Back in the Deep Freeze
 

So, here we are back in the Arctic freeze again... Back to the Ice Roads, icy roads & brutal temperatures. Yellowknife was -55C WITHOUT the wind. Have to be so carefule in that cold, things break. I think I've layed under more trailers in the last week with a tiger torch than I care to think about, not just frozen brakes, but frozen pots, frozen lines, etc, etc...

Here are my latest forays onto the ice & the roads leading up to it:


NWT Hwy #3

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The frost & snow on the trees is incredible, & because the growing season is only 6 weeks the trees are very short:

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Mackenzie River Ice Crossing:

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Gorgeous winter day, but deadly cold...pretty deceptive -50C temps.

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This crossing is 3.5kms or roughly 2 miles across. Kind of nerve racking the first crossing of the winter!

Out on the Ice:


The ONLY 4 lane Road in the Whole Northwest Territories!

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Wow Kat, those pics are amazing! How do you stay warm under a trailer up there?

Good Arctic coveralls, boots & mitts...all good to -100C! :lol: :lol:

Holy Crap :shock:

What a week, frigin Cold, the wind here today about 30 miles hr, drifting everywhere...Arg...

I havn't put my winter coveralls on yet, but soon :wink:

Re: Back in the Deep Freeze
 

I'm gonna have to write you up for that cracked windshield. :wink:

Hey Kat, things weren't exactly warm 'n toasty here in Edmonton....last Monday, it was -46C. It kicked off a cold spell that lasted for about 5 days, with temps averaging -30c. Things have warmed up a bit now ( relatively speaking ). Stay warm !!!

Re: Back in the Deep Freeze
 

LMAO, I've been through THREE roadside inspections in the last 6 months.... I told every one of them...I'll get it fixed in the SPRING!

EVERYONE of them passed me! Too many big rocks up here on the roads! Should have seen some of the DOT trucks!!!

I know, I live just east of Edmonton...but thankfully, for the most part, I was up north for the worst of it, I HATE being stuck at home when it gets this cold, can't DO anything at home! :D :D

This time next week I'll be on my way back to the deep freeze. Yahooo.

Hear that, man! Hey, COLT, question for ya! There is a highway going north of Ft St John, I think, I've only been on it once, way back in my grain hauling days... Anyway, I recall going down in a river valley, taking the whole road with a Super B to get around the curves, nasty down & upgrade & same going back up again. Do you know the highway I'm talking about? Seems to me you can get back into Alberta from it as well.

You're heading back to Whitehorse? or somewhere else?

From town it's only about 5 min. it's called the Beaton hill.

That highway goes to Cleardale, I spent about 1.5 hr's on that hill about 2 months ago...

2 sets of chains shreaded into junk and I was at the top...

No, :idea: your talking about the Montney, Yep, all switchbacks, It's fun in the winter :wink:

I "barely" made it up south Taylor yesterday, empty and caught up to a slow driver... :evil:

I got 3, 10% hills to deal with minutes from town.... :?

I think my truck has been running for 11 days...

Comand start, is the best thing, I start my P/U when I pour my last coffee

-35 in Whitehorse this morning, should warm up for you next week L.N.

Yep, Whitehorse WK.

Beaton Hill and the one after it.... were my first hills to tackle as a newbie with my superb.
Man what was I thinking back then?

Our house is about 17 km outside of town Colt, its always colder there. It was -49 the other morning.

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...10/chatter.gif
Fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa..kk-kk-kk-kk-kk-kk

-49 C Lets just say I would be going outside only if I had to and with a pair of hot pads in my seat boots and gloves. I know all about cold however ran one week in the North of the US were it did not get above -30 for the week still can not stop laughing when I remember that guy out of BC when it was -50 he shuts his engine off to check his OIL and screams when it would not restart. It gelled up and the batteries died in 5 mins.

:dung:

Maybe his alternator quit up the road before he shut it down....

But anyhow, L.N. going with direct ?

"our house" Hmmm :wink:

Colt we pulled in at the same time as he did I ran in and grabbed a gallon of oil and just dumped it in since I could tell by the OPG we were low bouncing a little bit he shut his off and it was not 5 mins later he tried to crank and NOTHING. Saw him in the resturant later that day he had 3 bad batteries and a plugged fuel Separator.

