i know that some operations around the world are set up for really cold temps,but here in wy it goes from 100s in summer to -25 in winter.so our machines dont get much special attention in winter besides different fuel or fuel additives, not running plugged in. when it gets below zero my scraper starts to feel brittle like the iron is so cold something could just snap,nights that its 15 to 20 below and were on a short haul sometimes there is so much steam coming up from the ground its hard to see in the cut.just wondering if anybody has a certain temp hot or cold at which they just shut everything down?
On large dirt spreads we shut down if the temps didn't get above 32* since frost was always an issue, but I've done underground in sub 0 temps. There is always snow removal too.
If the temps are below 15 degrees, we won't even turn the key. There is no sense in beating the machines if you don't have to.
The lowest temps ive worked in are -14 and 0 deg. The 0 deg was on a dirt crew. We had to haul utility crew spoils out of the way. All of it was cut to stockpile. Things were so muddy we had to let the stockpile freeze before we could dump on it again. We also did some cut to fill on the site, but we were using quick lime to turn mud into compatible fill. Every morning we had to start out by adding 4 inches of mud to the fill then mixing that, with the frozen lift from the night before, all while mixing lime in. The -14 was doing demo. No one paid attention to the weather so nothing was done to the machines. We came back on monday, and attempted to start things up. I was running a cat320cl prepping non ferrous metals. I had another 320 working with me. Both our machines started, most of the others didnt. We let our machines warm up and sat in the office trailer. 45 min later we went out to start for the day and both 320s had died. The fuel gelled up. After that, everyone except for 2 operators and the mechanic went home. Those guys spent the whole day getting machines running. Next morning the temps were the same, but machines were running. So we went after it. Spent the first half hour just moving the machines to get the oils good and hot. The shears really needed all the warm up time. On the other hand it was pretty hard on the sheers. Iron starts getting brittle at those temps. With the sheers cutting some major iron it was tough on the blades and the rest of the sheer.
Cold Operating Temps When working on the North Slope . Nothing is shut down, the equipment runs 24 hrs a day. The fuels , oils, lubricants are all designed for extreme Arctic Operational temps. The equipment is set up the same way. Engine blankets, hydraulic cylinder blankets, fuel and oil tank heaters,etc. After -35F things slow down. Ice roads are built in -30'sF --40'sF temp. Finally at -50F we just stopped working , equipment really gets sluggish, hydraulic hoses start breaking, tires go flat. Metal becomes brittle,cracks and breaks easily. Maintenance really becomes an effort. Work efficiency drops to 10-15% , takes longer to get the work done. This is when white outs are occurring . Still, some essential tasks must still be done. Nowadays, 5% nickel content is designed for Arctic Equipment, for extreme Arctic conditions. The Oil Patch keeps working year round. :usa Just slows down in the extremes.
When it's too cold to go out of the nice warm cab and take a quick pee. That's when it's too cold for me. I'll just carry a 1 liter bottle next time thank you very much.
I've worked with and worked on equipment at 60 below zero. It's not easy but sometimes you have to do it. If you are set up to work in constant below zero temps it's not so bad -- long as you have a cab w/heat, or some kind of shelter to drop over the immediate work area, again, something you can get some heat in to. Biggest problems I've had with extreme cold weather operation is fluids. Sluggish oil, waxing fuel, and freezing coolant make it difficult to initially start the equipment and keep it running to the point it will sustain itself. Many a time I've had machinery start pretty well, then refuse to move or maybe die a little later on from something choking up. That's when the fun really begins as it always dies right in the way, usually loaded and in a really tight spot. Big tires lose air pressure fast in extreme cold, you have to check them nearly every shift. Giant tires, particularly bias-ply, take a cold weather set. Anyone running a loader or scraper knows what I mean, like ole grandpa with a mean gimp. O-rings get pretty brittle, have to exercise the machine a little, carefully, till it warms up some. I've never had any trouble with cold brittle iron or steel though, except for hydraulic fittings. I have heard of people experiencing breakage in extreme cold though, mostly in Alaska and far northern Canada. In hot climes, biggest problems are cooling and loss of lubricity in oil lubricated compartments. For operators it's