It's a Team's Life
Baby, It's Cold Outside!
Baby, It’s Cold Outside!
I am sitting in my living room at home watching the weather while outside it is 13 below zero with a wind chill of 30 below zero. Dave is running between the house and the semi loading up some last minute items to get us ready to get back to work. These temperatures got me to thinking…
What do you do to keep yourself and your equipment warm when under extreme cold temperatures? How do you keep your truck warm to start it in cold weather? What types of clothes do you bring along to keep yourself warm?
Some of you may have pole barns in which to park your truck to keep it out of the elements. While it will still be cold in a pole barn, keeping your truck out of the wind can make a big difference. We do not have a large enough building so our truck sits outside.
If you were to go into our truck right now, you would find two electric heaters going along with the Espar heater running too. Our truck is plugged into the house so has electricity with shore power. This is similar to being at a campground. We also open up the cabinets and lift up the bed to make sure that whatever is behind those doors or under the bed do not freeze. Finally, we keep the bathroom door open so the toilet and shower do not freeze. Periodically, over the last couple of days Dave would go out and check to make sure that everything was working as it should. One day, he went out and found out that the Espar had stopped working. He took care of it immediately. He found that the water was frozen. Fortunately, there were no broken parts or water leaks. Once fixed, the truck warmed up very quickly. Finally, we have an engine block heater to help the engine stay warm enough to start after being off overnight.
Before we came home last weekend we also prepared by putting fuel additive into the truck’s fuel when we filled up. We try to be as prepared as we can possibly be when driving from one part of the country to another. We do this for all extreme temperatures on either end of the spectrum for both us and our boy Rocky.
What do you do to keep yourselves warm? We live in layers. Today, I will be wearing a long sleeve shirt along with a hooded sweatshirt and a winter jacket. Dave does not get as cold as me so he might only wear two layers. We both have hats and gloves or mittens to protect our head and hands. Someday I hope to buy one of those heated jackets that we have seen some of our friends wear.
Rocky does not seem to mind the cold weather; however, we do have shoes to put on his feet if temperatures are too cold or too hot. He does not have any clothes to wear in the winter. So far, he doesn’t seem to need them. Those of you with tiny pups probably need clothes for your furry friends more than those of us with larger dogs.
Here’s wishing you millions of safe, profitable and WARM miles.
Kelly Plumb