Lessons Learned

[go_bang]

FOUR WHEEL DRIVE DOES NOT GIVE YOU THE RIGHT TO SPEED PAST EVERYONE AND FORCE THEM TO SWERVE IN SNOW, JACKWAGONS.  Slow the *&^%$ down!!!

Nah, let them go.  Chances are real good you'll find them shiny side down a little ways up the road.  The first winter accident I see often tends to be a single SUV slid off into the bushes.

[Boomhauer]

The dumbazz/reasonable person ratio rises on the road when conditions get icy/slick.  Here's a clue: Exceeding 55MPH when the only non-slick spots are ruts between ice humps is not done in honor of Sammy Hagar, it is done in honor of Charles Darwin.

During the last Big Storm a couple of weeks ago down here, those ruts between the ice humps were ice that was nicely packed down into one very slick surface...not a good idea to trust 'em. the areas outside of ruts/traveled areas with snow (but an ice crust) were actually safer to drive/walk on because your weight broke through the crust and then you were kinda "anchored" in the snow (although some of these areas had thick enough ice that you wouldn't break through and it was still very hazardous to walk).

[RoadKingLarry]

I keep left over garden feritlizer on hand for ice melt at the house. plain old 10-20-10 does a pretty good job and isn't as hard on the concrete and doesn't kill grass with the run off.  I carry a couple hundred lbs of sand in the back of the Jeep.

Having a 4wd compact tractor with a front end loader makes clearing 75' of driveway something I will actually do.

I carry a full size square point shovel in my '92 4X4 Cherokee. I've used it twice to get my self unstuck this week. 1st time was my fault for trying to blast through a plowed up berm, 2nd time was due to drifts blown across the plowed section of the county road at the top of the big *expletive deleted*ss hill I live on, didn't have enough momentum to get through it.

The city I live/work in did a fine job of clearing the parking areas infront of all the businesses on main street, except the phone company office where I work .

Had to take my little brother on a 40 mile round trip to the next town to retrieve his big ole 4X4 truck becasue he had loaned to friend of his and "didn't think" about getting it back before the storm. ALL the vehicles I saw off in the ditches along the higway were 4X4 SUVs and trucks (need a Nelson Munch smiley)

[KD5NRH]

- Keep spare set of gloves in the car.

Extra jacket and hat are good too. 

- Need to immediately build a multi-source boost converter charger for my cell phone.  I'm building at a minimum of a AA->USB and a Solar->Li Poly->USB rig.  Fully charged cell phone is the best tool to save your life during winter weather.

Save a bit of hassle:
http://www.amazon.com/XPAL-XP600-Portable-Phones-Others/dp/tech-data/B0029U2WW8
Basically, it's your LiPo battery with mini-USB in and regular USB out.  Holds enough power to recharge my phone twice from low-battery warning to full bars, so it should be a couple days standby or several hours talk time for most phones.

- Lighter beats any fancy primitive fire creating mechanism.

One advantage of being a smoker is that I don't go anywhere without some way to make fire.  I do keep a couple boxes of wooden matches in the car too, both as a backup for the lighter, and because if you have to use a very volatile starting method (like gasoline-soaked wood) it's nice to be able to stand back and throw your flame at it.

[KD5NRH]

* The dumbazz/reasonable person ratio rises on the road when conditions get icy/slick.  Here's a clue: Exceeding 55MPH when the only non-slick spots are ruts between ice humps is not done in honor of Sammy Hagar, it is done in honor of Charles Darwin.

Same goes for trying to crank the wheel the wrong way while your car is spinning out, with your shoulder cranked up to keep the cell phone against your ear.

Same also goes for taking the 40 foot horse trailer out when the roads are iced over.  If the horse needs to be anywhere that damn bad, saddle it and ride it.

* Water softener salt pellets will melt ice.  In one small spot directly around the pellet, but nowhere else.

You're supposed to use more than one.

[Balog]

This reminds me, I still need to restock the road flares in our car. Great fire starters...

[Bogie]

Plastic snow shovels work better than metal ones for big snow... Metal works better for ice stuff...
 
The three members of the He Man Woman Haters Club dug about 100 yards of driveway, cleared the intersection to the gravel road, and then the intersection to the paved road. Then dug out the drive at Arne's folks... Then managed to get the road to the shop marginally passable (I made a snow angel about halfway up the first stretch of the steep hill, and told Arne that if he Really Wanted To Continue, It Was Up To Him. He managed to get up the road in the 4x4 eventually...
 