getting out of the sun and keeping some air moving past you to cool off with. That, and trying to avoid getting burned by hot iron and tools. I've both froze my butt to a seat or piece of frozen steel, and blistered it by sitting down on a super hot fender or hood. Working on extremely hot iron is the worse compared to cold. It's tough though, to work on very small stuff with gloves on. Also very hard to work with safety glasses on in either extreme hot or cold. Sweat runs all over the lenses in the hot. Eyelashes freeze to the lens in cold. I always hated the snot-cicles in the cold. One time in Kentucky during one extremely cold day, I ran an open cab D8H with a winch to rescue a D10 that busted a track on a very steep hillside. Was probably in the seat steady about five hours, all during a white-out and very gusty winds. After we were done I ran the Cat back to the yard and then found I was frozen into the seat. I could barely move my legs they were so cold. I moved the Cat over to as close to the employee lunch room as I could and hollered for help. The boys came out and finally got me pried loose, losing part of a good coat and some of my britches and skin in the process. Then they all laughed at me for a week or two. I can't work in the cold anymore. I get severe migraine headaches whenever my ears get cold, probably because they have been frozen several times. Now they are very sensitive to cold and I keep them covered up when most folks are done wearing ear protection for the season. My fingers don't take to cold very well either anymore. I usually wear gloves even in 40-50 degree weather and in some houses I've lived in that weren't very well heated, I've worn socks over my hands in bed while sleeping. I don't mind the heat so much anymore, working outside comfortably in 100+ temps. I much prefer the heat to the cold any day. As people get older, I find a lot that are that way. So far as shutting down, it depends on the iron and what you are doing. As someone wrote here, there are times you havta run no matter what. Some places when it hit a hundred, off we went. Well the operators did anyway. The mechanics stuck around and tried to pull some repairs and maintenance. At the other end, it's usually been white-out conditions, fog, ice, or heavy rain that has shut the job down. That and some operators whining about how cold they were.
Company policy for our dirt spread is 17 degrees and rising, plugged in or not. The other big factor is if we can keep ahead in the fill when temps are a bit chilly; in the low 20's. The utility crews have a little more lee-way, but warm up time and initial hydraulic cycling is required to get decent temps before production begins.
When temps get down to -30 celcius we keep the mulcher's running but don't turn a track! Even at -25 we mulch much slower welds are too brittle.
surfer-joe, that was a very well done post. Thanks.
at lindahl bros. in chicago they look at you like you are nuts if you whine about going home at 5 degrees. pretty old skool outfit. i ran an open d8h at -22. fun. ointhead
I got a " ice cream headache " sitting in an open cab backfilling a foundation. I was working on at the top of a ridge in between valleys , and all the wind funnelled up through where I was working. I had to wait for the haul trucks to bring fill up a long switchback road.
I am lucky and work second shift, so when I report to work on Monday evenings things have been running all day. Of course the temps get colder at night. here in so. Il we get down in the single digits, but hardly ever below zero. The mechanics usually have a little trouble on Monday mornings when the equipments sits all weekend. We accordinginly named one of them the "either bunny" because he gets carried away with the stuff, and once while starting a coal truck, he nearly got killed when the air filter cages blew up in his face while cranking the engine. the explosion blew him 5 feet to the ground. :bash
Many good points is made her in the post.:notworthy I've personaly operated machines between -22F to 140F. But when we are below -4F we tend to slow down a bit, you aint that productive in that low temps. U have to plan your work well to be productive. Frozen dirt is hard on the equipment. But u always have to be carefull and have the right fluids in your machinery. Our L150 was setup for 140F and it turned 5F, boy it started, but everything was very slow. Problem is oils are so thick that the brakes don't function as normal. Couple of seconds before they applied.... Warming was the solution, and a trip to the garrage and some winterfluids.. New synthetic oils are nice, 10w40 will function nearly everywhere.
"thinking Of The Other Guy" Alot Of The Times When I Am Digging In Cold Or Hot Weather There Is Usually A Laborer With Me,yes It Is Extremly Cold In The Cab So I Turn On The Heat,or Extremly Hot So I Turn On The Air,"alot Of Times The Other Guy Dictates The Production."
