[AT] Cold snap

[John Hall]

Very cool story Farmer!!! I guess it was in the 30's, I had an uncle 
that worked for American Tobacco Co. (cigarette maker). He drove a chain 
drive truck with no electric start--used it to haul tobacco from the 
warehouse to the factory. At night the guys with the hand crank trucks 
got to leave them indoors so they would be able to crank them the next 
morning, electric start trucks were left outside.

John Hall



On 1/17/2018 11:10 AM, Indiana Robinson wrote:
> Is it spring yet?
> It was pretty common to drain radiators in the early days, especially
> during the world wars.
> My father used to work in a shop in town in the late 1920's and early
> 1930's. During those years the roads were still full of Model T Fords. He
> always said that the old oils just about became solid at zero temps and you
> could barely turn the crank. He worked with about 6 other guys, all with
> the same problems. He would drain the oil into a bucket at home and sit it
> behind the stove to keep it "kind of" warm. In the morning he poured it in
> the car, put water in the radiator, covered the front with cardboard and
> drove into town to work. At work he drained the oil back into the bucket,
> drained the water out and carried the oil into the shop. He said that in
> really cold weather there would be a row of a half dozen buckets of oil
> lined up behind the shop stove keeping warm. They normally all left work at
> the same time and normally all stayed until everybody's car was running.
> Sometimes one would need to be pulled to start it or if it was too bad or
> the car too stubborn they still had a ride home. When he got home it all
> started over again...
> I attached a picture of a kerosene engine heater like I used to own (and
> probably still have here "somewhere") That was made to sit or hang under
> your car in an unheated garage. The tank was supposed to hold enough to run
> it overnight. I don't recall who made mine but Bunsen made some of them.
> Kind of scary...
> A much older friend of my father was stationed in Russia during WW-I and he
> told of them using John Deere trucks (solid tires). He said in the winter
> they always kept at least one running at all times so they could pull start
> the others. They were bivouacked out into the homes of locals and he
> thought very highly of the folks he stayed with but said that he was never
> warm while there.
>
>
> .
>
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