VERY VERY COLD

Larry_T · Dec 22, 2004

Hi frank I use winter blend also,never ad anything else. right know o -13 wind 12-22 -7 pm.Mery Christmas. Larry

chim · Dec 23, 2004

( i have never added anti gelling to diesel, why don't i have that problem and why do others have it? )

I buy my fuel at a gas station near here. They treat the diesel to work with the weather, and I never had any trouble with it.

Several years ago my CUT was in the shop, so I borrowed a "real" tractor from the in-law's farm. It was fun for a while, tooling around on that HUGE tractor. It ran OK for about an hour, then quit. It became quite a lawn ornament till the weather warmed up. At the farm, they kept two diesel tanks - one for road fuel (treated) and another for farm fuel (untreated). Guess which tank the fuel in that tractor came from. It surprised me it ran so long before stopping, but the sun was going down and it was getting colder. Must have made just enough difference when the mercury went down a few degrees............chim

rambler · Dec 23, 2004

( It surprised me it ran so long before stopping, but the sun was going down and it was getting colder. Must have made just enough difference when the mercury went down a few degrees............chim )

The quick answer is it depends on the tractor model - where the fuel filter & lines go, and how much engine heat hits them. Good if they stay cool in summer, runs better on marginal fuel if heat hits them in winter.... No sun, perhaps you were sitting facing a different direction (wind), and if you left it idle for a while diesels lose heat at idle.....

After a few years with your beast you can get a feel for how it will behave, but no way to know on a new (to you) machine.

It's minus 3 right now, see if my beast starts & feed the cattle....

--->Paul

frank_f15 · Dec 23, 2004

( It's minus 3 right now, see if my beast starts & feed the cattle....
)

Tell me that ain't so. -3 at 1pm? hope it ain't comming this way /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

LBrown59 · Jan 3, 2005

( "Every other December we visit the father-in-law down in Daytona Beach. Coming from single digits to the fifties it feels like a heat wave to us." 

We hear that a lot from Winter visitors. However, I have to tell you that Daytona Beach is about 150 miles north of Vero Beach, and anything north of Vero Beach is "Up North" and waaaay too cold for us. We live about 20 miles south of Vero. Anything south of Vero is considered Tropical; it's roughly the line between plant zones 9 & 10. )
My wife's sister and her husband both native Ohioans moved from Delaware. Oh to Vero Beach in 1985.
Around 1988 they moved to Port St. Lucie FL
In 1996 they moved to Gowanda NY.
Then in 2000 they moved to Perrysburg Oh near Toledo Ohio.
They still own their house in Port St. Lucie, FL It is only about 5minutes from the beach.

_RaT_ · Jan 3, 2005

I cannot fathom what it must be like to live in a climate like that. Personally, I think I would like it if for no other reason then what Boondox stated and that was that it gave him the oppoutunity to do some hobby type work in the shop vs the millions of outside chores. On the other hand, while we never get that cold, this last storm we had here in Northern California brought 9 feet of new snow to the Lake Tahoe area. I had the oppourtunity to move snow with my tractor in Reno where they received an unprecidented amount of snow for a family member who does snow removal. He was back logged for days and the businessess there were begging for snow removal. He was getting $180 an hour with his snow removal equipment and the businesses were not batting an eye. I would have loved to do it but am not insured and the risk was just not worth it even at that price.

DUMBDOG · Jan 3, 2005

The cold does take some getting used to, hate to go out when it is this cold (-8 last night). However that amount of snow would be something else combined with a strong wind and twenty below. Glad when I get can my work done and go down south where 40 degrees seems cold.

At 180 per hour you could buy the insurance and be money ahead

sassafraspete · Jan 3, 2005

Rat.... yep, they got snow in Tahoe. My daughter (22) lives in southlake, but works up at Incline, close to the "Ponderosa". She's a snowboarder, college educated chef wanna-be, but at the bottom of the food service food chain , just getting started. She said it took her 2 hours getting to work...just navigating around all the tourons..... (cross between tourists and morons) down in south lake the other day. She was happy to see them heading back home after the holiday, and today her mid week pass on heavenly is probably getting a workout. Ah....to be young again and having an adventure.

