Your towing rigs and trailers

[Diamondpilot]

Nice rig all around.

Chris

 

[medicshawn]

14K 20+5 2004 Dodge 2500

 

[Diamondpilot]

Another nice one.

Chris

 

[R_Walter]

My '89 Dakota's Radio is one of its best operating features. 4x4 works good too and the soft suspension makes it very pleasant to drive around my property instead of the bone shaking F-250 Super Duty PSD or the '97 Ram-Cummins 3500 with super custom HD suspension. It always starts immediately even in 0 degree temps parked out in the weather.

Pat

0 degree weather in Oklahoma. That wasn't very often, was it?

 

[patrick_g]

0 degree weather in Oklahoma. That wasn't very often, was it?

Don't accept my memory as the last word but I think we have had two overnight lows of 0 degrees F in about 7-10 years. A few years ago we had an overnight low of 8 followed by a 0 the next night and my water meter froze up since the water district didn't bury it sufficiently (I took care of it.) I had two different sink supplies freeze but I "re-engineered their insulation situation.

Single digits are not uncommon but minus temps are rare, at least 30 miles or more south of Oklahoma city.

The tractor and Dakota both start fine down to about 0 F. Don't know about when colder as no test. HF battery minder makes the tractor happy and the Dakota starts so good I don't bother with its battery. Even in single digit temps approaching 0 F the Kubota makes plenty of heat in the cab so you can take off your coat and gloves. The Dakota does fair with heat and defrost but not as good as the tractor.

The weather here is super variable and averages don't tell you much as the record highs and lows for any given day vary all over the scale. One day in Oklahoma City the NWS recorded an 80 degree F temp swing in a 24 hour period.

Pat
Pat

 

[R_Walter]

Don't accept my memory as the last word but I think we have had two overnight lows of 0 degrees F in about 7-10 years. A few years ago we had an Pat
Pat

Okay [smile]... the way you wrote your post kind of makes it sound like 0 degrees occurred more than once or twice in the last ten years. Kind of like getting down to 0 degress was a regular thing in which you regularly got to test your Dakota's starting ability in those conditions instead of, what was it, once or twice? [smile]. Just like the 80F degree swing was more than a once in a lifetime occurence. It wasn't, was it? Or was it?

 

[patrick_g]

Okay [smile]... the way you wrote your post kind of makes it sound like 0 degrees occurred more than once or twice in the last ten years. Kind of like getting down to 0 degress was a regular thing in which you regularly got to test your Dakota's starting ability in those conditions instead of, what was it, once or twice? [smile]. Just like the 80F degree swing was more than a once in a lifetime occurence. It wasn't, was it? Or was it?

Wouldn't you think that if the Dakota started on any given cold morning after an overnight low of 0 F that it would have done so on any other morning of 0 F?

Luckily the 80 degree swing in under 24 hrs was and is the standing record for the state however, our weather variability is quite pronounced and although our climatological averages are not all that alarming the variations integrated to get those averages are often significant. Similarly, although in the south central part of the state we don't get 0 F every year, it is not particularly surprising when we do. Like snow, some years we get no cover at all and then like this winter we had an officially recognized BLIZZARD according to NWS standards followed by an ice storm that had us dark for days.

I'm not an automotive engineer but I have significant familiarity with automotive operations in arctic conditions as I spent three consecutive winters in Minot, North Dakota where I experienced working in -40 F and below every winter with my personal low of -47 (thermometer not wind chill.) Drawing on that experience I will be so bold as to suggest that the difference in starting ease of my old '89 Dakota beater in single digit temps (not rare hereabouts) is not significantly different that at 0 F. Perhaps if the battery condition and connections or the state of tune of the vehicle were less optimal it wold make a more significant difference but they aren't and so don't.

This winter I did temporarily experience starting difficulties with the tractor and twice borrowed my wife's 2009 Christmas present, a HF jump pak. Then I noted the battery hold down had let the battery slip position a bit which tugged on a battery post clamp and after tightening it the starting problem was fixed.

Pat

 

[Egon]

Temperatures.

 

[patrick_g]

Of course the max to min temps may be for temps that occurred decades apart. I checked and saw that the Minnesota 24 hour temp change record is 71F. Chicago is all aghast over a 50 F change in 24 hours. The capital weather gang is all gaga over a 5 day temp swing of 40 degrees. The Carolinas once recorded a 51 degree swing in 24 hours.

Anyone got a link to official stats that match or exceed Oklahoma City's 80 degrees within 24 hours?

An unofficial (not NWS data nor an official airport reading or other officially recognized source) reading by a farmer with a thermometer claims 103 degree swing from one day to the next. Here is the URL to the news story.

The Spokesman-Review - Google News Archive Search

Still, 80F in 24 hours is pretty wild and not every state or region has done that since records have been kept.

Pat

 

[Egon]

Those are just max and min temperatures and not necessarilly on the same day.

The system seemed to keep me and the type of record I was looking for well separated!:confused2: