[AT] Cold snap

Sun Jan 7 05:05:31 PST 2018

Nothing to add!  These stories make our current, record-setting, 15-day
stretch of weather below 32F and today's -9F air temp, -22F windchill, look
like Hawaii.

SO

On Sun, Jan 7, 2018 at 5:34 AM, Dean VP <deanvp at att.net> wrote:

> Spencer,
>
> In my case they weren't antiques yet. 😊 How about including starting an
> antique tractor in cold weather story to go with the submission?
>
>  In my case my story submission would be when we had a hand start JD A
> with a mounted two row Corn Picker on it. John Deere included a long shaft
> that one could attach a steering wheel to the  shaft and that shaft would
> slide through the flywheel side of the corn picker to reach the flywheel.
> This would allow starting a hand start tractor while the picker was mounted
> and ready to go.  A reasonably good idea but quite often the weather would
> be below freezing and the corn picker tractor might not cooperate,
> especially if it had been left out in the field.  So, another tractor was
> required to pull start the Corn Picker tractor.  However, if the tractor to
> pull the corn picker tractor wouldn't start it was not uncommon to light a
> CONTROLLED fire under the crankcase, if we got desperate.  I have no idea
> why we didn't blow up a tractor or ourselves in the process.  In those days
> multi-viscosity oils were not yet invented and warming up the oil in the
> crankcase was a great help in allowing the flywheel to be turned over
> faster. I don't recall block heaters being available then either. If they
> were we didn't have one.  My memory is very foggy on what container my Dad
> used for the Controlled Fire but was either lit by Kerosene or actually
> burned Kerosene.  I think it was kind of like Kerosene space heaters
> without the blower. Anyway the flame was really controlled and was much
> smaller than the actual crankcase casting.  It would get setup right under
> the drainplug.  Maybe it was something like the old Kerosene blow torches.
> We thawed out frozen galvanized water pipes using two or three really dry
> corn cobs that had been soaked in Kerosene with some bailing wire wrapped
> around them with the wire extending out for a handle.  They burned in a
> controlled fashion and it didn't take long to thaw out watering fountains
> etc.  Maybe that is what we used under the tractor but I remember something
> more contained than that.  In NW Iowa the winter weather was viscous and
> -40 degrees F was not uncommon with wind chills off the charts.  I don't
> remember Wind Chills being measured or calculated then but many a farmer
> got killed when getting lost out in the farm yard in a blizzard with high
> winds and horizontal snow. Dad tied a rope between the house and the
> milking barn during those kinds of weather conditions.
>
> Dean VP
> Apache junction, AZ
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com [mailto:at-bounces at lists.
> antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of Spencer Yost
> Sent: Saturday, January 6, 2018 9:46 PM
> To: Antique tractor email discussion group <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
> Subject: Re: [AT] Cold snap
>
> I'm splitting my bet.  Putting half on Ralph and half on Mattias.
>
> Do you have to live there? If not, the dark horse in this race might be
> Dean when he was stationed in Greenland.
>
> Maybe the rule should be an antique tractor has to be within 500 yards of
> the domicile you suffered through the cold  (-;
>
>
>
> Spencer Yost
>
>
>
> Spencer Yost
> > On Jan 6, 2018, at 9:52 PM, Dean VP <deanvp at att.net> wrote:
> >
> > Ok, who has the record of the most days in a row that the weather never
> got above 0 degrees?
> >
> > My entry is 26 days in the winter of 1961/1962 in NW Iowa.
> >
> > Dean VP
> > Apache junction, AZ
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
> > [mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of
> > pga2 at basicisp.net
> > Sent: Saturday, January 6, 2018 1:53 PM
> > To: Antique tractor email discussion group
> > <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
> > Subject: Re: [AT] Cold snap
> >
> > Ralph, Why is the engine coming out again? My rememberer ain't workin'
> > too good. :o)
> >
> > Phil in TX
> >
> > --- alfg at sasktel.net wrote:
> >
> > From: Ralph Goff <alfg at sasktel.net>
> > To: at at lists.antique-tractor.com
> > Subject: Re: [AT] Cold snap
> > Date: Sat, 6 Jan 2018 14:21:10 -0600
> >
> >> On 1/5/2018 10:02 PM, Spencer Yost wrote:
> >> One day a few tenths of a degree above freezing). If tomorrow stays
> below freezing, which it is supposed to, we will officially be #2 in the
> record books for most consecutive days where the temperature doesn't get
> above freezing.
> >>
> >> PS: The shop is 36°. You can bet your %]!{!} that there has been no
> >> progress on the 430 :-)
> >>
> >> Spencer Yost
> > We went about ten days without getting above zero F here. Had to go to
> town one day and the high was -22F. The old 81 GMC got the job done without
> a problem.
> > I was so inspired when it got above zero that I went to work in the shop
> and lifted the engine from my "new" 53 Mercury. Checked the temp on the
> wall at +6F.
> > Its in my youtube channel but I can't seem to post links here.
> > Veritable heat wave here today in the 20s.
> >
> > Ralph in Sask.
> >
> >
> >
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