Running in -25 Temps

[Moot]

Well there you have it! A guy that has driven the ice roads should know his cold. I am sure this was just a typo but straight antifreeze has a lower freeze point than a 50-50 mix.

I have been driving ice roads before I was 16. I am also known as the Frozen Lake Fisherperson. No eelpout allowed on the frozen lake.

 

[arkjarhead]

I'm from a land where school lets out when there is 2 inches of ice on the road. I didn't learn about this stuff until I got out in it on my own. When that happened I sought the advice of people I knew knew what they were talking about. I know what you are thinking 2 inches we get that in a minute up here. Oh well I live down south. It's different here.

 

[greg334]

I'm from a land where school lets out when there is 2 inches of ice on the road. I didn't learn about this stuff until I got out in it on my own. When that happened I sought the advice of people I knew knew what they were talking about. I know what you are thinking 2 inches we get that in a minute up here. Oh well I live down south. It's different here.

Well not to change the subject but it seems to me that we have gone from no such thing as snow day (my parents school days in the 30's) to snow days that were on days when we got 8 or more inches (my school days) to if it looks like snow we better call a snow day and stay nice and cozy by the gas fire place (today)

Oh and parents are already complaining that the school year is creeping into their summer vacation time - maybe we need to have school all year round?

This is Michigan, the state formerly known as the Winter Wonderland.

In my Mother's day, she lived where they got serious lake effect snow off of superior and she had a 2 mile walk to school every day except days where you had complete white out conditions. The county didn't have school buses and my grandparents never owned a car, so hoofing it to school was the norm then. My grandfather also had to walk to work, 3 miles every day and when they closed the mines after the war, he was two men that ran and maintained the water pumps for the town water supply in three mines, so every day he hoofed it to one mine and alternated to the other one from the end of the war to '63 when he retired at 72.

 

[ihamner]

Yes, Paul, will you please start a new thread and tell us about your SAT phone? We have checked with a couple of companies and they don't have them yet. Thanks! india

 

[Moot]

My parents also walked 2 miles to school in all types of weather. Uphill both ways!

 

[Turtle]

About 8 or 10 years ago, before I was expediting, I had a job that took me many places, one of which was a northwestern North Dakota town called Williston. I headed there for three days at the end of July expecting to get a much needed relief from the balmy southern 90 degree temps of places like Memphis.

I get up there, and... there's no relief. It's 107 degrees, 108 the next day, and 109 the day after that! And it wasn't a dry heat, either. It was suffocating. And they have these things up there that they call mosquitoes, but I don't think they were. They're some kind of warped evolutionary holdover from the Jurassic Period or something. They attacked in swarms. They were viscous little creatures that showed no mercy. And the hotter it got, the the worse they were. Mosquito repellent just got 'em high, and if you smacked one, well, that just got 'em mad. Six months later I got to find out why they were so ravenous.

I go back up there at the end of January for four days, and the high one day was 38 below zero. That's the highest it got, in four days. The lowest it got was 44 below. The wind chill one day was 72 below zero. And people live there.
On purpose.

Me, nor my soccer mommy van, were mentally or physically prepared for that. If I had broken down somewhere and decided to go get help, I wouldn't have made it a quarter mile. After my radiator froze solid in the motel parking lot, and my motor oil solidified, I learned why all the parking spots had electrical outlets.

The good folks of Williston, the same people who chose to build their town on top of a mosquito herd, showed me the proper triple-fat goose down Nanook parka to get, and the gauntlet-type Gore-Tex gloves that they wear when they are out on snowmobiles, or ice fishing, or going to the mail box, as well as the proper boots and socks to wear.

It was quite an education. You'd be surprised what you can do with a coffee can, a roll of toilet paper, and a bottle of rubbing alcohol.

 

[davelees1]

We just got into driving semis last summer and bought our expediter late December and was out about 5 weeks January/February so far. We are already talking about either hibernating next winter or spending the the winter in Key Largo, waiting for that one in a million load!

 

[TwoMotherTrkrs]

You'd be surprised what you can do with a coffee can, a roll of toilet paper, and a bottle of rubbing alcohol.

Oh, do tell us please, Turtle?

 

[Turtle]

A Toilet Paper Wick Heater:
Remove the cardboard tube from the toilet paper. Crush the roll as tight as you can. Flat, even. Place the toilet paper into the coffee can. If you have a large coffee can, you can use 2 or even 3 rolls of toilet paper. Make sure the top of the toilet paper is below the rim of the can.

Dump isopropyl (or even better, denatured, as it burns ultra clean) alcohol into the can and saturate the toilet paper. Heavily saturate it until it juuuust begins to puddle up. Carefully light the top of the paper. Enjoy your heater.

The wick should burn for several hours. With intermittent use one bottle will last 18-24 hours. Larger cans and multiple rolls and more alcohol will last, duh, a lot longer, and give off more heat. Once the alcohol has run out, when edges of the paper get brown, blow out the flame and then add more alcohol. Do make sure the flame is completely out, though. You shouldn't have to change the paper. Keep the lid for the coffee can to make sure you don't spill any alcohol when finished using the heater.

If you carry a cinder block in your truck, use coffee cans that will fit down in them and the blocks will also act as a radiator, as well as prevent a burning can from tipping over. The flat surface of the cinder blocks also allows you to even cook on it if you happen to also have some cast iron cookware handy. We used to do that camping and deer hunting. I never thought of using it in a car or truck, but many folks in North Dakota consider a toilet paper wick heater as standard equipment in their vehicles.

Isopropyl and denatured alcohol does not produce carbon monoxide.

 

[TwoMotherTrkrs]

Brilliant, as always.

 

[cheri1122]

Yes, it is - and not just for the technique to keep warm, either: I'm going to print it out, so the next time someone looks askance at the roll of toilet paper in my truck, I can say "It's for emergency heat, dimwit!" (It's actually for blowing my nose, but they don't seem to buy that, either)

 

[arrbsthw]

I really hope I don't have to be in weather that cold.