also, most large farm and station owners still refer to their property size in acres.

Like it or not many of us..particularly older folk still, more readily, prefer imperial and in many instances when metrics are used, they convert to imperial in their minds...I, for one, have to convert measurements like timber sizes, human heights, pipe diameters etc. etc...Having said that, I dont have any trouble, nor do I attempt to convert kilometeres to miles...strange.!

Jock

[dieseltojo]

I say this from a plumbers point of view. The pipe grips are called "Footprint". Any one wot don't like e'm, go and try to buy a set of "Centremeterprints"

I'm glad I got that off my chest .... Time for a cuppa.

[Will Barrow]

When out driving on the road i like you all to keep Meters away, if your giving me a free beer a foot away will do.