_RaT_ · Jan 3, 2005

Our cabin is at midlake on the California side. Your daughter no doubt chose two opposite ends to be on. I assume she drives up the Nevada side to Incline. Our cabin inhabits the area of the Lake that recieves the greatest amount of snowfall in the Tahoe basin based on stream flows. It apparently is brought about by the Carquinez Straights in the Bay area where ocean currents power funnel the storms through. Your daughter is skiing at a nice resort. Ask her if she ever gets out to Squaw Valley, Alpine Meadows (my favorite) or Kirkwood.

I ran into a young girl from New Hampshire or Vermont working at a pizza place in Tahoe City. I asked what she thought about California. She mentioned she loved the "warm" weather we have up there at Tahoe compared to home. Typical temps are in the 20's and low 30's. That still seems pretty cold to me. She also mentioned that it's not so much the cold she disliked about home, it was the mud season when everything is thawing out. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

_RaT_ · Jan 3, 2005

"At 180 per hour you could buy the insurance and be money ahead"

I have my insurance man on it as we speak. Then I need to figure out if I need chains on my R4's (probably not) need to fill my tires (easy for me to do) extra lighting, and most of all, some warm clothes.

frank_f15 · Jan 3, 2005

( In 1996 they moved to Gowanda NY. )

NOW AIN'T THAT A SMALL WORLD. GOWANDA NY IS JUST ABOUT 1/2 HOUR FROM ME. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

sassafraspete · Jan 3, 2005

Rat...you live in a beautiful area. I've been out there 3 times...and winters seem mild there. I think it is the dry air, and 300 days of sunshine a year. I was out there a couple yrs ago after new yrs day, and they had had 13 ft of snow before xmas. It was like driving thru tunnels down in south lake , and saw something new....they were shaving the sides of the road with this machine........I mean shaving it vertically. Back in October, my daughter sent me a picture of her at a small alpine lake, with 5 rainbow trout....all laying in snow! There were some pretty good snows in October, but nothing much until this past week. She was getting pretty bummed out with me sending her pictures of our measly 20 inches in Indiana . She likes some of those other ski areas you mentioned, but is just a poor , struggling , kid just starting out, so has to stay close to home. She is supposed to get me a picture of her up on Heavenly (on snowboard) with the lake in the background.....but I just keep waiting.

I have been in the UP of Michigan in the summer on a pristine summer day at 70 deg, and the locals were complaining about it being too hot. They like about 60 deg in the summer. One UP youngster I met in a country store said the coldest she ever got was on a class trip to washington DC.... she said she'd take the cold and snow any day to the cold in DC. That seemed funny to me... but she said it was just a different kind of cold.

We went from below zero a week ago to mid 50s this past weekend, and I was outside working in a Tshirt...and it seemed warm to me. It takes a few days getting used to the really cold weather, but after that, a slight warm up and you are putting the shorts on.

Looks like we're in for a spell of 50 deg weather and lots of rain for the next week.

BGL990 · Jan 3, 2005

It is interesting how one gets used to different temperatures. Up here we go from maximums of around 30 deg C (85ish F) in the summer to occasional lows of -40 deg C (-40 F) in the winter. In the summer, +10 (50F) feels pretty cold. In the winter, -5 (23F) is virtually T-shirt weather. Personally I can't imagine living somewhere where it is regularly above 30C. I don't know if I could take the heat.

As it relates to tractors (and other vehicles), the huge temperature variations here make it a bit more challenging for the equipment. IMO synthetic oil is almost a must since the temperature can go from above freezing to -30 or -40 overnight and then back again a couple days later. Any tire filling fluid must be freeze proof to -40 or colder. Your summer window washer fluid can turn to slush on a cold fall day and you can't clear your windows when you need to. I've even heard our asphalt has to be much different than many parts of the world to handle the extreme temperature variations.

Anyway, back to the point - I just find it kind of interesting how people's definitions of "cold" or "hot" temperatures can be so different. If I'm being honest, I also get some sort of twisted satisfaction from meeting someone from a warm location when it's really cold out and casually dismissing it as "not too bad out ..."