[BridgeRunner]

Plastic snow shovels work better than metal ones for big snow... Metal works better for ice stuff...

Really?  I never seem to manage to avoid massive frustration with a plastic shovel.  I've got three or four of 'em in the garage, and yet I keep myself grabbing the metal one, despite the fact that three of its corners are bent or curled up.  I'll probably try to bang the dents out of it before I'll reach for a plastic shovel.  This may be regional.  We've had a lot of the real heavy snow the past couple years--I don't mean many inches of snow or particularly wet snow, even, just hard frozen, non-fluffy snow that piles up dense and heavy and thick.  It seems no match for a plastic shovel

[Bogie]

Well, quality helps... But the snow was sticking to the traditional metal shovel, and the plastic ones were (a) lighter, and (b) moving the material... We settled down to three guys trading off between two shovels... Took the top foot off the snow, down to about 4-8" or so, working out that the vehicles didn't "plow up" to high center, and then called it "good."
 
The 4x4 van has standard tires, but just flat out goes... The Mercedes hasn't been out yet. My 2x4 van hasn't been out yet. Arne's van has studded tires, so he pulled it out when we cleared some space. The 1970s Buick Regal has been out, but it's got monster snow tires on all four wheels, with the rears studded...
 
Oh yeah... I -love- my Carhartt canvas insulated overalls...

[Jamisjockey]

want
4x4
van

[lee n. field]

Really?  I never seem to manage to avoid massive frustration with a plastic shovel.  I've got three or four of 'em in the garage, and yet I keep myself grabbing the metal one, despite the fact that three of its corners are bent or curled up. 

 It seems no match for a plastic shovel

We dug out #2 Son's car Wednesday ('bout time, it's been dead in the water for a week and needing to go into the shop), out of this weeks snow, compounded with solidified slush mounded around, against and under it by the snow plow.  The plastic shovel cracked, snapped, and gave up the ghost.

The choices at Farm & Fleet were aluminum, and steel.

I went with steel.  It makes short work of the sort of stuff I have to deal with, digging vehicles out every snowstorm.

[zxcvbob]

I have an aluminum grain scoop and a steel show shovel.  I use both.  (I need to wax and buff them this weekend; haven't done that in a while.)  The steel SS's are getting kind of hard to find, everybody is going to plastic or aluminum for less weight I guess -- I got mine at Fleet Farm.

A little wax helps keep the snow from sticking.

This would have been a good year to build an igloo.  This summer I may make a snow block form for next year...

[GigaBuist]

In getting my ducks in a row for this storm it became apparent that I was a bit lacking in flash lights.  Namely any that'll run off AA batteries.  Got a D Cell one, a few that run off AAA, but nothing that does AA.

So I'm trying to find a durable LED based flash light that runs off two AA batteries.  Cheap.  If I find one that doesn't suck I'll probably grab 5 so I never need to hunt for one again.

[Bogie]

A whole lot of them seem to run off AAA batteries... I've got an LED headlight that takes AAs, but my two "go to" lights both run on AAAs...

[Jamisjockey]

In getting my ducks in a row for this storm it became apparent that I was a bit lacking in flash lights.  Namely any that'll run off AA batteries.  Got a D Cell one, a few that run off AAA, but nothing that does AA.

So I'm trying to find a durable LED based flash light that runs off two AA batteries.  Cheap.  If I find one that doesn't suck I'll probably grab 5 so I never need to hunt for one again.

Not quite what you're looking for, but at home depot last time I was there they had bins of 3 AAA led lights, aluminum, for like $.99 ea.  I bought about 8.  Gave one to each of the kiddos, put one in my gun safe, sock drawer, wife's nightstand, and a few more in the kitchen.

[AZRedhawk44]

I was at walmart and picked up a couple of $0.99 AA regular bulb flashlights.  They're not LED, but they work okay in a pinch.

Lots of makers want to put multiple LED's in the lens of a bulb, but then they can't get a tight reflector pattern.  Beware LED flashlights if you want a tight, far-reaching beam... especially if they have multiple bulbs that are not in the direct center of the reflector.

