Winter survival and hotel living

stand watie said:
I keep bottled water too, but I have already figured out I am going to have to store that a little differently. Thanks gents, Jeremy
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That was the first thing that jumped out at me. You'll have to carry your water inside every night, and probably most days, as it will freeze solid in your truck, then thaw and melt all over everything next time it gets warm.

What we used to do for our cars in Northern Pennsylvania when the cold was coming, was put a 100 watt lightbulb next to the engine block. Always kept the engine warm enough to help with starting the next morning. (we didn't have engine block heaters, and mostly didn't need them.)

You'll also need a brush/ice scraper for the windshield (which I haven't seen mentioned yet.) Only other things I can think of are a balaclava/hood and lots of extra thick socks. You'll also need an excellent pair of gloves. I like the kind that go clean up over my wrist (snow in the sleeve 1st thing in the monring sucks)
 
Grim/Don said:
You'll also need an excellent pair of gloves.
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For really cold weather, mittens are the only way to go. The small hand warmer packets that are widely available are a great asset as well. One in each glove/mitten can make a BIG difference in maintaining finger dexterity in really cold temps. I participated in a rifle match last winter with temps around -5 fahrenheit, the heat packs really helped. If one were stranded in cold conditions, a heat pack in each boot could prevent frost bite. Cheap insurance.
 
You going to be moving around a lot or just staying pretty much in one town? I would definitely look at the weekly rate efficiencies (extended stay) motels.

Lots of stuff recommended. Get some bags of kiddie sand for the back of your truck. Great for weight and you can use them for ice. Carry shovel and broom with you. Tire chains for rear tires. Wool army blanket, change of clothes, long johns, warm coat, warm hat, gloves, insulated boots, gaiters, are a few of the things. Get cheap rain suit that is large to pull over all your clothes if you get stuck in a blizzard. (Suit cuts the wind.)

Really depends on how much time you are going to spend outside on the job. I lived in a motel for 2.5 years in Texas. You really start building up a lot of junk that you have saved.
 
I noticed that your truck is a diesel. Check with a regional New York mechanic about additives to your fuel. Here in Nebraska I had to deal with gelled fuel when I have forgotten to add it when I fueled up. Don"t trust the gas stations when they tell you they have the gelling problem taken care of.
 
Shann said:
Rear wheel drive only trucks are the worst of the worst. Not only do they lack traction, the rear will kick out without a moments notice. Definately need good tires. I remember saying to a friend of mine, well, we used to only drive rear wheel drives all winter and he said "yeah, and we spend half the winter pulling each other out of ditches!"
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This is another good reason to carry "plenty" of ammo in your truck if you have a locking capper or tonneau cover. :D
 
Tractor Supply Store carries a jug of AntiGel/Injector Cleaner.
It treats up to 300 gals. if my memory serves.

I use it in my deisel tractors , works great.

Also there are magnetic block heaters, more of a pain because you have to place them on the oil pan and then remove them to drive.
I did use one for a couple years, also, it worked good. I now use it on my tractor when snow is predicted, knowing I'll be plowing the driveway and need assured starting. Also, I use a trickle-charger on my diesels, when it's super cold.
On the tractors, they may not be run for weeks at a time in the winter, so, if snow is predicted, or I am going to use them on the weekend, I plug in the trickle-charger Friday night, place the magnetic block heater, then Saturday morning they start up like it's a summers day.

Being on the first floor of the hotel/motel, as was mentioned before, is needed. i ahve seen some that actually have outside AC outlets.
I did like the idea about having a strip of foam in case you needed to run an extension cord out the window...good thinking!
It would be worth it to ask the Hotel if there is an outside outlet, and can you have a room near it.
Bolt a small trickle-charger under the hood, and have the block heater and trickle-charger plugged into a 2-way adapter. That'll get you going.
 
If your on the road start looking for a Dinner/Resturant {Big propane tanks} food and Heat for a while, same for hotel/motel see if dinner is part of it or nearby.
 
For car, SUV, or truck, has anyone tried "cheater chains";
they are essentially a chain-strand (or 2) that can be put
on a tire and wheel very quickly?
(They are sold commercially.)

For overnighting in a vehicle, a stove made from coffee-can,
toilet paper, alcohol. Any comments or reviews of this??

Coolers are good containers and can keep stuff from freezing.
However, as temps fluctuate, any metal in the cooler will
attrack condensation. This much I have verified in practice
and have ruined equipments.
So, I theorize that a breathing cooler, made of wool and
cardboard boxes might minimize condensation.
Alternatively, a regular cooler with lid raised by a thick
layer of wool, might allow enough breathing; this is a theory,
also. Silica Gel which absorbs moisture could also be used.

For hotel stays, you might have wet clothing to dry.
(Yes, I am aware that most have washer and dryer.)
A small electric fan, 12 clothes pins, 550 nylon line,
and perhaps a small collapsable clothes drying rack. Plastic
bags, laid flat on the floor, can catch dripping water,
if needed.

At home I use a 10 quart = 9.5 liter Sterilite brand plastic
rectangular tub; it fits in any kitchen sink. I use it for
washing wool items and hats of every kind. I also use
the next size up (rectangular tub) for hand washing larger
items. They are cheap and light-weight. Though, at
-20 F degrees, they might be brittle. You could get 2 of
each and keep them nested for extra strength.
 
As far as the put downs about rear wheel drive trucks. Shame on you. you just do not know how to drive them. I grew up driving on snow in 2wd pick ups.

Pretty good tires and Posi or limited slip will get you anywhere you need to go as long as you allow physics to have its say. Pick up trucks are designed to be light in the rear end so when you want to put a load in them there is some capacity left, Use this capacity to add 3-400 pounds of sand bags to the back end, over the axles and you will have very little trouble driving. Learn to be like a rally driver and understand that tail out driving is your friend. The best long term all seasons I have driven on LT's are the Michelin LTX or equivalents. Awesome tire life, (90K) pretty darn good all round performance and they work in the snow too. I drove 2 wheel s-10's for nearly fifteen years and only got stuck once, and that was cuz i was stupid and went where i should not have. now that i have 4wd in the van and the latest S10, I drive all over the great plains and into the UP with hardly a concern. i have a small hockey duffle with some winter overalls and 15 dollar sleeping bag from Kmart that will keep me alive in a storm inside a car, and at 15 bucks, i will not cry if i have to lay on the snow and slush to keep me dry while i fix something. washable is good. I can also get in it with my clothes on and be just fine in the cab


One thing, about living in motels, get some groceries of your own and keep a small box of rations in the room. When we were working on the road, motels never had microwaves in the room, now some do, but a 30 dollar small microwave from Wally world will let you eat pretty well if you but smart. same as a 40 dollar room fridge.
 
Yay Guntotin! I've been wanting to say that for the last 12 hours. I haven't owned a 4wd since the mid-1970's. Spun it out twice, with studded snowtires - why? Because I was overconfident about what it could do, and when a 4wd loses it on ice, all four wheels will put you into a spin. I have since owned a number of front-wheel drives, no problem, especially a Subaru wagon.

My last two pickups have been rear wheel drive, not by choice, just by circumstances of that they were there and available at my price and they were what I wanted for work. They were going to be used as street vehicles, not off road.

My first, a Chevy S-10 gave me a heads up real fast after I did a 360 in traffic, no collision thank God. Then I learned to weight down the bed.

My last is a Dodge 1500, and I have plenty of weight in the back end. It's well balanced and easily correctable in a slide.

The real secret is learning how to drive in snow. Keep your speed down for the road conditions. If you're slippin and slidin, slow down. Other than that, I don't go anywhere until the snowplow has been by to plow, sand and salt. It's called survival.

You really don't need any special equipment to drive in snow (other than good tires), unless you're going through the Donner Pass in a blizzard, and then you really need to ask yourself "Why the hell am I out here?"

Get into a motel and stay there. It will pass.

Unless I'm working for a hospital ER (which I don't) I don't have any problem calling the staff to tell them to stay home, tomorrow's another day. No point in risking life and car on dangerous roads just to get to work and spend the rest of the day wondering how you're going to get home.
 
Coldwood said:
The real secret is learning how to drive in snow. Keep your speed down for the road conditions. If you're slippin and slidin, slow down. .
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The secret is to keep the wheels rolling. As Coldwood said slipping and sliding aren't good. As soon as you lose traction, you've lost control. As long as the wheels are rolling, you are in control. I've lived in areas with snowy winters most of my life, from Alaska to Minnesota to my current digs in Maine. I've never owned a four wheel drive vehicle in the thirty years I've been driving. Not by choice mind you, more by economic circumstance. In those years I've seen a boatload of folks get in a heap of trouble driving 4x4's on icy roads thinking that four wheel drive makes them immune from the laws of physics.
 