I agree, that is a pile of BS. Fuel would not gel in 5 minutes on a hot truck, and the batteries failing were certainly not caused by the weather. :roll:

Ladies ... all I can say is ... http://bestsmileys.com/cold/8.gif I know you gotta love it in order to do it, but geeezzzz ... http://bestsmileys.com/cold/9.gif ..... when it gets 25 below here I can't hardly stand it .... I take a http://bestsmileys.com/bowing/2.gif to You ... I know someone has to do the job up there and it makes me feel good knowing 2 of the ladies that can handle it up there ...http://bestsmileys.com/clapping/3.gif .... just keep safe and know your top knotch drivers .... I'm proud of you both and everyone else that works in the area. ............... I have a personal friend who lives in the nothern part of Alaska ... he works in the oilfields - he says it get to 27 minue there - - - http://bestsmileys.com/cold/11.gif ... so ladies enjoy yourself I'll stay with my 50 degrees .. :wink: and be happy. Keep up the amazing work :!: :!:

Were YOU THERE THAT DAY REV. NO you were not I saw it happen and there were about 20 other drivers also saw it happen. This was the weekend Fargo got hit with that massive Blizzard in the 90's and put it to you this way trucks were buried up to the roofs in spots and it was taking ENDLOADERS to dig them out.

That doesn't change the laws of physics. :roll:

He was from Vancuvor BC and maybe his Battereys were weak already however still it did happen Rev.

I didn't claim it didn't happen. :roll:

I claimed the reason it happened was not caused by fuel gelling in 5 minutes, or by batteries failing within 5 minutes because of the cold.

Fuel Gell was more than likely secondary I am betting since it took the shop 45 mins to pull him into it. But at -40 F nothing is going to like to crank.

Now the story changes, and Colt's and my assessment stands. :roll:

:dung:

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who fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-kk-kk-kkin ca-ca-ca-airzz-za-za-za-za-za-za-za-za-za-za-za-za


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Thank you Rose, been a brutal month, VERY cold! BUT, the end is near! It was a balmy -45C in Yellowknife yesterday... & believe me that is WAY better than -55! :lol: :lol: :lol:

Worst of the whole mess is when it gets that cold at home here, we had some nights of -45, truck was pretty fussy about starting, but we are pretty sheltered here at home, so as long as I can keep out of the wind she'll usually go, but when I'm on the road once the temps fall below -30 I don't shut her off except to check the oil :) We are far to isolated to take any no-start chances!

Are you going back to Fulton or TriCal or whatever they call themselves this week? :lol: :lol: :lol: Or are you just doing a transfer with Gold Star?

How does that song go??? Ooga ooga mooshka......

"And bathes in ICE COLD WATER every day........

To be quite honest, it is possible that the fuel was already gelling up. My brother was going across NE a few years back. Temp was -30 F, and he was looking at the fuel gauge. 3/4 tank, and it wasn't going down. He was thinking that he was getting fantastic fuel mileage. Then the truck died. The fuel gauge was on the left tank, and the right tank was the one that was empty. The left tank, with the wind from the left was SOLID. And, that was on a truck that had been running and warm. Not sure exactly how cold -40 C is, but I'll bet that if you spit, it'll CRACKLE before it hits the ground.

My mistake... -40 F... At that temp, I KNOW IT WILL CRACKLE BEFORE IT HITS THE GROUND.

there is nothing "hot" about a truck when it's40 below. It is all it can do to kep itself warm enough to run.

Thank you medicine man. Rev forgetts I pulled wrenches on these in between driving them. Try getting a cranky 238 Detroit to start in the dead of winter and you have an air starter on it. FUN FUN FUN.

That trip I am talking about my father and I left Beach ND that morning after sitting for the night and it was -44 we had to shut it down cause the road was closed that sucked headed towards Fargo after sitting all night and it took 5 miles BEFORE we could get that tranny to shift into the high side max water temp we were getting was 130 going down the road.

That means the engine was hotter than 130 degrees. Fuel does not gel at 130 degrees. :roll:

Right side tank is usually the return side, so it's not all that surprising that the left side would gel up. It surprises me that if there was a single gauge, that it wasn't on the return side. One of the reasons why I like my dual fuel gauges.

What on earth are you talking about? "Return side"???

Since about 2000, most trucks I know have both DRAW and RETURN on BOTH TANKS. That's why, if you run out of fuel, these days, you must add fuel to BOTH tanks in order to get fuel to draw back through the system. If you only add fuel to one tank, you find that you are drawing AIR from the other one. Are you still driving a "relic" with a "CROSS-OVER LINE"? The ones that, if you straddle a gator in the middle of the road, you tear out your cross-over and the fuel from both tanks drains out onto the road? For that matter, one of the other drivers for WH, back in '96, had an International and was going east on I-80. His guage wasn't even bouncing anymore. He got down the ramp for the Flying J at Des Moine, IA, made the corner to the left, and just made it past the overpass. The service truck spent 4 hours trying to prime the engine before they found out it didn't have a cross-over and had to have fuel added to both tanks to get it to draw fuel.

