On 3/2/2015 8:14 PM, Someone wrote:
Keyser Söze wrote:
On 3/1/15 6:53 PM, True North wrote:
John H.
- show quoted text
"Don does not take suggestions about his winter practices very well.

If his shovel is buried, I wonder how he'd handle the sand anyway"


Duh, JohnnyMop.....My round mouthed shovel WAS buried....I dug it out
and have been using it since early last week.
I appreciate helpful intelligent suggestions...not the obvious that
even your Moppetts would think up.



Johhny is just jonesing for attention. He goes after you and me
because he knows his right-wing buddies are likely to chime in. Pretty
obvious.

You think far too highly of yourself, deadbeat.

Ha, haven't shoveled in weeks... Just drive through it That's why God
made 4x4 and snow tires. It's so funny at work listening to everyone
complain about driving in the snow when they won't even spring for pair
of snow tires.

KC
- show quoted text -
"Ha, haven't shoveled in weeks... Just drive through it That's why God
made 4x4 and snow tires. It's so funny at work listening to everyone
complain about driving in the snow when they won't even spring for pair
of snow tires"


Pair of snow tires???
Up here they recommend all four.

On 3/4/15 8:14 AM, True North wrote:
KC
- show quoted text -
"Ha, haven't shoveled in weeks... Just drive through it That's why God
made 4x4 and snow tires. It's so funny at work listening to everyone
complain about driving in the snow when they won't even spring for pair
of snow tires"


Pair of snow tires???
Up here they recommend all four.


We're supposed to get 4" to 8" of snow tonight. As long as I can "blast"
my way out the driveway with my old SUV, I'm happy. If it is more than
8", though, I'll have to call the plow guy.

Do you have part-time 4WD on that Toyota? If so, does it do the job in
the snow?



--
Proud to be a Liberal.

On 3/4/2015 8:17 AM, Keyser Söze wrote:
On 3/4/15 8:14 AM, True North wrote:
KC
- show quoted text -
"Ha, haven't shoveled in weeks... Just drive through it That's why God
made 4x4 and snow tires. It's so funny at work listening to everyone
complain about driving in the snow when they won't even spring for pair
of snow tires"


Pair of snow tires???
Up here they recommend all four.


We're supposed to get 4" to 8" of snow tonight. As long as I can "blast"
my way out the driveway with my old SUV, I'm happy. If it is more than
8", though, I'll have to call the plow guy.

Do you have part-time 4WD on that Toyota? If so, does it do the job in
the snow?





My truck has regular 6 ply truck tires on it. My wife's Mountaineer (or
whatever it is) has all season tires. Her's is automatic, all wheel
drive. My truck is conventional (selectable) 4 wheel drive with a
limited slip rear differential, so it's really 2 and a half wheel drive.

Neither of us have any problems going through fairly deep snow. Only
problems is ice, especially where the driveway slopes up to the house.
Snow tires offer no advantage on ice.

The reason I plow our driveway is because it is long and oil delivery,
propane delivery and other large trucks would have a difficult if not
impossible job trying to make it from the road to the house or barn.
I also have emergency vehicles in mind. It would be a bitch to have a
fire or medical issue and the responding vehicles couldn't make it to
the house.

If I can expose a good amount of the driveway the high
emissivity of the black asphalt absorbs enough radiation energy from
the sun to warm and either melt or sublimate any ice that forms, even
when ambient temps are well below freezing.

On 3/4/15 8:35 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 3/4/2015 8:17 AM, Keyser Söze wrote:
On 3/4/15 8:14 AM, True North wrote:
KC
- show quoted text -
"Ha, haven't shoveled in weeks... Just drive through it That's why
God
made 4x4 and snow tires. It's so funny at work listening to everyone
complain about driving in the snow when they won't even spring for pair
of snow tires"


Pair of snow tires???
Up here they recommend all four.


We're supposed to get 4" to 8" of snow tonight. As long as I can "blast"
my way out the driveway with my old SUV, I'm happy. If it is more than
8", though, I'll have to call the plow guy.

Do you have part-time 4WD on that Toyota? If so, does it do the job in
the snow?





My truck has regular 6 ply truck tires on it. My wife's Mountaineer (or
whatever it is) has all season tires. Her's is automatic, all wheel
drive. My truck is conventional (selectable) 4 wheel drive with a
limited slip rear differential, so it's really 2 and a half wheel drive.

Neither of us have any problems going through fairly deep snow. Only
problems is ice, especially where the driveway slopes up to the house.
Snow tires offer no advantage on ice.

The reason I plow our driveway is because it is long and oil delivery,
propane delivery and other large trucks would have a difficult if not
impossible job trying to make it from the road to the house or barn.
I also have emergency vehicles in mind. It would be a bitch to have a
fire or medical issue and the responding vehicles couldn't make it to
the house.

