|
Plow on, Plow off.
Plow is going back on the truck this afternoon in anticipation of 5"-8" of new snow overnight. Getting to be an expert at getting it on and off the truck. I can do either now in less than 5 minutes. |
Plow on, Plow off.
On Sun, 01 Mar 2015 09:46:51 -0500, "Mr. Luddite" wrote:
Plow is going back on the truck this afternoon in anticipation of 5"-8" of new snow overnight. Getting to be an expert at getting it on and off the truck. I can do either now in less than 5 minutes. Some activities just become 'ingrained', don't they? -- Guns don't cause problems. The behavior of certain gun owners causes problems. |
Plow on, Plow off.
|
Plow on, Plow off.
|
Plow on, Plow off.
On 3/1/2015 1:17 PM, True North wrote:
On Sunday, 1 March 2015 13:40:05 UTC-4, Mr. Luddite wrote: On 3/1/2015 10:34 AM, wrote: On Sun, 01 Mar 2015 09:46:51 -0500, "Mr. Luddite" wrote: Plow is going back on the truck this afternoon in anticipation of 5"-8" of new snow overnight. Getting to be an expert at getting it on and off the truck. I can do either now in less than 5 minutes. We may have the A/C on next week. Mid 80s. Wish I could send you some heat. Yeah, that's the other issue with this winter. It's been unusually cold. Normal highs for this time of year is in the low to mid 40's. We have consistently been in the teens or 20's for highs for over a month now. Nights still drop to single digits or below. I heard that the weather pattern is changing though and we might start getting some more seasonable temps here in the next couple of weeks. Right now we have two more snow storms to deal with. Tonight's and another on Tues/Wed. The one on Tuesday may change to rain though, collapsing more roofs. The big problem here is fron 4 to 6 inches of rock hard ice built up on the sidewalks. Most people are walking in the middle of severly narrowed streets. I go out and punish the ice chipper to make a bit of headway here and there. Also we have a severe short supply of rock salt and traction sand. You have to be there when the deliveries come in or you're sh*t out of luck. Yesterday I got desperate and paid double for pool filter sand. I do have a trash can 3/4 full of sand but water got in and it froze solid. Suggestion: Store your sand inside or put the damn cover on the trash can. :-) -- Respectfully submitted by Justan Laugh of the day from Krause "I'm not to blame anymore for the atmosphere in here. I've been "born again" as a nice guy." |
Plow on, Plow off.
On Sun, 01 Mar 2015 13:53:03 -0500, Justan Olphart wrote:
On 3/1/2015 1:17 PM, True North wrote: On Sunday, 1 March 2015 13:40:05 UTC-4, Mr. Luddite wrote: On 3/1/2015 10:34 AM, wrote: On Sun, 01 Mar 2015 09:46:51 -0500, "Mr. Luddite" wrote: Plow is going back on the truck this afternoon in anticipation of 5"-8" of new snow overnight. Getting to be an expert at getting it on and off the truck. I can do either now in less than 5 minutes. We may have the A/C on next week. Mid 80s. Wish I could send you some heat. Yeah, that's the other issue with this winter. It's been unusually cold. Normal highs for this time of year is in the low to mid 40's. We have consistently been in the teens or 20's for highs for over a month now. Nights still drop to single digits or below. I heard that the weather pattern is changing though and we might start getting some more seasonable temps here in the next couple of weeks. Right now we have two more snow storms to deal with. Tonight's and another on Tues/Wed. The one on Tuesday may change to rain though, collapsing more roofs. The big problem here is fron 4 to 6 inches of rock hard ice built up on the sidewalks. Most people are walking in the middle of severly narrowed streets. I go out and punish the ice chipper to make a bit of headway here and there. Also we have a severe short supply of rock salt and traction sand. You have to be there when the deliveries come in or you're sh*t out of luck. Yesterday I got desperate and paid double for pool filter sand. I do have a trash can 3/4 full of sand but water got in and it froze solid. Suggestion: Store your sand inside or put the damn cover on the trash can. :-) 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. -- Guns don't cause problems. The behavior of certain gun owners causes problems. |
Plow on, Plow off.
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. |
Plow on, Plow off.
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. -- Proud to be a Liberal. |
Plow on, Plow off.
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. |
Plow on, Plow off.
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. |
Plow on, Plow off.
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. |
Plow on, Plow off.
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. |
Plow on, Plow off.
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. |
Plow on, Plow off.
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. |
Plow on, Plow off - tractor tires.
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. |
Plow on, Plow off.
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. |
Plow on, Plow off - tractor tires.
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. |
Plow on, Plow off.
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. |
Plow on, Plow off.
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). |
Plow on, Plow off.
On Wednesday, 4 March 2015 10:11:16 UTC-4, Keyser Söze wrote:
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. BTW if you're a fan of Consumer Reports....I got my 'car issue' in the mail yesterday. Once again the Toyota Highlander V6 is listed at the top of the mid sized SUV's |
Plow on, Plow off - tractor tires.
On 3/4/2015 9:10 AM, Keyser Söze wrote:
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. The problem with plowing is that you can only clear so much snow before you are trying to plow it into an existing snow bank. All the back roads around here are about half to 2/3rds their normal width and the towns have to use front end loaders to widen them. Takes time and $$. After the first storm I cleared an area down by the barn (on a side gravel driveway) that was big enough for four cars to park in, side by side and in front or back of each other. Large space. Right now it is completely filled with snow piles, 8-9 feet high that I have dumped in it with the tractor. It got to the point where plowing at an angle to push the snow aside was no longer possible. I got pretty good at pushing the snow into the space I had made and then going back with the tractor to pick it up and pile it as high as the front end loader will reach. I've also made several similar "cutouts" along the length of the driveway with the tractor to provide a place to push the snow into. Our driveway is lined with these piles of snow. At the end of the driveway ... where it connects to the road ... I have another technique. The piles of snow are too high, so I can't push the snow into them. So, I push the snow down the driveway, wait until there are no cars coming, and push it out on the road just a little. Then I pull out with the truck, angle the plow and go like a bat out of hell down the road while slowly clicking the "up" button on the plow controller. It spreads the snow out lightly on the edge of the road and with the sand/salt treatment and some traffic, it quickly disappears. |
Plow on, Plow off.
On 3/4/15 9:25 AM, True North wrote:
On Wednesday, 4 March 2015 10:11:16 UTC-4, Keyser Söze wrote: 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. BTW if you're a fan of Consumer Reports....I got my 'car issue' in the mail yesterday. Once again the Toyota Highlander V6 is listed at the top of the mid sized SUV's I saw that. I do like the Highlander. -- Proud to be a Liberal. |
Plow on, Plow off.
Keyser Söze wrote:
On 3/4/15 9:25 AM, True North wrote: On Wednesday, 4 March 2015 10:11:16 UTC-4, Keyser Söze wrote: 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. BTW if you're a fan of Consumer Reports....I got my 'car issue' in the mail yesterday. Once again the Toyota Highlander V6 is listed at the top of the mid sized SUV's I saw that. I do like the Highlander. The problem I see with a lot of the "SUV" are the low ground clearance. Watched Mercedes years ago, high side going over a berm in to a driveway at Tahoe. I rented a Bravado in Minneapolis years ago. Automatic 4x4. Hated it. My S10 blazer you could lock in to 4x4. The Bravada would start to spin a wheel and go in to 4 wheel drive and want to jerk sideways. Was an ice road, not snow. |
Plow on, Plow off.
On 3/4/2015 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. PANSIES! -- Respectfully submitted by Justan Laugh of the day from Krause "I'm not to blame anymore for the atmosphere in here. I've been "born again" as a nice guy." |
Plow on, Plow off.
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. STUDDED SNOW TIRES! Or are they illegal in your state? -- Respectfully submitted by Justan Laugh of the day from Krause "I'm not to blame anymore for the atmosphere in here. I've been "born again" as a nice guy." |
Plow on, Plow off.
On 3/4/2015 8:54 AM, Keyser Söze wrote:
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. :) Do you even know what a heat pump is? -- Respectfully submitted by Justan Laugh of the day from Krause "I'm not to blame anymore for the atmosphere in here. I've been "born again" as a nice guy." |
Plow on, Plow off.
On 3/4/2015 2:02 PM, Justan Olphart 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. STUDDED SNOW TIRES! Or are they illegal in your state? Legal Nov through April. Don't have any need for them though. |
Plow on, Plow off.
