[AT] Ralph Goff CLOSE THE DOOR

[Indiana Robinson]

On Mon, Dec 22, 2008 at 10:40 PM, John Hall <jthall at worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>  Al, I'm beginning to doubt your Southern heritage--anything less than 80
> for a daytime high is not warm enough for my liking! Besides, have you ever
> tried hand cranking a tractor when it is below freezing? A 50 deg drop in
> temperature makes a heck of a difference. For what it is worth, tracks are
> fun to drive on sleet, but leave steel wheeled tractors under the shed when
> there is snow out. Weather like this reminds me of the old timers telling
> about draining the water out into buckets at night and having to break the
> ice in the buckets the next morning to pour it back in.
>
> John Hall
>

===================================


My father used to tell of how in really really cold weather he not
only drained the radiator on his Model T as soon as he parked it, he
also drained the oil out. He said that the old oil got as stiff as
grease below zero and that he just couldn't crank start it. He was
quite strong but even if he managed to turn it enough to fire it the
engine was just too stiff to start and keep running the few minutes it
took to loosen it up. He carried his bucket (a cream bucket with a
tight lid) in the house each night and sat it behind the kitchen stove
(where the dog slept). He would pour it in the engine in the morning
after sometimes heating it more on top of the stove. He would then
start the engine and very quickly pour in the warm water he brought
from the house. If he just went out and poured the water in the not
yet running engine and it wouldn't start (not that uncommon) then you
were stuck with a whole cooling system full of very quickly frozen
ice. Upon arrival at work he just drained the cooling system on the
street since water was free and drained his oil back into his cream
bucket which he carried into the store and sat behind the stove along
with the cream buckets of several other employees...
-
An old friend of my father that had been stationed in Russia one
winter during WW-I used to tell me of the army using John Deere trucks
and how they always kept at least one running 24-7 so that they could
use it to pull start the others as needed. He described them as an
open cab truck with the old solid rubber tires.

-- 
--
"farmer"

"Good clean muck never hurt nobody!!!"
Morris Moulterd


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Francis Robinson
Central Indiana USA
robinson46176 at gmail.com