If you have not driven in snow, after you are there and you get a little snow (couple inches), head to the mall parking lot and do some practicing. You can learn a lot in a short time about controlling skids, breaking, accelerating on curves or not, etc. Just watch out for those darn light poles.
 
I did that once in a parking lot, with my wife in the car, in her car...I got a real bad bitching out for that ;)
 
"Hey Honey! Hold my beer and watch this!!"

Yeah, that'll get ya trouble every time!:D
 
I got my first 4 WD vehicle last summer. But, I grew up driving in Pennsyvania, in the winters there. I know to control my speed all the time. 4 WD ain't gonna help ya stop, no matter what. It's real nice at the stop lights, when everyone else is spinning, though! :D

We had a snowstorm here in KC 3-4-5 years ago. I was out in it with my daughter (she was 10-12 years old at the time) I was headed to the comicbook store because the new issues were out. I remember telling her about watching your speed and staying in control. Just being a safer driver, when you need to be.
That's the same snowstorm that the KC Chief football player Derrick Thomas got killed in. I was driving safe and setting a good example for my daughter... He was speeding, cutting in and out of traffic AND... not wearing his seatbelt. There were three people in his car. One was killed at the scene, another died in the hospital later (Thomas) and a third had bumps and bruises. Guess which one of the three had his seatbelt on?:mad::grumpy:
 
Not to misunderstand, 4wd is great, it will get you out of a lot of difficult situations. But a lot of yahoos, including me at one time, tend to over-rate it's abilities. Since then, I find that 2wd, front or rear, is good if you plan ahead. So now I forego the expense of running 4wd and I just play it safe when getting out on the road.
 
If we are going to talk about ice scrapers we might as well mention technique . If you start your motor on extra cold mornings and put your defrost on when you get a bit of heat it will soften up the ice directly next to the windshield . A few minutes will help .

Its not exactly P:C: . As you only need to do it on terrible mornings its not that much a biggie . It will make a big difference when scraping the ice off the windshield .

There are also plastic sheets you can slap on at night that will eliminate most of the hastle .
 
Grim/Don said:
I got my first 4 WD vehicle last summer. But, I grew up driving in Pennsyvania, in the winters there. I know to control my speed all the time. 4 WD ain't gonna help ya stop, no matter what. It's real nice at the stop lights, when everyone else is spinning, though! :D

We had a snowstorm here in KC 3-4-5 years ago. I was out in it with my daughter (she was 10-12 years old at the time) I was headed to the comicbook store because the new issues were out. I remember telling her about watching your speed and staying in control. Just being a safer driver, when you need to be.
That's the same snowstorm that the KC Chief football player Derrick Thomas got killed in. I was driving safe and setting a good example for my daughter... He was speeding, cutting in and out of traffic AND... not wearing his seatbelt. There were three people in his car. One was killed at the scene, another died in the hospital later (Thomas) and a third had bumps and bruises. Guess which one of the three had his seatbelt on?:mad::grumpy:
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I was in KC when that happened, remember that snowstorm. KC sure gets a lot of ice!

One thing 4WD will do, if you have the right setup, is stop safer and faster. I use the engine in 4WD for compression braking, and when your brakes start icing up or grabbing, you can often slow down by downshifting carefully. You gotta have the right 4WD setup for this, one of the many reasons I still prefer manual locking hubs.
 
The only difference in 4 wheel drive and 2 wheel drive is the length of rope it takes to pull you out.
As far as staying warm, layers, think layers. Don't wear cotton against your skin, wear moistore wicking materials like silk and the new underarmour. If you are going to be out in the cold for any amount of time, you need to regulate your body temp, if you start sweating, your in trouble. A good pair of mittens, head cover, and boots.
As far as a car survival kit, good sleepping bag, few candy bars, flares, shovel. No need for water, if there is snow, melt it. don't leave your vehicle if you get stuck or it dies. You will be found in less than 2 to 3 days unless you are somewhere you weren't supposed to be. Never let your fuel tank get below 1/2 when traveling in the winter. Pretty simple stuff here, not rocket science.
 
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