If I can expose a good amount of the driveway the high
emissivity of the black asphalt absorbs enough radiation energy from
the sun to warm and either melt or sublimate any ice that forms, even
when ambient temps are well below freezing.



My 4Runner is selectable 4WD and it runs pretty well in snow and slush,
so long as I don't try to use it as a snow plow. I can usually get out
of the driveway so long as the snow is not too wet and isn't more than
8" deep. I don't try, though, until a couple of neighbors with bigger
vehicles cut furrows in our little private road. Once I get to our
traffic circle, typically, the county's contractors have at least plowed
one lane in the road, and by then all the "numbered" state and county
roads have been plowed.

Our propane dealer is pretty good at making sure the underground tank is
topped off on a schedule that coincides with bad weather. One of our
heat pumps uses propane for heat and electric for backup. The other is
only electric. But we need propane to run the hot water heater,
stovetop, and fireplace. No hot water = unhappy wife.

My 4Runner has about 225,000 miles on it. I don't need a boat tow
vehicle any more, which is why I am thinking of stepping down one size
to the smaller Toyota SUV that Don has...or maybe a Honda SUV. I like at
least part-time 4WD for the snow. I don't drive off-road at all.


--
Proud to be a Liberal.

On 3/4/2015 8:35 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 3/4/2015 8:17 AM, Keyser Söze wrote:
On 3/4/15 8:14 AM, True North wrote:
KC
- show quoted text -
"Ha, haven't shoveled in weeks... Just drive through it That's why
God
made 4x4 and snow tires. It's so funny at work listening to everyone
complain about driving in the snow when they won't even spring for pair
of snow tires"


Pair of snow tires???
Up here they recommend all four.


We're supposed to get 4" to 8" of snow tonight. As long as I can "blast"
my way out the driveway with my old SUV, I'm happy. If it is more than
8", though, I'll have to call the plow guy.

Do you have part-time 4WD on that Toyota? If so, does it do the job in
the snow?





My truck has regular 6 ply truck tires on it. My wife's Mountaineer (or
whatever it is) has all season tires. Her's is automatic, all wheel
drive. My truck is conventional (selectable) 4 wheel drive with a
limited slip rear differential, so it's really 2 and a half wheel drive.

Neither of us have any problems going through fairly deep snow. Only
problems is ice, especially where the driveway slopes up to the house.
Snow tires offer no advantage on ice.

The reason I plow our driveway is because it is long and oil delivery,
propane delivery and other large trucks would have a difficult if not
impossible job trying to make it from the road to the house or barn.
I also have emergency vehicles in mind. It would be a bitch to have a
fire or medical issue and the responding vehicles couldn't make it to
the house.

If I can expose a good amount of the driveway the high
emissivity of the black asphalt absorbs enough radiation energy from
the sun to warm and either melt or sublimate any ice that forms, even
when ambient temps are well below freezing.




I also learned something this year that I never thought about before.
The JD tractor has the typical big, cleated type rear tires. You would
think that those big cleats
on the tires would provide great traction in snow or mud but they don't.
I've ended up stuck in snow (and once in mud), even in four wheel drive
with the rear differential locked so both rear tires are being driven.

Here's what I learned ...

I keep the tractor in the smaller garage attached to the horse barn.
It's doors are small ... 8'x8' and the only way I can back the tractor
into it was to remove the top section of the "roll bar" that is part of
the tractor. With the upper roll bar section removed it clears the
top of the garage door trim by a half inch.

So, this year with all the snow and ice the pavement right at the edge
of the garage door was built up enough that I lost that half inch
clearance. I actually caught the top of the roll bar that remains on
the edge trim of the door opening. Removing the ice at the entrance was
one option but instead I decided to deflate the tractor's rear tires a
bit. Before doing so I did some Google reading on these kind of tires
and discovered that deflating them would help with traction in the snow
as well. They were inflated to 25 psi. The Google information
recommended only 7-9 psi for best traction.

I deflated them to 10 psi. It now clears the trim board on the garage
by over an inch and more importantly the traction in deep snow is much
improved. Yesterday I was out in the horse paddock clearing snow to
give my wife's horse some room to move around without walking through
belly high snow. I couldn't do it before. I'd just get stuck.

On Wednesday, 4 March 2015 09:17:50 UTC-4, Keyser Söze wrote:
On 3/4/15 8:14 AM, True North wrote:
KC
- show quoted text -
"Ha, haven't shoveled in weeks... Just drive through it That's why God
made 4x4 and snow tires. It's so funny at work listening to everyone
complain about driving in the snow when they won't even spring for pair
of snow tires"


Pair of snow tires???
Up here they recommend all four.