As a matter of fact, a '96 Kenworth I drove had a "PROPORTIONING MODULE" in the return line that would divide the fuel evenly between BOTH tanks. If you were nearly out of fuel, and only added fuel to one tank, you could run out of fuel 20 miles down the road in the tank you didn't fuel. If you had a quarter tank or more when you fueled, you were reasonably safe to only fuel one side. And, trucks can be ordered with the guage in either side, or both, depending on the desires of who ever is doing the ordering. I don't know if you can even order a truck with a cross-over anymore.

Where did you get this "return side" from?

My truck draws off the passenger side only. I can fill only my drivers side tank, and I can watch the fuel go from my driver's side tank to the passenger side tank. It takes about 10-15 minutes or so to even out, even with the truck off.

Apparently my 2004 379 Pete is a "relic". :roll:

Not to worry Any Pete I have ever drove is exactly as yours...matter of fact my 2007 uses the same. The problem I have is that stupid little check valve keeps freezing up when it gets really cold then it only draws off one tan, then I have to get out shut off the tank that's nearly empty & run down the road for about 20 minutes till they equalize by the fuel return lines.

The idea being is that if you punch a hole in a tank you can close off that tank without running out of fuel. This so called "new" technology is that they forget that sometimes you need to do just that. Peterbilt, in my experience, tends to rely on proven technology & often, to their detriment, defers to the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it mentality". But, I personally like it just the way it is! :D :D

May I suggest you go talk to a "GOOD" mechanic? Or better still. take a 5-gallon can of fuel with you, run it out of fuel, then pour the fuel into one tank, either one but just one, and try to prime it. I dare you. If you look in the tank and add it to the one that seems to have just a little more at the bottom, you'll spend the next month trying to prime it, no matter which side that tank is on. Get down and look between the tanks. If you have a cross-over, you will have a hose running from one tank to the other at or about the level of the bottom of the tanks. If you don't have it, how does the fuel get from one tank to another? By osmosis????

The fact that the fuel levels itself out says you have a "T" instead of a proportioning module. But with an '04, you have draw and return in both tanks. If you ever run out of fuel, you will have to add fuel to BOTH tanks to get it to prime.

And, you're best defense against gelling in the tanks is a good "anti-gel" additive. And on a Cat engine, I've even seen a guy pull 3 pairs of wool socks over the filter and cover it with a plastic bag to keep ice crystals from forming against the filter material and plugging it. Also, the idea of adding a gallon of unleaded gas to each tank to keep the fuel flowing is a MYTH. IT DOESN'T WORK.

Engine heat in the return fuel is fine for most for most conditions, but when the temperature conditions go to EXTREME, the reaction of the fuel is also extreme. Two years ago, I gave a guy near Minot, ND a couple of bottle of MELT-DOWN. When we took off his fuel cap and looked into the tank with a flashlight, you could see the same efect as a candle burning the wax around the wick and the outer edges staying up. As he was driving, the fuel started to gel from the outer edges of the tank toward the center, until it stopped flowing. Even after the fuel in the tanks was liquid again, we still had to pour hot water over his filter to get him started again.

Peterbuilt used to have a "HOT-LINE" in the fuel line. An electric fuel heater just before the filter so that it was warm fuel that went through the element. If the engine started sputtering, you threw the switch and got power back almost immediately. Don't know if they have that yet or not.

Not that I am aware of Windwalker, but mine does have heaters in the tanks, another Arctic necessity I'm afraid :D :D

I also use a very good fuel conditioner, made by Kleen Flo, Howes is just garbage IMHO, no good for up here, only good to -40...that's WARM in this neck of the woods!! :lol: :lol:

Seems to me that my Cat has a "primer pump" sort of thing right in front of the main (I have 2) fuel filter. It seems to me that everytime my fuel filters get changed it gets "primed" when you first start it up again.

Also, our winter fuel is, in reality, home heating oil...Diesel 50 we call it, will not gel until 50 below, your premium deisel is our summer fuel...Diesel 20, good to 20 below.

Ahh roadhog...come on where's you sense of adventure? :lol: :lol: :lol: