Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Grandpa Shooter on February 11, 2021, 12:31:13 PM
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I used to live in the desert southwest where the weather was uniformly nice. Get up and put on shorts and a T shirt and you were good to go. Sandals were optional depending on the day's activities. Before that I lived in the Northeast where we got 12 feet of snow in the winter and you kept a snow shovel in the house to dig your way out. A friend once asked about coming to visit in the summer and I replied, "That depends on what weekend summer is this year." Now I am in between and it rains or snows so often the average precipitation is in excess of 58" a year with the last three being in excess. There is no point trying to do any projects because by the time you get the materials and tools out, it's either raining, or snowing again. Any free time you might have is spent mowing grass after it has rained, or after the every day dew has evaporated.
Today is the aftermath of an ice storm that went through and shut everything down in anticipation of the storm. It doesn't matter if the storm ever happens, just a prediction of the possibility of a weather event shuts everything down. The schools have "it might happen" days in the school calendar. I looked at the clock and it's still on. Looked out the window and the propane tanks for backup heat are still on the front porch, along with the gas for the generator, which means nobody came by and stole them as was predicted along with the storm. We don't get the blizzards the lake zone gets, the tornados the midwest and south gets, the hurricanes the coast gets, or the forest fires the northwest gets, or the range fires the southwest gets, we just get rain or snow often enough to keep everything wet and rusty. The bright side is this a conservative state and no one is stepping on my rights just yet. With any luck that will hold up for awhile even if the weather doesn't.
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Hey welcome back!!!
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We got ~1/2" of ice, south of Louisville places got over an inch. Some guy in a PU just went sideways though the 4 way stop and through a neighbor's yard
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We got ~1/2" of ice, south of Louisville places got over an inch. Some guy in a PU just went sideways though the 4 way stop and through a neighbor's yard
You are in Ky or Southern In. then? We got maybe a quarter inch of ice on the trees but no big problems other than that. People usually do think their driving ability is better than it is.
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You are in Ky or Southern In. then? We got maybe a quarter inch of ice on the trees but no big problems other than that. People usually do think their driving ability is better than it is.
Louisville
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Louisville
I'm 30 miles south. Only time I do Louville is for the VA.
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We got ~1/2" of ice, south of Louisville places got over an inch. Some guy in a PU just went sideways though the 4 way stop and through a neighbor's yard
Pickups ain't got no rear traction. So it keeps going while the front is stopping.
If PUs had wings they'd call it a ground loop.
Rogers on that.
=D
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There was a huge pile-up on I-35W near Ft. Worth today. Around 100 cars involved and at least 5 deaths.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/fort-worth-texas-vehicle-freeway-crash-fatalities-injuries
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There was a huge pile-up on I-35W near Ft. Worth today. Around 100 cars involved and at least 5 deaths.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/fort-worth-texas-vehicle-freeway-crash-fatalities-injuries
Is it just me or has the weather become a national thing in the last few years. It seems like weather systems used to be fairly localized events, now there is an ice storm all the way from at least Texas to the east into Kentucky and probably further east if I read the regional news. It is the jet streams or the weather machines they have now? :facepalm:
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Global warming, obviously.
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Hey welcome back!!!
Thanks, now if I can stay under the radar we should be good. :old:
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Global warming, obviously.
The fault lies with Algore (and Perd Haply).
We shut down global warming so hard we are now back to heading into another ice age.
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Actually the air is so clear now we are getting more sun in places causing the climate to change due to Kung flu.
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Pickups ain't got no traction in back, keeps going faster than front.
If pickups had wings they'd probably call it a ground loop.
=D
Nap time. Me go now.
Why many people when it snows they shovel a bunch of snow into the bed of their truck
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I have a half chord of hardwood in mine along with several 40 lb bags of salt for added traction.
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Thanks, now if I can stay under the radar we should be good. :old:
Don't jump too high ;)
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Why many people when it snows they shovel a bunch of snow into the bed of their truck
Extra weight in the bed of a pickup helps with traction when it slick and sloppy. By the time you don't need it anymore it might have melted away.
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Shoveling salted snow into the bed of a truck has a downside.
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I put bags of portland cement in the back of my pickup, behind the wheel wells. Poke a few little holes in the top of the bag so the snow can get in and set up. Tall skinny tires help too, but now that all trucks have 17" or larger wheels I don't know if that's really an option anymore. (7.5-16 or 215/85-16 are ideal for ice and snow. Fat tires are for mud)
Sometime next week, I'll be driving from MN to SE Texas. (not in a pickup) The roads have not been good enough to attempt that for about a week now; the bad section just moves around from one state to another. I sure hope it clears out by Tuesday or Wednesday.
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We’re in a cold snap. Nights getting down to the 25F range. Days still hitting 40ish. Not sure how we survive.
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Shoveling salted snow into the bed of a truck has a downside.
Why use salted snow?
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Weather service is predicting possibility of serious ice this weekend. Just lovely... not even my Subaru will navigate ice properly.
If it does start to ice, Seren is staying in day care. No way am I going to try to walk her on glaze. I'm old enough that I don't bounce when I fall anymore.
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I put bags of portland cement in the back of my pickup, behind the wheel wells. Poke a few little holes in the top of the bag so the snow can get in and set up. Tall skinny tires help too, but now that all trucks have 17" or larger wheels I don't know if that's really an option anymore. (7.5-16 or 215/85-16 are ideal for ice and snow. Fat tires are for mud)
Sometime next week, I'll be driving from MN to SE Texas. (not in a pickup) The roads have not been good enough to attempt that for about a week now; the bad section just moves around from one state to another. I sure hope it clears out by Tuesday or Wednesday.
If by cleared out you mean subzero temps and blizzard conditions you are in luck..
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Why use salted snow?
Sometimes it's presalted by street plow truck before you can scoop your drive and walks. All depends where you live.
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Sometimes it's presalted by street plow truck before you can scoop your drive and walks. All depends where you live.
The city salts your drive and walks? Never seen that. Besides your truck, including, the bed, is getting a good salt spray just driving down the highway
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There was a huge pile-up on I-35W near Ft. Worth today. Around 100 cars involved and at least 5 deaths.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/fort-worth-texas-vehicle-freeway-crash-fatalities-injuries
Holy crap. You gotta look at this article for the photos. They're incredible. Scary as hell. Looks like you took a thousand junkyard cars, put 'em in a huge cocktail shaker, shook 'em up, and just dumped them in a big pile on the highway.
I'm amazed there are only 6 dead as of now, 8:45 AM MST.
It's like the coefficient of friction went negative on that road.
Terry
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The road "may not have been properly treated by the operator," contributing to the crash, Texas state Sen. Beverly Powell told Fox News.
Somebody's not getting their annual bonus this year.
What do they use down there anyway? I thought I read that it was a "de-icing agent", implying it wasn't salt or sand. Around here they just use sand. I don't know if it's Idaho-wide or if they use other stuff in parts of the state where it really snows.
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Somebody's not getting their annual bonus this year.
What do they use down there anyway? I thought I read that it was a "de-icing agent", implying it wasn't salt or sand. Around here they just use sand. I don't know if it's Idaho-wide or if they use other stuff in parts of the state where it really snows.
Here in Ky they spray a brine on the roads in anticipation of bad weather. It helps keep ice from forming on the road surface. If it gets bad enough they will go afterwards to put down crystal salt to melt what has fallen while the brine keeps it from freezing to the road. However as I said above, they also shut down everything they can if the weather is "supposed" to get bad. One place I tried calling was closed yesterday and again today due to bad weather. It is in the main part of town that I know has been treated so they are just being extra cautious.
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I think down here they just put sand on likely areas such as bridges and overpasses. We rarely have freezes lasting more than a day.
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The biggest problem in Ky is that for 9-10 years we'll get almost nothing but light dustings then wham we get hit. During the lulls the city(s) usually decide they don't need all this expensive equipment.
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The biggest problem in Ky is that for 9-10 years we'll get almost nothing but light dustings then wham we get hit. During the lulls the city(s) usually decide they don't need all this expensive equipment.
I moved to Ky 7 years ago and the first winter we were here the state got slammed as WLJ said. Our pond froze and my horse walked out onto it and fell down. I had to go pull her off the pond while praying we didn't both fall in. It has only frozen around the edges since and rarely stays cold enough to build any thick ice. That first year I was dumbfounded to learn that the small towns don't even own snow plows and just wait for the snow to melt and pray it doesn't freeze. The road I live on has not been treated at all and it is a county road. The state road it connects to has, but not ours. It is currently 25F out so I better go check the pond.
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The city salts your drive and walks? Never seen that. Besides your truck, including, the bed, is getting a good salt spray just driving down the highway
I have done the "fill the bed up with ice and snow" thing before. It does seem to speed up the rust a little, even if you use clean snow. But more importantly, it takes up so much space in the bed if you even need to haul anything, and you can't unload it. Four bags of cement all the way at the back does a better job and you still have almost the whole bed for hauling. I'm a little worried that I'll have a head-on collision and they'll come flying thru the rear window, but I don't drive that fast in the winter so don't know how much of a risk that really is.
What I'd like is about 300 pounds of rear bumper weights.
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I moved to Ky 7 years ago and the first winter we were here the state got slammed as WLJ said. Our pond froze and my horse walked out onto it and fell down. I had to go pull her off the pond while praying we didn't both fall in. It has only frozen around the edges since and rarely stays cold enough to build any thick ice. That first year I was dumbfounded to learn that the small towns don't even own snow plows and just wait for the snow to melt and pray it doesn't freeze. The road I live on has not been treated at all and it is a county road. The state road it connects to has, but not ours. It is currently 25F out so I better go check the pond.
Louisville tends to keep equipment on hand. Or at least they do NOW after being read the riot act by UPS, GE, & Ford after a couple of big ones.
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I'm a little worried that I'll have a head-on collision and they'll come flying thru the rear window,
What I'd like is about 300 pounds of rear bumper weights.
When I took one of our mandatory defensive driving courses at work, the instructor said that is exactly what happened to his son (who he admits was likely driving too fast). IIRC, the kid spent a month in intensive care. He was really big on promoting "tie the weight down." :)
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The road I live on has not been treated at all and it is a county road.
I need to get better about knowing when to look for ice. The county roads leading from my place to town are rarely plowed. While snow in the fields was thick, there was only a thin layer of snow on the roads when I drove to town a half hour ago. Man, was it icy. Fun trip. :laugh:
I can see why a lot of county roads around here are left as gravel. I have a 1/4 mile entrance road to my house that I keep surfaced with road mix, and that road never ices up.
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Here in Ky they spray a brine on the roads in anticipation of bad weather. It helps keep ice from forming on the road surface. If it gets bad enough they will go afterwards to put down crystal salt to melt what has fallen while the brine keeps it from freezing to the road. However as I said above, they also shut down everything they can if the weather is "supposed" to get bad. One place I tried calling was closed yesterday and again today due to bad weather. It is in the main part of town that I know has been treated so they are just being extra cautious.
You can usually tell what roads they've done the brine treatment on. Not sure what everything they put in it but it stays put where they put it down.
(https://www.wave3.com/resizer/CBbv4tIQ5Y2bFMlCT2DR7WIN1MU=/1400x0/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/raycom/LKXSWGHKT5EDTMCHFDTS7ID7F4.jpg)
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The salted snow thing was a friends dad years ago. It had been snowing off and on for a week and the city keep putting salt down until the one night it dropped about a foot. When they plowed the road it left a nice three foot pile in front of his drive so he backed up the truck and started shoveling it in.
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Two wheel drive pickups are a rarity in Colorado. Mine is a diesel, so 4WD is a must.
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The city salts your drive and walks? Never seen that. Besides your truck, including, the bed, is getting a good salt spray just driving down the highway
No, we get enough snow that the furrow from the plow buries half the driveway and sidewalk.
