[AT] Cold snap

Sun Jan 7 10:48:40 PST 2018

Now that's a new one on me!

Did he ever mention old timers cutting ice out of the rivers/mill ponds? 
Dad tells of his dad doing it when he was young--before dad was born, 
guessing it was around 1900.

John Hall

On 1/7/2018 12:53 PM, charlie hill wrote:
> John, I remember my dad talking about using Kerosene for coolant in the
> engines
> of tractors and cars back in those days.  I guess maybe it was during the
> depression or
> the war and they didn't have or couldn't get antifreeze.
>
> Charlie
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Hall
> Sent: Sunday, January 07, 2018 8:30 AM
> To: Antique tractor email discussion group
> Subject: Re: [AT] Cold snap
>
> Good story Dean!
>
> I have heard my dad and other old timers talk about drawing the water
> out of the tractor out at night and having to break the ice in the
> buckets in the morning. Local legend has it there was a sawmiller that
> used to build a fire under the oil pan with slabs every morning. Must
> have been running on kerosene is all I can say!
>
> John Hall
>
>
>
> On 1/7/2018 5:34 AM, Dean VP 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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