Lannis
I'm surrounded by snowmobilers, so I can shed some light on this. These
guys are serious (one of my technologists snowmobiles to work (15 km one
way) on occasion and goes on an annual tour to Duluth or thereabouts (and
that's about 400 km from here). They wear snowmobile suits, mitts, helmets
and goggles and boots and who knows what else and they claim to stay warm.
I've see them racing (?) in broad ditches along the highway (highways are
straight around here) and have clocked them at 100+ kph (60 miles per hour).
They are subject to Darwin's rule, especially if they have plied themselves
with al-ky-hol and every year some of them "buy the farm" by getting
decapitated by guy wires or low fences, go through the ice, or run into each
other. One year a guy got killed trying to go under a bridge. Not a good
idea.
As for starting cars at 15 to 20 below zero, all cars (well, almost all cars
but not the Toyota MR2 I bought used a year and a half ago) come equipped
with electric block heaters that run off 110 V and keep the engine
sufficiently above ambient temperatures that the engines will start with no
problem (usually, unless the heater goes or the plug malfunctions, which you
won't notice until the engine won't start in the morning). A lot of people
also install a battery blanket which is a sort of electric blanket that you
wrap around the battery. The battery warmed also runs off 110 V. Most
parking lots have 110 V electrical outlets so you can plug the car in during
working hours. This strikes southerners as strange and I've heard stories
(urban legends, no doubt) about tourists using these outlets to plug in
toasters and hair dryers.
As a rule, I plug in the battery warmer if the temperature is between 32 F
and 0 F. below 0 F, the block heater goes on.
Hope this helps.
Chuck Vandergraaf
'52 +4
Pinawa, MB
> I've motorcycled in -15 F weather out of sheer necessity, but I wouldn't
> recommend it as a fun thing to do. I almost hurt myself. What I want to
> know
> is, how do the snowmobile people do it? You can't snowmobile unless it's
> stinking cold, but people go out flying around at 60-80 mph for hours on
> end
> in horrible below-zero weather. I see them in their snowmobile suits and
> gauntlet mittens and ski masks. I've got all that stuff too, and I freeze
> if
> I put it on and try to go any distance in a roadster or on a bike. They
> just
> tough or what? Would a Ford 1600 even start if it were 15 or 20 below
> zero?
>
>
> Lannis
>
|