We're supposed to get 4" to 8" of snow tonight. As long as I can "blast"
my way out the driveway with my old SUV, I'm happy. If it is more than
8", though, I'll have to call the plow guy.

Do you have part-time 4WD on that Toyota? If so, does it do the job in
the snow?


My 2013 Highlander is the last model year of the 2nd generation.
It has full time all wheel drive and I've never even felt it slip in the snow...considering the crappy Toyo Open Country all season tires it came with.. Mileage on the vehicle (which will be two years old at the end of the month) is 19400 kilometers...approx 12000 miles.
I thought I read that the new 2014 and 2015 Highlanders have a four wheel drive similar to the RAV4...that is..front wheel drive until they start slipping and then the rear wheels kick in. Could be wrong on that.

On 3/4/15 8:59 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 3/4/2015 8:35 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 3/4/2015 8:17 AM, Keyser Söze wrote:
On 3/4/15 8:14 AM, True North wrote:
KC
- show quoted text -
"Ha, haven't shoveled in weeks... Just drive through it That's why
God
made 4x4 and snow tires. It's so funny at work listening to everyone
complain about driving in the snow when they won't even spring for pair
of snow tires"


Pair of snow tires???
Up here they recommend all four.


We're supposed to get 4" to 8" of snow tonight. As long as I can "blast"
my way out the driveway with my old SUV, I'm happy. If it is more than
8", though, I'll have to call the plow guy.

Do you have part-time 4WD on that Toyota? If so, does it do the job in
the snow?





My truck has regular 6 ply truck tires on it. My wife's Mountaineer (or
whatever it is) has all season tires. Her's is automatic, all wheel
drive. My truck is conventional (selectable) 4 wheel drive with a
limited slip rear differential, so it's really 2 and a half wheel drive.

Neither of us have any problems going through fairly deep snow. Only
problems is ice, especially where the driveway slopes up to the house.
Snow tires offer no advantage on ice.

The reason I plow our driveway is because it is long and oil delivery,
propane delivery and other large trucks would have a difficult if not
impossible job trying to make it from the road to the house or barn.
I also have emergency vehicles in mind. It would be a bitch to have a
fire or medical issue and the responding vehicles couldn't make it to
the house.

If I can expose a good amount of the driveway the high
emissivity of the black asphalt absorbs enough radiation energy from
the sun to warm and either melt or sublimate any ice that forms, even
when ambient temps are well below freezing.




I also learned something this year that I never thought about before.
The JD tractor has the typical big, cleated type rear tires. You would
think that those big cleats
on the tires would provide great traction in snow or mud but they don't.
I've ended up stuck in snow (and once in mud), even in four wheel drive
with the rear differential locked so both rear tires are being driven.

Here's what I learned ...

I keep the tractor in the smaller garage attached to the horse barn.
It's doors are small ... 8'x8' and the only way I can back the tractor
into it was to remove the top section of the "roll bar" that is part of
the tractor. With the upper roll bar section removed it clears the
top of the garage door trim by a half inch.

So, this year with all the snow and ice the pavement right at the edge
of the garage door was built up enough that I lost that half inch
clearance. I actually caught the top of the roll bar that remains on
the edge trim of the door opening. Removing the ice at the entrance was
one option but instead I decided to deflate the tractor's rear tires a
bit. Before doing so I did some Google reading on these kind of tires
and discovered that deflating them would help with traction in the snow
as well. They were inflated to 25 psi. The Google information
recommended only 7-9 psi for best traction.

I deflated them to 10 psi. It now clears the trim board on the garage
by over an inch and more importantly the traction in deep snow is much
improved. Yesterday I was out in the horse paddock clearing snow to
give my wife's horse some room to move around without walking through
belly high snow. I couldn't do it before. I'd just get stuck.





I think using a vehicle for snow removal is more art than science. When
I was growing up in our fav home town, I used to take my dad's 4WD Jeep
and plow, and earn some buck$ doing driveways. But I only remember
"reasonable" snowfalls, not the snowmageddons you've been having.

When I worked for the National Education Assn, I spent a year in New
York State, and lived in a suburb just north of Albany. The day before
Thanksgiving, we got more than 30" of snow. The dump truck with plow the
county sent got stuck. The big wheels tractor with plow they sent to
extricate the dump truck and plow our street got stuck. The next day,
they sent one of those articulated earth movers. It got the two vehicles
unstuck and our street plowed, but in the process hit and knocked over a
utility pole, so we were without electricity for a day. Fortunately, we
had fuel, not electric, heat.



--
Proud to be a Liberal.

On 3/4/15 9:02 AM, True North wrote:
On Wednesday, 4 March 2015 09:17:50 UTC-4, Keyser Söze wrote:
On 3/4/15 8:14 AM, True North wrote:
KC
- show quoted text -
"Ha, haven't shoveled in weeks... Just drive through it That's why God
made 4x4 and snow tires. It's so funny at work listening to everyone
complain about driving in the snow when they won't even spring for pair
of snow tires"


Pair of snow tires???
Up here they recommend all four.