I've been on projects during the winter where a deadline was to be met so if we could get fired up we would go. -15F Temp is bout the coldest I have ever worked dirt(or chunks) in. Back when I was younger I remember crushing ag lime all winter long. Had lines to go from the truck to the crusher/dozer/shovel/loader to warm up the engines before starting them. But everything else is still cold and stiff and its very hard on things and production slows down a ton. Usually if it was too cold to crush lime we were out thawing water lines all day and all night. It never failed, think you could get a day in the shop, working on stuff and the phone would start ringing. Go from one farm to the next all day and somtimes all night long. We finally sold our big welder and bought a smaller one, the insurance was too high to make it profitable. Trbo You talk bout it being cold, I heard a lot of people are not going to the NFC Championship game between the Packers and the Giants. My dad is going, got my snowmobile bibs and some of his ice fishing gear, hes been there enough times to know how to dress for it. My grandpa is one of the 60,000 fans that were really at the ICE BOWL in 1967 and like he said they didn't have near the type of clothing we have now a days. You just put layers on layers and hoped for the best.
Welcome to Heavy Equipment Forums xkv8r! :drinkup
The forecast for this Thursday is 105 F...is that too cold????
No but it way to HOT
Our crappy winter job, cleaning out several acres of silted in pond, 5 plus feet deep...were gonna try again tomorrow morning...these are sitting on the GOOD dirt... Pics of the fiasco......
My Legacy Continues More bog pics, I'll tell the story later if you really want to know....the D5 is what I have to look forward to tomorrow, high of 14 and winds west at 10-20....oh joy.
looks like you had a bad day:drinkup
Welcome to Heavy Equipment Forums 140gdirtman! :drinkup
-3 and we finally got going today, my scraper is still broke so i ran the 10r,they are still working right now i bet its -10 to -15 by now glad im home on the computer
looks way to cold 4 me i am a sissey when it is that cold
Oops pictures are twice as good when you know the story behind them. I've seen the same thing out here at the quarry several times. We have several silt ponds where the silt is seperated from the water. The old ponds appear to be dry because the crust is solid as a rock. Just don't break through the crust.... Now I've got to ask, why are the 4 huge breathers (or are they something else) located in front of the exhaust stacks? I'm sure they are there for a reason but doesn't it obscure visibility greatly? I've just never seen them like that before. Nice ride by the way. :drinkup
i thought i had a bad day until i saw alan627bs pictures what a miserable combo freezing cold and mud,i feel for ya. does that setup on your 5 keep you from freezing? i bet you keep pretty busy when you run that.
i guess -33 below is too cold for us. they finally figured it out ointhead when it gets this cold just stay home, mess around on hef.
So I guess the scraper got stuck first, 330 came to the rescue, got stuck when the track broke through the crust of the frozen pond, and had to be rescued by the other excavator. That about right? I Know how to feel on the dozer. Been on a old 70's D6 before with no cab just a top, and did not even have a heat tube like you did. 20 degrees with the wind blowing can make for a long day. Once the motor warmed up you could put her at about 1/2 throttle and go stand on the blade and lean up against the hood and let the hot (warmer) air thaw your legs out...
i was gonna wait and take a picture from the cab looking through the breathers, but hard telling when ill go bak to work. i dont know exactly why they put them on there, compared to the old setup i know shes getting alot more air, it doesnt look like it but you can see good out the front, the intakes are in line with the two cab posts on the left and right and you can see right down the middle a pic would prob explain better,besides i think it makes her look pretty tough.
hello all from Russia!:drinkup the normal operating weather at North of Russia is -40C with possible drops till -60. Usually companies stop activity around -50, but this depends on a lot factors. good fuel, arctic oils, engine and cab pre-heaters are vital. various devices to heat battery, hyd tanks, insulated hoses you can also meet. there are a lot special heating tracks available, it looks like a huge diesel burner with 4 flexible pipes. Capacity is enough to warm-up D9 from -30 to +30 within a hour. I will try to post some pictures, hope you will find it enjoyng!) i cant understand how you paste your pictures directly in message, so went to read FAQ.
