Is winter coming, or is it here?

[tundra_flier]

Is the Excel the diesel burning heater?  Wouldn't mind one of those, but I hear those are $$$.  The diesel burning ones I was told also serve as an engine heater, so maybe that's not the one you're talking about...  I like the idea of something that will keep me and the truck warm if I get stuck out somewhere or want to leave it overnight where it can't plug in.

Most stores in Fairbanks carry the 'Little Buddy' 900W interior heater.  I have one I use to preheat the tundra toy's engine.  Just set it in the bottom of the cowling and put the insulated cowling cover on.  I even added an industrial thermostat in line so I can set it at 80F and leave it run over night with worring about something overheating.

Phil

[Baradium]

The Excel (a brand name) was actually a 1000W electric heater for the cab.  There are a couple of different makes out there.  We liked the excel as it was flat and we mounted it under the driver's seat.  It also helped keep the snow and ice you would track on to the floorboards from freezing and creating a perma ice rink below the driver's feet (dangerous!).  Also, none of the rigs when out with carpet--vinyl on the floor with rubber floormats. 

A lot of watts to add to what I already use.        My truck has a rubber floor as well.   

Most stores in Fairbanks carry the 'Little Buddy' 900W interior heater.  I have one I use to preheat the tundra toy's engine.  Just set it in the bottom of the cowling and put the insulated cowling cover on.  I even added an industrial thermostat in line so I can set it at 80F and leave it run over night with worring about something overheating.

Phil

Sounds like a nice way to do it.  But adds up to the electric bill, no?

[tundra_flier]

The Excel (a brand name) was actually a 1000W electric heater for the cab.  There are a couple of different makes out there.  We liked the excel as it was flat and we mounted it under the driver's seat.  It also helped keep the snow and ice you would track on to the floorboards from freezing and creating a perma ice rink below the driver's feet (dangerous!).  Also, none of the rigs when out with carpet--vinyl on the floor with rubber floormats. 

A lot of watts to add to what I already use. My truck has a rubber floor as well.

Most stores in Fairbanks carry the 'Little Buddy' 900W interior heater. I have one I use to preheat the tundra toy's engine. Just set it in the bottom of the cowling and put the insulated cowling cover on. I even added an industrial thermostat in line so I can set it at 80F and leave it run over night with worring about something overheating.

Phil

Sounds like a nice way to do it. But adds up to the electric bill, no?

I only preheat the plane right before I use it, I don't leave it plugged in all the time.  And the thermostat helps keep the electrical use down too.  I don't use an interior heater in my cars.  Added to the standard engine related preheaters pretty much maxes out a standard electrical circuit.  Best way to save electricity is to use a timer, you only need to preheat for about 2 hours before you start, unless it's really cold.  At -40 I do leave mine plugged in with the power on all the time.  Also, at -40 I've found that an old sleepling bag over the hood makes a big difference, far fewer bad sounds when it starts that way.

I did find a little space heater at Sentury hardware that has a low setting of only 600W's and built in thermostat that I've used to preheat the interior of the plane.  Takes a long time for gyros to spin up and the transponder to warm up from 0 degrees.

Phil

[Baradium]

I only preheat the plane right before I use it, I don't leave it plugged in all the time.  And the thermostat helps keep the electrical use down too.  I don't use an interior heater in my cars.  Added to the standard engine related preheaters pretty much maxes out a standard electrical circuit.  Best way to save electricity is to use a timer, you only need to preheat for about 2 hours before you start, unless it's really cold.  At -40 I do leave mine plugged in with the power on all the time.  Also, at -40 I've found that an old sleepling bag over the hood makes a big difference, far fewer bad sounds when it starts that way.

I did find a little space heater at Sentury hardware that has a low setting of only 600W's and built in thermostat that I've used to preheat the interior of the plane.  Takes a long time for gyros to spin up and the transponder to warm up from 0 degrees.

Phil

A timer could be helpful, it's already to the point of plugging in for a diesel engine now...   

So you get bad noises even when plugged in when it's that cold?   Do you have an oil pan heater on your car?  I think my engine will resist starting before it would get to the point of bad noises, just by the nature of a diesel engine.  If it's cold enough to make bad sounds, it's probobly cold enough to not start since it's a heat ignition motor... so hopefully the heaters are going to be enough.

I seem to remember hearing that avionics really don't like the cold.  Some of the 1900s used to have panel heaters just to keep the avionics warm because of a reduced life expectancy maybe?

[Baradium]

Oh, and I put 5 60 lb sandbags in the back of my truck (300 lbs).   Makes a little difference...  and now I guess I have sand I could put down if I needed to.


I hope not many places use that "snow melt" stuff I see for sale in some stores...  has sodium and potassium chloride.... potassium chloride is nasty stuff.

Phil, is it still true that they don't salt the roads here?   It doesn't really look like they are to me, and I sure hope they aren't.

-Ryan

[cj5_pilot]

So you get bad noises even when plugged in when it's that cold?   Do you have an oil pan heater on your car?  I think my engine will resist starting before it would get to the point of bad noises, just by the nature of a diesel engine.  If it's cold enough to make bad sounds, it's probobly cold enough to not start since it's a heat ignition motor... so hopefully the heaters are going to be enough.

Sure you do.  The heaters keep the fluids warm, and to a certain extent the block.  However all the accessory stuff (power steering, water pump, AC pump, idler pulley, tensioner) isn't warm.  Often they make some VERY interesting noises.  I can tell when it's more then -20F cause when we start the wife's Explorer it has a distinctive squeal for about a minute--seems to be coming from the tensioner.  I lost a tensioner and idler due to cold temps once on a '96 Bronco (302 V8).  I'd just put a brand new serpentine belt on too!  It was a bummer, had to change them out in those temps.  Thank goodness it was only a single bolt each.

Also you can get "cold weather" leaks.  As things get colder they shrink and sometimes you'll start seeing coolant leaks and the like (lower radiator hoses seem to be the worst offender).  Nothing major, just get out the screwdriver and tighten it up   In extreme low tempetures I like to drive slowly for a couple hundred yards before taking off.  Gives the oil in the differentials time to warm up a bit and start lubricating.  Switching all your lubes to synthetic isn't a bad idea as well.  With a manual transmission I'll sometimes throw the transfer case in to neutral while the truck is warming up and put it in gear to warm the oil up there as well.  Also use synthetic grease on all greasable components.

Sometimes you also get weird clunks while driving down the road.  That's when you start checking for ice build up someplace that is hitting something as you go down the road.

Perhaps the wildest weather related issue I've ever had was on my old '95 Ford Ranger.  I'd been out hunting with it and had done some water crossings.  I didn't know that the vent for the front differential didn't have a check valve in it, and I'd gotten some water in to the front Diff.  We didn't have any cold weather until well in to winter.  Then one day I went out and the truck wouldn't move in 4wd.  I pulled the oil plug to see if I'd somehow run out of lube and seized it.  I stuck my finger in and it was solid ice!  Ended up having to pull the front axle, drain the water and fluid and replace all the seals.  Then I extended the diff vent to just under the hood and installed a check valve!  Now after each season I check the diffs in my vehicles for water as part of the pre-winter checklist 

[Baradium]

Sounds like if possible it's good to replace all seals and use synthetic lube everywhere, huh?

I saw synthetic Delo in the NAPA the other day, was tempted but between the old seals that would probobly start leaking and the otherwise short oil change intervel on an IDI diesel (2500 miles recommended), it was hard to stomach the idea of more than doubling the oil change cost!  The thinner cold oil could help though...

[tundra_flier]

Phil, is it still true that they don't salt the roads here?   It doesn't really look like they are to me, and I sure hope they aren't.

No, they've never used salt before.  Below about -10 it doesn't do any good anyhow.  They just spread p-gravel all over.  Hope you don't like your paint job too much.  The city does use a little salt in it's p-gravel to help prevent clumping though, so I got the under coating when I bought my car.  The bags of snow-melt you see are used a lot this time of year and in the spring mainly around doorways.

Phil

[Baradium]

No, they've never used salt before.  Below about -10 it doesn't do any good anyhow.  They just spread p-gravel all over.  Hope you don't like your paint job too much.  The city does use a little salt in it's p-gravel to help prevent clumping though, so I got the under coating when I bought my car.  The bags of snow-melt you see are used a lot this time of year and in the spring mainly around doorways.

Phil

At least they don't use pure salt, although I don't like salt at all.     Hahaha, you havn't seen my truck yet, otherwise you wouldn't bother mentioning the paint job. 

If you can believe it, it looks better now than when I bought it a little while ago.



The main reason I worry about salt is for when I get my IH's up here.  I'd really like to be able to drive them during the winter.  If it's just a little salt then maybe they can make it without too much trouble.  I'll just need to repair the rust they do have and get them coated before I come up and maybe that'll be enough... or maybe if I avoid driving them during the start and end of each snow season that would help too...