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You can usually tell what roads they've done the brine treatment on. Not sure what everything they put in it but it stays put where they put it down.
(https://www.wave3.com/resizer/CBbv4tIQ5Y2bFMlCT2DR7WIN1MU=/1400x0/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/raycom/LKXSWGHKT5EDTMCHFDTS7ID7F4.jpg)
Good pic, can I steal it to show friends what I'm talking about?
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Good pic, can I steal it to show friends what I'm talking about?
From off wave3's website https://www.wave3.com/2021/02/12/behind-forecast-how-road-salt-actually-works/
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Two wheel drive pickups are a rarity in Colorado. Mine is a diesel, so 4WD is a must.
My last two pickups were 2WD, that's how I figured out the right tires and ballast to survive the winters. Truck rusted totally out 2 years ago and I had to junk it (it only had 80000 miles and the engine ran so smooth and quiet you could barely tell it was running :'( ) I'm looking for a 4WD to replace it, but trucks don't last long enough up here to buy a new one; I want a standard cab with a long box, gasoline V8 (small V8 is okay), and little-or-no rust. I've been looking for a year and a half -- trucks like that are rare. Everybody wants an extended cab and short box.
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Two wheel drive pickups are a rarity in Colorado. Mine is a diesel, so 4WD is a must.
I'm not clear on that relationship. Is that strictly a marketing effect? Or due to some kind of torque effect? Pardon my ignorance.
From off wave3's website https://www.wave3.com/2021/02/12/behind-forecast-how-road-salt-actually-works/
Exellent link. Basically, any time you dissolve something in water it drops the freezing point and raises the boiling point.
And there's a specific numerical relationship, as noted in the article.
I seem to recall household canning is done by sitting the canning jars in salted boiling water, but I could be wrong on that.
In any case, salty water boils hotter and freezes colder.
Terry
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The horse thing above reminded me that twice in the last freezes, a Fire Department had to be called to rescue people's dogs from falling through the ice. If it happens, a ladder slid out on the ice to the hole helps to distribute the weight of the rescuer.
And if the 50 lb dog went through, what'll happen to the 200 lb you?
(And from personal scary experience, most ponds have thick icky bottoms which make it very difficult to get out of. This is true regardless of the weather.)
Terry
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I'm not clear on that relationship. Is that strictly a marketing effect? Or due to some kind of torque effect? Pardon my ignorance.
[Jon snipped some of the reply]
Terry
I have a Chevy Diesel pickup. With the 6.6 litre engine and Allison automatic transmission, the front axle is really heavy. In 2WD, it’s hopeless in slippery conditions. That’s my guess at what was meant.
JB
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I have a Chevy Diesel pickup. With the 6.6 litre engine and Allison automatic transmission, the front axle is really heavy. In 2WD, it’s hopeless in slippery conditions. That’s my guess at what was meant.
JB
Yes, same here. The DuraMax and Allison weigh at least a ton, probably more. Even trying to back up a slight incline with 1" of snow on the ground, you need 4WD. My last pickup was a 1992 F150 shortbed, standard cab, with a 351 and automatic. I rarely used 4WD, unless I was off road or in deep snow.
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I'm not clear on that relationship. Is that strictly a marketing effect? Or due to some kind of torque effect? Pardon my ignorance.
Exellent link. Basically, any time you dissolve something in water it drops the freezing point and raises the boiling point.
And there's a specific numerical relationship, as noted in the article.
I seem to recall household canning is done by sitting the canning jars in salted boiling water, but I could be wrong on that.
In any case, salty water boils hotter and freezes colder.
Terry
Hmmm...
I may have to try a little cold weather chemistry experiment.
Get some water down to just above freezing and then add some potassium bromide.
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I seem to recall household canning is done by sitting the canning jars in salted boiling water, but I could be wrong on that.
Terry
Not really. For high acid foods you can water bath can, and adding salt isn’t necessary, or especially consequential. For low acid foods you have to pressure can. The higher pressure increases the boiling point of water to about 250F, which with a 100 minutes processing time, is sufficient to kill clostridium botulinum through the entire contents of the jar.