/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

KiotiJohn · Jan 3, 2005

We've been in the mid 70s for the last few days, with more of the same expected for about 2 weeks. I don't think I can take it! All this seat time I'm getting, and not having to wear even a long sleeve shirt, it's just too much.
Sure has helped me to get down a bunch of trees and get them cut up. Snow? No thanks, been there, done that, don't want NO more. But if it gets below 60, I'm COLD. John

_RaT_ · Jan 4, 2005

Brad I was wondering how you heat your place in the winter. Is it costly? I have to admit I have never witnessed the kind of cold you folks have but would actually like to try it. There are times in Tahoe where it may be 5 degrees out but it is so incredibly dry that you really can go out in short sleeves. There are times in the California valley when its 40 degrees and very foggy and colder then heck. As was once said, the coldest winter I ever had was the summer in San Francisco. That fog will really suck the heat out of you.

v8dave · Jan 4, 2005

A few decades ago, I went from a 3 month (Jan, Feb, Mar) site job in Guam to home here in California for a week and then on to another site job in Thule, Greenland, for a few months (Apr, May, June).

Talk about climate shock. I got the worst cold I have ever had in my life shortly after I arrived. Only good thing, it was the daylight time in Thule. When I left it was daylight 24 hours, but still cold. The baracks buildings were like cold storage lockers, except we were inside!

We kept beer in our rooms. When we went to the rec room to watch Armed Forces TV we'd take a few cans down with us. Swap one beer for the same make in the community fridge and put one on the railing outside to cool down. After swilling down the first beer, I went out and collected the beer off the railing. I only got two or three swigs out of the can--it had frozen. Now, it was on the shade side of the building and there was a 3-4 mph breeze. I vaguely remember it was about -40 chill factor. That frozen beer made the point of all the warnings they gave us about the danger of living in the Arctic.

Got a cockpit ride in a C-141 to Nord, Greenland, about 500 miles south of the North Pole. All-in-all, an exciting time of my life.

Egon · Jan 4, 2005

Nothing like a crisp clear and sunny -40 F day. Snow squeaks. Ice diamonds sparkle in the sun. Exhaust fumes form fog layers. Car seats are hard when you sit on them. Engines go " click errr " as you turn the key. Wheels seem square. Tires on aluminum rims go flat. House furnace chimneys all have a white plume rising straight up. Gloves are exchanged for mitts. Down filled clothing abounds. The Perfect Pates and ears are well covered.

It seems the cold always arrives on your shift and all the utilities and instrumentation freeze.

But on the bright side there is always the thought of a HOT Toddy awaiting.

Egon /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

_RaT_ · Jan 4, 2005

Oh nothing like a Hot Toddy to warm the cockles. Your cockles may just require an extra Hot Toddy.

LBrown59 · Jan 4, 2005

( But right now, I'm not happy with your weather, because it has spilled over. It has been COLD here for the last couple of days.
)
. . . . . . .
I wasn't to happy with Fl. weather back in September as the hurricane down there caused so much rain up here that we had the worst flood I ever saw in this town.

Guess that sorta evens things out. LOL

BGL990 · Jan 4, 2005

The de-facto heating method around here is natural gas forced air furnaces. Some newer places might use boilers and in-floor or baseboard heaters, which is also what most apartments use.

As for the cost, yes it can be expensive depending on how well insulated the house is and how efficient your furnace is. I've got the worst of both cases - a 30 year old house that leaks cold air all over the place and isn't well insulated AND ancient furnaces that are probably no more than 40 or 50 % efficient. Our worst gas bill was $500 CAD for one cold month last year. We are running 2 furnaces for the house (one for upstairs and one for downstairs) and a boiler handling the in-floor heating in the garage and baseboard heaters in the add-on suite we built for my sister. Total 3200 square feet in the house and a 24x36 garage. Of course they de-regulated natural gas sales a few years ago and so the prices skyrocketed as several middle-men got involved in the production, sale, distribution, and billing.

We are just on the verge on replacing the furnaces with moder high efficiency units and I went around sealing up most of the air leaks this winter, so hopefully that will help the pocket book a bit.

Egon's descriptions about -40 are quite correct. Here's another one: A friend of mine recently got married to a girl from a warmer part of the US (I don't remember where). She is moving up here and so my friend was describing how cold it can get. When he mentioned that if you sniff, your nostrils can momentarily freeze together, or blink and your eyes almost stick shut she laughed, thinking he was kidding. When he explained that he was serious she apparently got a nervous, wide-eyed look that was pretty funny.
/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif