[AT] cold weather woes

[Greg Hass]

I have heard many people say "that's a winter job" ; well, it's not that 
simple, at least in north country. Yesterday my brother went to the shed 
to get the Ford Jubilee tractor that he bought last year. Well, it 
wouldn't start. It had previously been owned by the dad of a friend of 
mine. He said that his dad had used it a lot to move snow and it never 
failed to start. My brother was looking on the internet and found a 
tractor site that said no old tractor will start in cold weather with 
summer gas in it.  As soon as he has help my brother wants to tow it 
into his heated shop (he was going to take it to the shop anyway to make 
some improvements to it).  I know someone on the list is going to say 
they know of old tractors that start, but I must go by experience. 
Several years back when I still had livestock and needed my skid steer 
every day as winter approched it would not start until the battery was 
almost dead; hard on the starter and hard on me (23 horse 2 cyl. 
kohler). I spent $125 on parts from plugs to rebuilding the carb.; 
nothing helped. I then noticed the gas was almost gone so having nothing 
to lose, I went to town and got winter gas and from then on it started 
on the second turn (the farm gas I had been using was only 2 months old 
but was summer gas).  Another time, the loader was broke down for a few 
days in the winter so I was going to use my Farmall Cub with a trailer 
to move feed. It wouldn't start, even when being towed. The answer in 
the short term was to heat the carb. and the intake manifold with a hair 
dryer and it would start right up. Come warm weather the Cub started 
great with the same gas. Gas just isn't what it used to be.
      Greg Hass