Up here were I live in B.C. (100mile house) it get about -20c on average in the winter. Low as -35c. With my EX60 how cold is too cold to operate it and any advise as to warm up time etc.
when I went to the Heavy equipment school first day was -17C. You just need to warm up the engine and hydraulics well before using. What I was told: warmer than 0 C, 15 minutes engine warmup. Colder than 0 celsius, 30 minutes warmup. Colder than -18 more warmup may be necessary. Hydraulics, you need exercise the machine to warm up the oil before full use. Start at medium engine speed and start with the bucket control. Gradually move up to the larger cylinders and the swing and increase the engine RPM after a while.
We've worked at -50 in Ft Crack, its all good.
How cold is too cold to operate: That's pretty cool, Burnout... ... yes, bad pun. lol Here's a nice calculator, for converting Celsius to Farenhiet... and a whole bunch of other stuff. http://rlhudson.com/Unit Converter/index.htm OCR
Thats really neat OCR, it takes 42 5 gallon pails to make a yard! (just in case you ever haul material in 5 gallon pails!!)
How cold is too cold to operate: and nice calculator...lol Aw heck, nedly05... we got more than that throw'd around in ours... lol OCR... But, it does look like you're right... :thumbsup
Thanks for you input everyone, now Im excited about what I thought was going to be a long excavator post season. The units been in the shop for over a month, just delays in parts and service. Thought I was gonna have to park it for the winter. Look out Beetle kill, your not safe yet.
Yeah, it's possible to run machines in minus 40 temps. But unless you are making a lot of money with the work, you may find that it's not worth it. Breakage, repairs, and expenses seem to rise as the temperature drops. My excavator ran for years in the Fort St. John area of northern B.C. doing forestry work. It runs PetroCanada synthetic hydraulic and engine oils. That helps a lot with preventing damage and reducing warmup times. It also has a couple of engine warmers and block heaters.
I am not sure how productive a 60 series excavator will be when the ground is frozen versus wear and tear. If you are serious about running in winter they make heaters for all compartments, fuel tanks, hydraulic tanks as well as the block heaters. Remember to clean your tracks out each night and park your machine on timbers at night to keep it from freezing to the ground. Don't let Virginia fool you. I am from the upstate of New York. Not as cold as some of you boy's from northern canade but we do see frost once in a while.
Well said, My plan is to only run into the winter months, once it gets below -10 to -15 c, Ill park it. Ill still get an extra 2 months in Fall and another 2 in spring. Thanks for the parking it on timbers comment, that makes a lot of sense.
Did you get your pump fixed yet?
If I can see my breath its too cold to be working outside the cab for my southern rear:usa
-40 deg C and 40 below F are the same temperature. That is where the two scales meet. Either way its bloody cold! Once the frost gets deep in the ground your EX60 is going to have some trouble.
on a cold (-25 plus wind chill) i went out and started our 710c jd backhoe and let it run for about 20 mins jumped in her and started cycling the back end threw her movements once she warmed up i went to the location to pickup a load and put it onto the deck of the flatbed i set the out riggers hooked on to the load with the bucket got it about 3 ft in the air then all of a sudden there was a loud bang the machine shudered i lowered the load back to the ground and got out to inspect the machine well if any can recall this particualr machine has a casted swing frame and it is quite a large cross section to it well it snapped in two ! where we were set up was in a steel mill close to the harbour i belive the humidity in the air and the cold combined with the wind chill heavy load were all factors in the failure just a few other things to consider as well
If the machine will fire up in the am, i'm running her. I always clean my tracks each night and park where the ground wont freeze to the tracks. I let her warm up about 30 min, then run down to the end of out loading lane, in rabbit speed to warm up the hyd fluid real good then its awwn for the day.
Should get it back this week, lots of delays, but ended up having to send the pump to an injection shop to get the bolt out. Now the mechanic is taking his sweet time putting back in. Frustrating but Im always positive and looking to the bright side.
Actually..... swing tower failures on C series and early D series John Deere backhoes are quite common. I had a 310C the swing tower failed twice, once using a breaker, once pulling up concrete. My old man had a failure on our 310-D as well.
My record was minus 43 below in Big Sky, Montana (9000 feet). Believe it or not my excavator even started without being plugged in.
I would be more worried about the wear and tear of winter startups then working a few ore months. It sure takes years off the machine.
fire it up get it warm put the heated seat on get it working....lovely best job in the world on cold days
That is a great tidbit! That'll solve one problem for me....thanks! :notworthy
Steel doesn't experience windchill, that is only felt by us animals as the wind and humidity cools us down faster. Metal (and many other materials) do get more brittle as it gets colder, though the degree of change depends on the alloy it is made out of. ISZ
That's what they say but if it's true, how do radiators/fans work?:idea
Windchill is a measure or indicator of the ambient convective cooling rate. Steel does experience convective cooling. The confusion is this. If the air is at 0, and the steel is at 0, there is no cooling at all, convective or otherwise. However, if the steel is at 200, and the air is at 0 there will be convective cooling, the rate of which will increase with airspeed. Think about this. Take two hunks of hot iron, put them both in the freezer, with a fan blowing on one of them, sheltering the other. Clearly the one in front of the fan will cool more quickly. However, once the steel is completely cooled, the rate of thermal exchange drops to zero, and airspeed is no longer a factor. That said, if your machine is sitting outside overnight in -20 air, and you want to use it in the morning, it doesn't matter if the wind is blowing like hell, the machine won't respond any differently. On a related subject, they say cold metal fracture is what sank the Titanic.
When you say "0" do you mean absolute 0? Even at 0 degrees C or F isn't there a potential for heat loss? If your machine is sitting in the shade at 110F and you blow on a side panel with an air nozzle for awhile, it won't get any cooler than the 110 ambient? (disregard the cooling of the air from expansion) Edit: Nevermind, I think I get it now. You can't cool a 110 degree piece of steel with a 110 degree wind...
Watglen - I agree, that was a better explanation than mine. :notworthy ISZ
yes i bet that iceberg was cold when the titanic hit it lol
The colder it gets the more stuff breaks there is no getting around this. When it does get really cold there is a point were it cost less not to go to work. Safety is another thing most people forget about. At -40 hypothermia sets in really fast. What happens if your excavator breaks down and your pickup will not start?
At those temps, do you shut the pickup off? I spent a month in Kenosha Wisconsin on week and I left the car running the whole time.
Hey watglen, I spent a cold month in Toronto one week in March a few years ago. Air Canada ran out of deicer and couldn't afford to buy more - so all of us poor suckers with Air Canada tickets had to wait for days until the weather warmed up enough to melt the ice off the wings. I can't imagine that Wisconsin is much colder than Ontario, or is it? Now if you want to see cold - try Baffin Island or Victoria Island some time. A winter spent working in the arctic made Canadian prairie winters seem downright short and balmy!
winter ice roads suck it gets really cold lol I never shut my cummins off at home i shut it off and plug it in at night no matter how cold it is