We're supposed to get 4" to 8" of snow tonight. As long as I can "blast"
my way out the driveway with my old SUV, I'm happy. If it is more than
8", though, I'll have to call the plow guy.

Do you have part-time 4WD on that Toyota? If so, does it do the job in
the snow?


My 2013 Highlander is the last model year of the 2nd generation.
It has full time all wheel drive and I've never even felt it slip in the snow...considering the crappy Toyo Open Country all season tires it came with. Mileage on the vehicle (which will be two years old at the end of the month) is 19400 kilometers...approx 12000 miles.
I thought I read that the new 2014 and 2015 Highlanders have a four wheel drive similar to the RAV4...that is..front wheel drive until they start slipping and then the rear wheels kick in. Could be wrong on that.


I'll have to check that out if I get serious.

--
Proud to be a Liberal.

On 3/4/2015 8:54 AM, Keyser Söze wrote:
On 3/4/15 8:35 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 3/4/2015 8:17 AM, Keyser Söze wrote:
On 3/4/15 8:14 AM, True North wrote:
KC
- show quoted text -
"Ha, haven't shoveled in weeks... Just drive through it That's why
God
made 4x4 and snow tires. It's so funny at work listening to everyone
complain about driving in the snow when they won't even spring for pair
of snow tires"


Pair of snow tires???
Up here they recommend all four.


We're supposed to get 4" to 8" of snow tonight. As long as I can "blast"
my way out the driveway with my old SUV, I'm happy. If it is more than
8", though, I'll have to call the plow guy.

Do you have part-time 4WD on that Toyota? If so, does it do the job in
the snow?





My truck has regular 6 ply truck tires on it. My wife's Mountaineer (or
whatever it is) has all season tires. Her's is automatic, all wheel
drive. My truck is conventional (selectable) 4 wheel drive with a
limited slip rear differential, so it's really 2 and a half wheel drive.

Neither of us have any problems going through fairly deep snow. Only
problems is ice, especially where the driveway slopes up to the house.
Snow tires offer no advantage on ice.

The reason I plow our driveway is because it is long and oil delivery,
propane delivery and other large trucks would have a difficult if not
impossible job trying to make it from the road to the house or barn.
I also have emergency vehicles in mind. It would be a bitch to have a
fire or medical issue and the responding vehicles couldn't make it to
the house.

If I can expose a good amount of the driveway the high
emissivity of the black asphalt absorbs enough radiation energy from
the sun to warm and either melt or sublimate any ice that forms, even
when ambient temps are well below freezing.



My 4Runner is selectable 4WD and it runs pretty well in snow and slush,
so long as I don't try to use it as a snow plow. I can usually get out
of the driveway so long as the snow is not too wet and isn't more than
8" deep. I don't try, though, until a couple of neighbors with bigger
vehicles cut furrows in our little private road. Once I get to our
traffic circle, typically, the county's contractors have at least plowed
one lane in the road, and by then all the "numbered" state and county
roads have been plowed.

Our propane dealer is pretty good at making sure the underground tank is
topped off on a schedule that coincides with bad weather. One of our
heat pumps uses propane for heat and electric for backup. The other is
only electric. But we need propane to run the hot water heater,
stovetop, and fireplace. No hot water = unhappy wife.

My 4Runner has about 225,000 miles on it. I don't need a boat tow
vehicle any more, which is why I am thinking of stepping down one size
to the smaller Toyota SUV that Don has...or maybe a Honda SUV. I like at
least part-time 4WD for the snow. I don't drive off-road at all.




Our house has two stoves, two clothes dryers and two gas fireplaces.
They are all fed from one, 100 gallon (80 gallon) propane tank. We
disconnected the fireplaces from the gas years ago, so we no longer use
them. The single 100 gallon propane tank will last for a year and a
half running the other items.

We also added a "Hot Dawg" heater to the main garage that is attached to
the house which is fed by a second, 100 gal propane tank. We use the
garage a lot and the dogs live and play out there so we keep it at 68
degrees. This winter (particularly February) has been much colder than
normal and we have had to fill it's propane tank every 4 weeks or so.

The other garage (where I keep the tractor) was re-finished back when I
was storing a couple of classic vintage cars in it. I added central air
conditioning and also two levels of electric heat in the air handler
(similar to heating systems in the south). The main heater is 10kw
and it has an additional 5kw "kicker" element if needed. I've never
needed it. For the winter I set the thermostat to about 40 degrees, so
it rarely runs but it keeps the garage warm enough that the little
diesel engine in the tractor has no problems firing up when needed
(which has been often this year).