On Wednesday, March 4, 2015 at 2:05:28 PM UTC-5, Justan Olphart wrote:
On 3/4/2015 8:54 AM, Keyser Söze wrote: 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. :) Do you even know what a heat pump is? -- Respectfully submitted by Justan Laugh of the day from Krause "I'm not to blame anymore for the atmosphere in here. I've been "born again" as a nice guy." Yeah, I caught that. I'll have to ask my HVAC guy if he can install a "heat pump" for me that runs on propane. ;) |
Plow on, Plow off.
|
Plow on, Plow off.
On Wednesday, March 4, 2015 at 3:30:51 PM UTC-5, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 3/4/2015 3:15 PM, wrote: On Wednesday, March 4, 2015 at 2:05:28 PM UTC-5, Justan Olphart wrote: On 3/4/2015 8:54 AM, Keyser Söze wrote: 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. :) Do you even know what a heat pump is? -- Respectfully submitted by Justan Laugh of the day from Krause "I'm not to blame anymore for the atmosphere in here. I've been "born again" as a nice guy." Yeah, I caught that. I'll have to ask my HVAC guy if he can install a "heat pump" for me that runs on propane. ;) Your HVAC guy will probably recommend a hybrid heat pump system. Yes, they make them. It's a traditional air or ground water heat pump with a propane fueled heater as well. Makes sense for climates where the air temp drops to the point where the heat pump side becomes too inefficient. Yes, I know they exist. |
Plow on, Plow off.
On 3/4/15 3:30 PM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 3/4/2015 3:15 PM, wrote: On Wednesday, March 4, 2015 at 2:05:28 PM UTC-5, Justan Olphart wrote: On 3/4/2015 8:54 AM, Keyser Söze wrote: 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. :) Do you even know what a heat pump is? -- Respectfully submitted by Justan Laugh of the day from Krause "I'm not to blame anymore for the atmosphere in here. I've been "born again" as a nice guy." Yeah, I caught that. I'll have to ask my HVAC guy if he can install a "heat pump" for me that runs on propane. ;) Your HVAC guy will probably recommend a hybrid heat pump system. Yes, they make them. It's a traditional air or ground water heat pump with a propane fueled heater as well. Makes sense for climates where the air temp drops to the point where the heat pump side becomes too inefficient. It is indeed a hybrid system...air heat pump/furnace that runs on electricity in temperate or hot conditions, propane backup when it is too cold outside to extract heat. Your buddy in Florida is a moron. -- Proud to be a Liberal. |
Plow on, Plow off.
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. "Up there" they also recommend boats that corrode. |
I was mildly surprised last winter. We had a 9 1/2" snowfall and they had not yet plowed my condo complex. It came time for me to leave for work and I was as I said mildly surprised when my 2014 Ford Taurus FWD only drove right through it to the street which had been plowed.
It came with Michelin all season tires and they seem to do well in the snow of course being FWD helps a lot. |
Plow on, Plow off.
On 3/5/2015 12:59 AM, wrote:
On Wed, 04 Mar 2015 15:47:48 -0500, Keyser Söze wrote: On 3/4/15 3:30 PM, Mr. Luddite wrote: On 3/4/2015 3:15 PM, wrote: On Wednesday, March 4, 2015 at 2:05:28 PM UTC-5, Justan Olphart wrote: On 3/4/2015 8:54 AM, Keyser Söze wrote: 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. :) Do you even know what a heat pump is? -- Respectfully submitted by Justan Laugh of the day from Krause "I'm not to blame anymore for the atmosphere in here. I've been "born again" as a nice guy." Yeah, I caught that. I'll have to ask my HVAC guy if he can install a "heat pump" for me that runs on propane. ;) Your HVAC guy will probably recommend a hybrid heat pump system. Yes, they make them. It's a traditional air or ground water heat pump with a propane fueled heater as well. Makes sense for climates where the air temp drops to the point where the heat pump side becomes too inefficient. It is indeed a hybrid system...air heat pump/furnace that runs on electricity in temperate or hot conditions, propane backup when it is too cold outside to extract heat. Your buddy in Florida is a moron. Heat pumps are not that popular here except as pool heaters. We have resistive electric heat but it really never gets used. I don't think the strips in the central system have been on in 2 years. The concept of a gas furnace is not even understood by people who have lived here all their life. When we put our pool in I looked at propane versus heat pump (reverse cycle A/C) and went for the heat pump. In this part of the country trying to heat the pool too early is a waste of time unless you have a good thermal cover for the pool (which are a pain in the ass). If I start warming up the pool water too early in the season there will be a fog over the pool in the mornings when the air temperature is below the water temp. It's like watching $$ evaporating out of the pool. We use it from late June, early July to raise the temp up to about 82-84 degrees and from there the water will stay fairly warm throughout the summer. We also use it to extend the season a bit but don't run it that much. It's a 150K BTU unit and it's not exactly cheap to run but is still less expensive than propane. |
Plow on, Plow off.
