Yesterday morning it was 19 degrees, so I cranked my trusty always goes honda and came back in for five minutes or so to let it warm up before I left on it. When I went back out and stuck it in reverse, it never even tried to move, just squatted the suspension, same thing in forward. lol
The night before just before I parked it I ran through water standing about 18 inches deep about 50 feet wide. Never thought anything about it, but the wheeler sure did.
Early last winter I rode my 4 wheeler out to check cattle and it got a bit of mud and wet sloppy snow in it. Went out the next morning to find it frozen into an unmovable block of frozen crud. Figured mother nature will thaw it out so I can ride into the barn for the winter..... Well a few weeks later mother nature hadn't gotten close to freezing I ended up putting the pallet forks under it and moving it to the barn that way. It sat frozen until spring until it warmed up enough to melt it all out.
Earlier this winter the tubing crew was out with a polaris 800cc 6 wheeler. Same deal, got it in some mud, froze up overnight. Trouble was, the 800 twin has enough power to break things. Busted a CV shaft right in half....
I have no doubt that I could have easily broke things, but since I get to pay for the parts, plus put them on, I chose not to. lol
My Honda Rancher would do the same thing in the fall. Brake shoes would freeze to the drums. I'd heat the drums up a little.Finally I took the shoes right out. The seals wore out & would let water in. I have a 2001 with 26,500 miles on it so I am familiar with them. I put a Dennis Kirk conversion to front disc brakes on my Brides Rancher. Way better then what they come with
Most four wheelers are small enough that a tarp and a small heater should take care of frozen crud.
A few winters back we got some rain in January. A trapper I know slushed his wheeler up bad running his line and it froe into an iceburg.
He threw a tarp (cheap blue one) over it and used a diesel space heater to thaw it out. It never damaged the tarp, but melted the plastic right off of it. He just went and bought a new one and sold this one to a friend, who brought it over and we ordered all new plastic, even had to put a new wiring on it as the plastic had run all through it and cooled makeing a huge mess. lol
We've had one or both front wheels on Barb's Smart car freeze up after driving through slush in the winter. I just pour a kettle of hot water over the discs & calipers, hop in, and drive it for a block or so. It usually works the first time.
It is very common for guys to let their brakes freeze up on semis, like on a daily occurance. It is easy to drag the brakes and dry them out for a block or too, or even just set there for ten minutes or so them move them a couple of feet if you forget to. But many just drop the trailer and hook on to another one, so that you have to get under it and smack the drums with a hammer, which can be a pain when the wind is howling and temps are 30 below. I watch guys daily drag their tires into because they don't check them when leaveing too.