Little cold!

[lumbertick]

-37 actual temp on the job site this morning! Even with the pro heaters going they wouldn't roll over!

[Joe Hillmann]

It may be a good thing that they wouldn't start.  Metal is easier to break at those temps.  Unless otherwise specified most steel in industrial equipment is only designed to run at -20 colder than that and you are out of the conditions it was designed for.

[Ron Scott]

My loggers haven't worked since Wednesday due to the cold temps. They leave the mill at 5:30 am with an hour or more drive to the job and then they can't get the equipment going with any production until about noon, so there's not much work time left in the day. They have "bunched" the below zero days.

[mad murdock]

when it was down to -30 we would not fire up the skidders, or other equipment.  Too much breakage at those temps.  We did run the saws tho and would cut ahead of the machines, then when it warmed up there was lots of skidding to do to catch up.

[Jeff]

Wood splits really good at these temps, problem is, I split about one round and my lungs are near froze.

[Grizzly]

This winter hasn't been too bad other than the ice under the snow, but I did have some experience in the winter of 94/95 when we discovered just how cold it had to be to shut down our wheel loader. The man in the buttntop would only stop long enough to write our load ticket and would then function all the hydraulic circuits while waiting for the next truck. He lasted till -52C and then the hydraulics just wouldn't move. The wheel loader got a couple more trucks out but had to admit defeat at -57C (-71F). Torque converter wasn't getting oil and he couldn't move anymore. That was the coldest I have experienced. Might not have been so dramatic but 4 days earlier the road boss shut us down because it was 12C (51F) and we were tearing up the haul road. This was south of Grande Prairie, AB on Weyerhauser haul. Strange part .......... safety department was supposed to shut us down at -40 due to safety concerns. Oh well, I guess they were hungry for wood that day.

[Skidder Kev]

Now that is cold Grizzly.  we wouldn't be working  in that let alone leave the house haha.

This morning was -27C my truck wouldn't start no big deal call the boss and he came and picked me up on the way to the job,  next tried to start the skidder with the cables on it but no go.  so we fired up the gen and plugged it in for 30mins and away it went. after warming it up and heading into the bush we blew a hyd hose for one of the steer cylinders.  lucky for me it was a easy one to get at.  after all that we finally got the first tree on the ground at 1030.  we did get some wood out today but the cold really did fight us today.  not fun at all.

Kev

[lumberjack48]

I never lost a day because of cold weather. I had the skidders running before day light, at -30,-40, the spit swappers took about 30 minutes to start a 353 Detroit, with 15/40 wt oil, 2 Canadian skidder batteries with jumper cables. My S8 IH had a propane tank heater, it ran all night with a tarp over the hood. This was easy to start, reach up and push the stater button. Then i'd run the C5-D down the road about 1/2 mile and back to warm up the rear ends. The saws were ready to go, i always went over the saws after dinner. Now wait for it to get day light enough to go to work. The only thing i had break because of cold weather was the forward-reverser shifter on the C5-D. I always told who was running it to leave it in forward when shutting down, they didn't. The next morning i jumped on and it was in reverse up against some trees. When trying to get it in forward, it broke off down below the linkage. Easy fix, ran home and welded it back together.
My hind site with cold weather, i'd have synthetic oil in everything with a propane tank heater. Theres nothing worse then fighting equipment in cold weather. One of the things to do is run a splash of heet in the saw gas, i had the carb throat freeze shut when it was -20,-30,-40. I ran the diesel fuel 50/50.

If i was logging, i'd set a logging camp up. To heck with the driving a 100 miles a day, wake up on the job. The winter of 1970/71 the wife and two kids stayed with me in camp up on the Voyage National park. The camp was on the Locator Lake Trail, we motored across Kabetogama Lake from the Ranger station. When the bog froze up we could drive in to camp. The wife enjoyed staying in camp.

[barbender]

That sounds like an experience, LJ ;) I think about setting up camp sometimes, I typically drive over an hour each way for most jobs. But, the boss provides the wheels and fuel, and I have a young family at home. So, back and forth for me
    We rarely shut down for cold, I've had a few -35° to -40°F mornings the forwarder got fired up on. I think it was less than -30° yesterday morning, the machine fought me a bit because the preheater didn't start : Sometimes those things seem to fail when you really need them, or, maybe that's a good sign to just go home The processor operator showed me a trick for the preheater, choke off the air intake with your hand and it fired right up. I think too much cold air coming in cools the ignitor down too much for it to start. So now, I need a preheater for my preheater :
    I think LJ48 is pretty hardcore, I can't see myself out with a saw at daybreak when it's -30° The cold doesn't affect me much once I get the machine started ;)

[1270d]

-31 at the job yesterday.  Buncher wouldn't start without spit swappers, but the processor and forwarder worked fine.  Even hard maple limbs better when it that cold.  I have cracked a few hydraulic hoses due to improper warm up when cold, but no metal failure so far.

Today it was -30 at the station on the way to work but only ten below at the job.  Its amazing what a difference 25 miles can make.

[clww]

Here at The Beach, we broke the coldest temp record from 1896 this morning when we hit 8 degrees. Windchill was -15. Plenty cold for our area. I've been splitting and selling firewood all day. 8) 8) 8) Gotta love the un-prepared city folks around here. I can't split it fast enough to keep up with all the calls. ;)

[Corley5]

We haven't ran much lately because of the cold but did this afternoon.  Blew two hoses on the forwarder that probably wouldn't have failed if it hadn't been so cold.  The harvester's fuel filters frosted up and needed to be changed.  The element on the primary was coated with frost crystals.  Haven't added any Sea Foam in a while but will in the AM.  I budget days for extreme weather whether it's cold or heat sometimes it's best to stay home but my budget is getting pretty thin from this stretch of weather and it looks to be cold well into next week  :  Time to suck it up.

[Corley5]

-22 at the landing at 6:15 AM when the log truck pulled in.  -27 when the truck pulled out loaded at 7:15 AM.  Too cold.  Had to hold the chainsaw bar under the harvester's ProHeat exhaust to warm it up so the chain would turn.  Glad there wasn't much trimming needed on this load.     

[1270d]

-32 here this am. Again.   Supposed to be in the teens above tomorrow.   Should feel good.

[dustintheblood]

We got about three more days of crazy cold, then it's laying sap lines  8) 8) 8)

In the meantime, it's pen to paper for scheming and dreaming about all the projects to do once the snow goes away