On Thu, 05 Mar 2015 04:06:26 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote: We use it from late June, early July to raise the temp up to about 82-84 degrees and from there the water will stay fairly warm throughout the summer. We also use it to extend the season a bit but don't run it that much. It's a 150K BTU unit and it's not exactly cheap to run but is still less expensive than propane. === We have a similar unit. I figure that it costs around $5/day this time of year to keep water temp in the upper 80s. I'll probably turn it back on in another week or two since I enjoy a daily dip late in the late afternoon. |
Plow on, Plow off.
On Thu, 5 Mar 2015 08:15:52 +0000, RGrew176 wrote:
I was mildly surprised last winter. We had a 9 1/2" snowfall and they had not yet plowed my condo complex. It came time for me to leave for work and I was as I said mildly surprised when my 2014 Ford Taurus FWD only drove right through it to the street which had been plowed. It came with Michelin all season tires and they seem to do well in the snow of course being FWD helps a lot. We had a Jetta for four years in Germany, with lots of snow, and another Jetta now - both front wheel drive only. The little buggers can handle snow pretty well, although the manual transmission helped a lot on the earlier one. It's snowing here again. I suppose we're on our way to the 6-8" we're supposed to get. They were at least partially right on the forecast last night. They said the rain would change to snow o/a 8-9am. It just changed. -- Guns don't cause problems. The behavior of certain gun owners causes problems. |
Plow on, Plow off.
On 3/5/2015 3:15 AM, RGrew176 wrote:
I was mildly surprised last winter. We had a 9 1/2" snowfall and they had not yet plowed my condo complex. It came time for me to leave for work and I was as I said mildly surprised when my 2014 Ford Taurus FWD only drove right through it to the street which had been plowed. It came with Michelin all season tires and they seem to do well in the snow of course being FWD helps a lot. Try it in 30, 40 or 50 inches of snow. :-) Back in November I bought an old, 1988 Lincoln Town Car to fool around with and drive locally. I parked it beside the house just before the first major storm in February. By the end of February you couldn't tell there was a car there. It was completely covered and hidden in snow and snow drifts. I finally dug it out last week. Battery was dead because of the cold but a quick charge brought it back to life and the car fired right up. Don't think I'll be driving it for a while yet though. It's in really good condition ... looks almost new ... with no rust or rot. No sense in driving it around on salt treated roads. |
Plow on, Plow off.
wrote:
On Thu, 05 Mar 2015 07:55:58 -0500, John H. wrote: On Thu, 5 Mar 2015 08:15:52 +0000, RGrew176 wrote: I was mildly surprised last winter. We had a 9 1/2" snowfall and they had not yet plowed my condo complex. It came time for me to leave for work and I was as I said mildly surprised when my 2014 Ford Taurus FWD only drove right through it to the street which had been plowed. It came with Michelin all season tires and they seem to do well in the snow of course being FWD helps a lot. We had a Jetta for four years in Germany, with lots of snow, and another Jetta now - both front wheel drive only. The little buggers can handle snow pretty well, although the manual transmission helped a lot on the earlier one. It's snowing here again. I suppose we're on our way to the 6-8" we're supposed to get. They were at least partially right on the forecast last night. They said the rain would change to snow o/a 8-9am. It just changed. I am hearing I may end up in a Rav4 in New Zealand. No matter what you rent, that may be what you get if you don't want an econobox sedan. Hopefully I won't be in the snow but with our itinerary, it would not shock me. What you get in NZ may not be what you think. I forget which model Toyota we had, but was totally different than the same name in the USA. |
Quote:
|
| All times are GMT +1. The time now is 11:24 AM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Copyright ©2000 - 2025, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004 - 2014 BoatBanter.com