Cold Winter...

[Mopar1973Man]

Well so far we are down to 0*F to 5*F above for low temps... Like yesterday we barely made it 14*F as a high... Man it sucks when you park a truck outside and the ice freezes to the hood and there not enough engine heat to thaw it out... :confused

[dorkweed]

Twas too cold for me to work Monday and Tuesday!!! If it does get to at least 15*F outside, I don't work. Having to go in and out of barns is just too tough. I mean, if I'm dressed for outside comfort, I roast inside......and then I get cold outside because I'm sweaty. If I dress for inside comfort, I get cold outside because I don't have enough clothes on!!! Then to top it off, I cannot work with gloves on outside in my work trailer. When it's cold, grabbing a pair of tongs, cooling hot horse shoes in water, makes for cold, wet hands!!!! Not to mention that when I bring my hand tools into the barn first thing in the AM, they frost up so bad due to the humidity in the barns!!!

[Mopar1973Man]

Wow! We are having a heat wave today... 22*F LOL But in a couple days we'll be back down to -7*F... :mad Now as for the weather part... I just got done on the phone trying to get ITD (Idaho Transportation Dept) to come down and plow in front of the fire shed. Then just thinking about the cold... How in the hel to you keep a fire truck from freezing up while you travel to a fire? Passed it on to my Assistant Chief... No answer yet but since my mind was clickin' I got him think about calling the hot shot cre together and train us properly for cold weather fire fighting. The other problems is how do you stop a 40K pound fire truck on ice? (I know very carefully!) Then how do you drive one that is 2 wheel drive only and no chains??? (Make it more interesting!) But all of our 6 wheel drive militaries are to far for me and parked on top of a mountain currently (chained up!).Oh then some of our trucks rarely get used but what if the fuel tanks are filled with summer fuel at -7*F??? (Think it will gell? Good bet!) So there considering getting PS 911 and PS White bottle for these trucks. As I point out to him I've had good luck with winterized fuel and 2 cycle oil... But as for sumerized and 2 cycle oil I don't think will work! I got the higher heads thinking on this now... LOL

[keydl]

A couple of ways to keep the water on the tank truck from freezing.Water heater electric element installed in to a 1 in nipple welded to the tank, keep the water above 40 F and it will make it to the fire in liquid form.Insulate the piping so that they don't get the hard water problem.Park in a building that is heated above 50 FMost alternators will make 90-100 V to feed heater elements and heat tape so that it will not freeze while it is running.Don't charge the hoses until they are used and drain them right after - it does not take long to freeze a 2 in at -20 and then it will not go back in the truck.It burns the elements out if they heat for more than a few min without water over them.A fully insulated tank will probably cost 2-3 times what a water heater costs to run.It may be possible to dump the water back in the well until it is needed, that would add load time to the responce time though. Pumping ground water to an overhead storage tank so it recirculates to keep from freezing is a possibility.It really sucs when you park a truck and then have to probe the drifts to find it so you can dig it out when the wind quits blowing.I think that I would store 1/2 a tank of fuel until summer and replace it with #1 to have winterized fuel, It will still be good next summer. Might make a deal with your distributor to exchange the fuel for winterized. The major problem is that the plumbing is not arranged to work that way.keydl

[Guest]

Up here in Spokane its been a challenge. All I can say is its a mess. 61.5" snow last month and more this new year. Even the tractor trailers are chained up or stuck. Roofs are collapsing daily all over the region. My property looks like we won't see grass and dirt until June. The roads are such a mess that the county can't keep up with plowing. Looks like we will be replacing alot of ball joints come spring at my dealership. Speaking of my dealership, they had us move into our new facility a few days before Christmas, the weather was bad, blizzard like conditions, one of the guys backed up the moving truck right through the roll up door in the new building. The good thing is its only 6mi to work now for me. Welp, got some more plowing to do today. I think it supposed to warm up to 6. Harry

[ISX]

I would run hoses into the fire truck tank and connect a heater core looking thing to it.. That way the engine heat keeps that water nice and warm, and you always leave the firetruck running at a fire so there will be constant heating of that water.. As for the thermostat, I got heat before my thermostat ever opens so if you hooked it up the same way as the heater core it would have constant heat. Not sure how well this would work but I think it would work pretty good.

[dorkweed]

This past Thursday PM-Friday AM it got down to -22*F here in "The Peoples Republic of Obama"!!! It was a "dry" cold though, so it didn't feel so bad except for the 25mph winds!!! 8| Wind chills were down to almost -50*F!!! I can't help but think how cold it would've been if it hadn't been for "global warming"!!!! LOL LOL YEAH RIGHT!!!! :smart :smart

[ISX]

I dont know about elsewhere but here it has been absolutely nuts, it was below 0f a couple nights ago and a couple days before that it was 60f, broke records.. and it has been doing that throughout this winter. I am thinking it is going to be a rough tornado season with all this cold and warm stuff dukeing it out all the time. Time will tell :confused:

[Mopar1973Man]

Shoot... Just this morning it was 12*F at my house this morning and fire up the Cummins WITHOUT grid heaters on the 3rd try... High idle kicked in on it own! Wow! 8|

Then got to New Meadows, ID proper and it was -8*F... No problems here... LOL

[ISX]

Heres mine at -2f, unplugged all night, hell I have nowhere to plug it in LOL [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xqdp_EZGw8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xqdp_EZGw8[/ame]

[Mopar1973Man]

Not bad... I should of recorded mine without grid heaters... Boy she rattles good... LOL

[ISX]

I tried the next day without grids, it was -3 or so, my fuel filter needs changing though, damn thing has started at 0f not plugged in with out the grids, just like in the movie, it wasnt happy the other night when I tried it though, would start then die, then start then die, started right up but then would cough on the next cylinder firing LOL maybe it needs some more 2 stroke oil in it!! :thumbsup