Welcome to HEF Alexander Rus:drinkup
Dirtman has guessed it right on the first try! I backed up just a little too far, and the whole mess slid out from under the truck, the box tipped over and dumped out about half the load, which helped... The hoe had gone around me, and cleared out most of the rest of it, then pulled the box upright, and was headed back around front to resume pulling, and broke through the crust. At one time, it was tipped over further than the pictures showed....fortunatley we got it out with surprisingly little fuss the next morning. Getting the truck out was easy, with two hoes pulling. We left things alone and did other work yesterday, and that heat tube is only good enough to keep you from freezing completely to death, we've got a tarp tied to it which you sort of coccoon yourself in, doesn't do much for your face or hands though.... Went to the doc this morning, got to work about 10:30 and tried to start the little critter, ran for about 2 minutes and froze up! Broke my heart, I can tell you.... It's 2:00 in the afternoon now, temp is about 9 degrees....too cold for the dozer and too cold for me! So I am back at home, in front ot the puter. I'll try it again tomorrow, it's supposed to get back up into the 30's.....ought to make the slop more fun. alan627b
alan627b: that is very nice you have tomorrow to try again, however what whould happen if tomorrow is colder than today?! it may be last chance to start machine today for you to all: I seeing here a lot examples when you cant start an engine. from your point of wiev, what is reason?dead battery? frozen fuel? cold cranking? in russia most important thing is winter fuel. if fuel is bad(sometimes you can use knife to cut fuel as fruit candy) nothing will help. if fuel is Ok, you can start looking for spare battery, jumping cables, heating trucks, either etc.
Welcome to Heavy Equipment Forums Alexander Rus! :drinkup Click the second red link in my signature for help with posting pictures.
Countryboy, Thanks for link! but( i do not have menu "manage attachments", there is also following message at my page : You may not post new threads You may post replies You may not post attachments You may not edit your posts -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- vB code is On Smilies are On code is Off HTML code is Off
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Awesome! IT was -10 F this morning, two pick ups couldnt start, nothing in th yard started and ran outta shop work. I felt tired of the cold, but those pictures show I aint got it too bad. Thanks.
Alexander, welcome to the forum!!:drinkup From my experience, mostly with heavy trucks, the #1 problem has been fuel filter waxing/plugging. The fuel won't have gotton to the point it's changed from liquid to solid yet, but rather the wax in the fuel starts to..............to "drop out", ( I guess for a lack of a better example ), and these wax particles can't pass through the filter element. The enigne might start and even run, but flow is reduced so much that the engine won't do much more than idle, or it may even quit. Cutting it with #1, kerosene, and/or adding alot of fuel anti-gel solves the problem. We've had a spell of nightime temps between -10 and -25F for about the last week. I've changed out 2 sets of filters so far on my semi even with having added anti-gel. It'll start, but won't go down the road. I've now switched to blending 50/50 #1 instead, until it warms up. Also, thanks for the great pics. On Edit: Alexander, since you're the only Russian I've seen joining in here (HEF), could you take a peek at this other thread of mine and see if you've an answer or opinion about my Russian tanks converted into Ag. equipment question. Was I right or am I going crazy??
The Adventure Continues I got to work this morning, and did not see the backhoe in it's usual place...happened to catch something out of the corner of my eye....one reeeeaaally buried Cat 330C.....this time they brought in another dozer (D4C) another hoe (the same 325C as last time) and several big towing cables.....we spent 8 of the 10 hours we were there digging and pulling to get the hoe out! Unfortunately, I didn't have the camera this time, but God what a mess! We had both dozers, the 325C and the D350 off road truck all cabled together and finally pulled it free about 4:30 this afternoon. I sure hope they come up with a better plan soon, like maybe getting a dragline instead of a hoe....at least this time, it wasn't my fault! Alexander, welcome to the board, your pics look a lot worse than we have it, even though some of them look like our situation this morning! Our hoe as stuck about like that Hitachi, except in mud. Try to imagine a chocolate pie, with a thin crust and a lot of pudding for filling..... It's going to get real interesting next week, when it gets up in the upper 40's/lower 50's and this whole mess thaws out! I didn't work yesterday, as the dozer had it's fuel system freeze up after it got down to -9F the night before. Stay tuned folks, I'm sure it's not over yet.... alan627b
Alexander, Boy that does look cold. That pic of the D6R reminds me of the other night. I was plowing snow with our D5N. Had some big 12 foot or so drifts and the wind was blowing hard. Long story short, the snow built up around the little steps where the doors hinge open. You guest it, I was stuck in the cab. I couldn't get the freekin doors open. I'm to darn fat to go out the side windows so I devised another plan. I stood an old branch up in the snow with the dozer blade and grabbed it through the side window. I then proceeded for about an hour to peck at the snow on the outside of the cab from sitting in the operators seat. I finally got out.. Good grief..
well we are in a heat wave and goin strong here in wy three days straight no cold related problems, lows of -5 at night and highs in the 20s, never shut em off. even when it was -30s i think we still had it better than alexander those pics looked terribly frigid, how long was that hoe and six sitting there to get that covered in ice and snow?
