Thread: Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr..........

well, thats it, i'll just put another log on the fire,just in case you're cold drifts over here.

Mate I thought it was cold here getting down to -5 the other day and up to 3 deg today. I nearly skated across the road on foot in the ice this morning but frozen alpine deisel!!!!!
Although I once saw a show about a town in Siberia where the bloke who drives 50miles or so each day to get water for the town has to light a fire under his truck to thaw everything out each morning and he can shatter tyres on bumps in the road but his big fear is shattering his chassis because that's the end of him.

how cold would we be without global warming then???, get out and drive your cars now!!!

I'm driving a 4.8 Patrol at the moment, doing more than my bit to warm the place up

In the USA and Canada, in the snow belt and mountain areas where winter temperatures get really low, the refiners produce winter grades of distillate with much of the waxy content, which solidifies in extreme cold and prevents fuel moving from the tank, being removed, and more butane added to improve startability. Wherever possible electric block heaters are installed which you plug in to a mains outlet when leaving the vehicle for any length of time. OMC Mustang loaders had these as standard equipment. Purchasers in tropical Qld wondered what the hell was the short electrical lead hanging out the engine bay was for. Other tricks included bending the exhaust pipe where possible to exhaust onto the fuel tank at the outlet pipe, simply leaving the engine running until next use, blow torches to heat the manifold and fuel lines, and as stated in an earlier post, lighting fires under the vehicle.

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

In the USA and Canada, in the snow belt and mountain areas where winter temperatures get really low, the refiners produce winter grades of distillate with much of the waxy content, which solidifies in extreme cold and prevents fuel moving from the tank, being removed, and more butane added to improve startability. Wherever possible electric block heaters are installed which you plug in to a mains outlet when leaving the vehicle for any length of time. OMC Mustang loaders had these as standard equipment. Purchasers in tropical Qld wondered what the hell was the short electrical lead hanging out the engine bay was for. Other tricks included bending the exhaust pipe where possible to exhaust onto the fuel tank at the outlet pipe, simply leaving the engine running until next use, blow torches to heat the manifold and fuel lines, and as stated in an earlier post, lighting fires under the vehicle.

A while back I was driving heavy vehicles in Canada. Based in Calgary and mainly had the northern run.
Every now and then I would spot another Prime Mover parked up at the side of the Hwy with frozen diesel problems. These blokes would refuel somewhere in the USA and keep driving north.
They soon learn't that the fuel is a little different up there.

time to stop at the local airstrip & pickup some AVGAS

I am originally from a farm in Canada, and around the mid october all the farm fuel suppliers would switch to winter diesel. All vehicles have block heaters of one sort or another to keep the engine warm. Engine oil was usually a 5W30, some would go to a 0W synthetic for winter. Some would also use an electric battery blanket to keep the battery warm, giving more CCA than if not used. Believe it or not but I have never used chains, except on the tractor for taking feed out to the cows.(Hence I find it all a bit amusing at the way they carry on about the need for chains in the Alpine areas) Studded tires are illegal as well as chains for highway use as they do too much damage to the bitumen. All the roads have highway crews that clear and salt and gravel the roads to keep the ice away, but salt is only good down to -20C. You can get special winter tyres which are a softer A/T type tyre.
Up in norther Canada and Alaska, during the winters the vehicles are never shut off, except for a service.