I just got a pair of Smith & Wesson (translated: Chinese contracted tactiwear) LED flashlights.  Here's my thoughts on them:

http://www.neardeathexperiments.com/smf/index.php?topic=5404

[lee n. field]

In getting my ducks in a row for this storm it became apparent that I was a bit lacking in flash lights.  Namely any that'll run off AA batteries.  Got a D Cell one, a few that run off AAA, but nothing that does AA.

So I'm trying to find a durable LED based flash light that runs off two AA batteries.  Cheap.  If I find one that doesn't suck I'll probably grab 5 so I never need to hunt for one again.

Mini maglite 2AA.  I've got one.  Not tactikool, but I like it.

Not cheap, $20-something at Wally World.  it uses a single LED, and the focus is adjustable.

[SADShooter]

Brinkmann Rebel. I've had one so long I don't remember when I bought it.

http://www.amazon.com/Brinkmann-Rebel-Flashlight-Model-809-1055-0/dp/B0000AUSJ7

[Doggy Daddy]

Not quite what you're looking for, but at home depot last time I was there they had bins of 3 AAA led lights, aluminum, for like $.99 ea.  I bought about 8.  Gave one to each of the kiddos, put one in my gun safe, sock drawer, wife's nightstand, and a few more in the kitchen.

I get those spring loaded clips for hanging handled tools on the wall... like brooms, mops etc.  Mount one behind the door in each room, and put a flashlight in it.  Holds them well, and that way you have a standardized spot for a flashlight in each room.

My favorite flashlight is a 4 C cell maglight.  The C size just fits the hand well.  I use a clip on the headboard of the bed to hold the C cell light vertical with the beam pointing up.  Wifey has the same on her side of the bed.  Lights went out a week ago for several hours.  Turned on the flashlights, left them in the clips and illuminated the room sufficiently to surf on laptops until the lights came back on.

DD

[RevDisk]

Save a bit of hassle:
http://www.amazon.com/XPAL-XP600-Portable-Phones-Others/dp/tech-data/B0029U2WW8
Basically, it's your LiPo battery with mini-USB in and regular USB out.  Holds enough power to recharge my phone twice from low-battery warning to full bars, so it should be a couple days standby or several hours talk time for most phones.

Proper mad engineering philosophy is twofold.  If you want it done right, you do it yourself.  Second is, there is no kill but overkill, and more dakka is its prophet.

[Bogie]

You can also buy larger add-on batteries for a lot of cell phones - they replace the main battery, but stick out more. I used to do that with all of mine.

[KD5NRH]

So I'm trying to find a durable LED based flash light that runs off two AA batteries.  Cheap.  If I find one that doesn't suck I'll probably grab 5 so I never need to hunt for one again.

Wally World sporting goods, look for one that's a flat body, angle head, kinda like a modernized version of the old LifeLight.  It's about $5, and you need a screwdriver to change the 2 AAs, but the battery life is long enough that for an emergency flashlight, you may never need to change them.  It's no tacticool photon cannon, but it'll get you around the house.

[Bogie]

In a pinch, an inverter is a great thing to have - I've got one in the van that is hooked to a pair of 12 volt marine batteries (wired for a single 12 volt load) that get charged by the vehicle. I can run a cord inside if I need to, or I've also got LED lighting in the van, along with a place to plug a computer, etc... So if I want, I drive up to Starbucks, and haz instant interwebz...

[Boomhauer]

Mini maglite 2AA.  I've got one.  Not tactikool, but I like it.

Not cheap, $20-something at Wally World.  it uses a single LED, and the focus is adjustable.

I have never had one of those that has not failed...they seem to have a design deficiency that causes connection problems due to the twist head. One memorable time, I had three Minimags fail on a camping trip within 20 minutes (and they were my only lights)...all had fresh quality batteries before the trip, all worked when I tested them before putting them with my gear, all started flickering on and off intermittently. Another time I had two standard minimags and a LED version fail, exact same thing, flickering and crap. That was the watershed moment when I dropped the coin for a Surefire G2Led and never looked back...a light I have carried everyday and used pretty frequently for the past two years without a failure, a light that is now mounted on my rifle. I buy maybe 6-8 batteries a year for it, and the batteries last a long while for the intermittent type of use it sees...


The one and only "cheapie" that hasn't failed on me yet is a Brinkmann plastic bodied flashlight. Think it was called a Rebel or something, don't recall. Works OK, takes AA batteries. I'm told the energizer hardcases are good lights, going to try one eventually.

[go_bang]

want
4x4
van

Here you go:

http://www.quigley4x4.com/