Well, it's -41 right now without the windchill. With the wind they say we're down to about -48 right now. We haven't started to slow down yet. Brian
With the drill on the crane about 40 to 45 below. Heres why the oiler position is not the most sought after position on the Slope. My oiler heading up to knock some ice of the crowd plates, he may smiling but he ain't happy !! Don't ask why i'm out looking up at the drill, I have no business looking at the drill, I have no business being more than 3' from the cab heaters, must have been temporary insanity:beatsme!
your oiler looks way too happy for 45 below, he must like his job.
For the D6: I was working on a site in the high mountains up north 20 years ago. We parked a Toyota Hi-Ace for the weekend up on the worksite.(good old work car.) Bad idea..... Monday morning the whole car was filled with snow. The wind and snowdrift had found its way trough the door gaskets, filling the whole car with snow. And i am talking about completely packed, no air left inside the car. We used showels to empty most of it, started it, and the heater did the rest. I have to admit the area has a special snow, as it blows to and from, the snowcrystals get smal and round by the wear on the rest of the snow. So the crystals are smal, and when wind is strong, be aware... So i would recomend that u think of where u park up in the mountains...
I was just reading it was -67 f in O'brien Falls,Alaska , and -45 in Fairbanks.
It's just terrible here today, right at 80 degrees with a light breeze, mostly sunny with some scattered very high clouds!
The east coast is finally getting some colder weather now. Tonight it is going down to about 10F with the winds at a steady 30-40 MPH and gust up to 60 MPH. The windchill in the morning is going to be around -10F they said. That is allot colder then what we have been having lately. Just the other day it was almost 70F. I want summer to come faster.
coldest we get is about 20 degrees around here
Its -2 right now in michigan and okay if it doesnt get any colder. I really dont know how you guys in canada and alaska do it, I guess the coldness must grow on you something
Things are going much better on our pond job, partly due to the cold weather and the Komatsu long reach PC200 they rented. It does take a while to move a large amount of material with a 1/2 yard bucket, but it beats getting buried! Here's a couple of pics of one of our other jobs last summer, this one was really buried!
More disaster pics....
Only good thing i can say is i'm glad it wasn't mine!!!!!!!! So how'd it get that far out in the pond to start with?
There must be a layer of mush under all that hard soil!
wow someone found the underground spring! Could the stuck machine still be used to help pull itself out or was the motor flooded with water.
workers comp wouldn't like this one ,I can feel this mans pain!
I work in Northern Canada and we don't shut down for low temperatures. We have worked plenty of days at -40C and -50C. We run Cat graders and dozers, Komatsu trucks and P&H shovels at these temps. The equipment isn't as productive but we keep a close eye on it.
Ah yes, the joys of Northern Labrador. My experience is the same as RioCan, keep running regardless of temps. Synthetic oils are a big help, good fuel and good maintenance. The only thing that shuts down the mine sites where I work is white out conditions because of safety. -72 is the coldest I have worked in. Speaking from a mechanics stand point it takes a long time to get things done outside in those temps. Frostbite, wind burn and skin freezing instantly when it contacts metal are some of the issues that we deal with. -25, sunny and no wind is actually very nice to work in due to the lack of humidity in the sub artic winter. The best part about the winter is no mud and the ice and snow fills in the holes on the haul roads making them very smooth.
Nothing like digging up a 5 year old post dave! Lol You must be bored! I have to agree, -25 isn't too bad. My first night hift it was -56 and I had to get new 797s that had been sitting for 3 months with summer fuel going. Learning experience for sure. But the boss told me "don't usee mor than a 3 second spray of ether or it may hurt the engine" I guess 200L displacement 4000 hp engines don't like a much ether as a 6-71 on a cool day.
Somebody has to keep things rollin here Ben! I spent some time in the seat of the Kobelco today.