[cj5_pilot]

You might think about trying the semi-synthetics.  They are basically half regular oil and half synthetic.  Also Dura Lube actually works and helps with the cold weather starts.  You got the 7.3, the 7.3 Turbo or the 7.3 Power Stroke in that rig?

[Frank N. O.]

Denmark use wet roadsalt for months to avoid ice on the roads since we often have sub-zero degrees (celsius) but when nothing is visible on the road then people still drives as fast as in the summer, and we have an advanced professional 24-hour service ready in the winther time but usually it's not until spring that we get a blizzard that covers even the main roads (and that's the only time where no-one exceeds the speed limit here). Due to the salt then finding a car that's 10 years old that's not already rusting is hard unless it's been very well maintained, and that's a big problem for me since there aren't really any interesting sedans after around 2000-2001 that I'm interested in buying (due to extreme sound-proofing, tons of useless service-demanding electrical equipment and tons of heavy weight costing tires, fuel etc. and then they are now usually extremely ugly, think Pontiac Aztec).

Frank

[Gulfstream Driver]

You just have to wash your car more often during salt season.  Even if it's below freezing (except in AK), if you have a nice sunny day you can get your car washed.

[Baradium]

You might think about trying the semi-synthetics.  They are basically half regular oil and half synthetic.  Also Dura Lube actually works and helps with the cold weather starts.  You got the 7.3, the 7.3 Turbo or the 7.3 Power Stroke in that rig?

Straight 7.3 IDI.   Don't know Dura Lube, but the name sounds familiar.  I don't remember ever seeing a diesel semi synthetic oil.   The problem with the IDI motors is they put a lot of soot into the oil, someday I'd like to get a soot remover for the truck, and then I could extend the oil change interval and it'd make it less painful to go to a synthetic.

I'm a big fan of Shell Rotella T in my engines.  I have 4 gallons of 15-40 to go in the truck this weekend (it'll take 14 qts I believe with the high capacity oil filter I got).  They make a 10-30 but even up here most places seem to just carry the 15-40 in Chevron Delo and/or Shell Rotella T.   Delo and Rotella are the two big guns in diesel engine oil.

Side note, you can kind of see in the picture where the FNG sticker was on the door.  Bought it straight from Fairbanks Natural Gas this spring and the stickers were still there when I purchased it, they pulled them off before I took delivery.


Re: Road salt,  washing often does *help* but then you still make salt water which is still very hard on the metal.  Even the best care to a vehicle will rust much sooner if they salt the roads.

[cj5_pilot]

Don't know Dura Lube, but the name sounds familiar.

 Due to the salt then finding a car that's 10 years old that's not already rusting is hard unless it's been very well maintained, and that's a big problem for me since there aren't really any interesting sedans after around 2000-2001 that I'm interested in buying (due to extreme sound-proofing, tons of useless service-demanding electrical equipment and tons of heavy weight costing tires, fuel etc. and then they are now usually extremely ugly, think Pontiac Aztec).

Frank

'
Naw, interesting sedans dissappeared in the early 1970s.  We had a 1990 Olds Cutlass Calais that wasn't bad, but I think the last actual sedan that interested me was the '68 Pontiac Grand Prix my parents had.  Now if you want to talk trucks my favorites are as follows in descending order:  Ford Super Duty '99-current, Ford F series '78-79, Ford F Series '72-77, Chevy/GMC '68-72, Dodge M-37.  Now if we talk jeeps (real jeeps not cherokees, liberty's or anything else...just JEEP's) then the only ugly ones built were the '87-'97 YJ series.  As for cars...they quit building nice looking ones in the '70s!   

Now I wait for the younger crowd to denounce me as a heathen!

BTW, my all time favorite car (not truck) is the 1968 Shelby GT500 KR.  That is why I like the new 'stang...it recalls the REAL ponycars!

[Baradium]

Now I wait for the younger crowd to denounce me as a heathen!

Only because there wasn't a single IH in your list.   

By the way, I wonder why you choose 68-72 for the chevy gmc.... the only difference in 67 and 68 is that the 67s don't have side marker lights. 
A lot of IH and 67-72 chevy/gmc around fairbanks... the lack of road salt rocks!

One of the trucks I need to get to Alaska:


'71 IH 1310 4x4 Travelette.