Anyone else's Weather as Totally Messed up as Ours?


 
Yeah, I heard the new Cummins uses a different heater. My understanding is they heat the air coming into the combustion chamber more than the chamber itself. And oh, sure know not to use ether. From my reading there is something about the design of the combustion chamber that makes even the tiniest shot of it totally destructive. I remember years ago, one of my high school classmates tried to start his car with ether. Blew a head right off it in the student lot. Nasty stuff. I've never used it myself.
I imagine if I used multiple glow plug cycles and short cranks mine would fire off. I recently cranked it up in high 20s temps to get some final cleanup done in the back 40. IIRC I used a full glow cycle, cranked a little then another full glow cycle and it fired up. Noisy as all get out LOL.
I don't have the best battery in it either. It's an Interstate and I have never had luck with them. But when I installed it, it was the only one I could find in the group size called for under $200. But, it's weak. I may try to adapt a larger battery. My buddy bult me a different hold down so it should accommodate a physically larger battery. If I can find one wider and deeper but not taller it could work.
 
Interstate used to be a darned reliable brand. Maybe not so much any more.

From what I've heard, starting fluid will ignite (okay, rapid uncontrolled disassembly) right at the grid heaters.
 
Yeah, I have had 4 Interstate batteries fail miserably on vehicles when the batteries were only a year to 18 mos. old. All in the same manner. One post or the other would literally separate internally causing complete instant failure to where even jump starting was not possible.
Right now I am a little nervous re my Highlander. Thanks to being married to a hoarder my garage is half filled with stuff and cannot get it in. So it's been outside untouched since Thursday. It's a 2011 and believe it or not is only on it's 2nd battery. This latest one being about 5.5 years old IIRC. It too is an OEM battery had installed at Toyota dealer. Oddly at last service check a couple months ago I asked them to run a diagnostic on it. They said it was just fine. No issue, no need to replace. I will be needing to use the car today. So, we'll see what happens :D
 
Well, I don’t speak diesel, aside to acknowledge the brilliance of the good Dr. design, so, I can’t add anything to that conversation except to say it was -1 air temperature this morning but, only maybe three inches of snow overnight giving a total put my back door of about a foot total!
It’s time to blow for a third time in 18 hours! Well, after breakfast!
 
IIRC, the good Dr. Otto Diesel's original engine design ran on peanut oil.

7:00 AM local this morning, -10 F. No new snow overnight, we've only gotten about 3" of snow since Friday morning. We're supposed to stay in the ice box for the next few days, no snowfall predicted.
 
JKalchik said:
Interstate used to be a darned reliable brand. Maybe not so much any more.

From what I've heard, starting fluid will ignite (okay, rapid uncontrolled disassembly) right at the grid heaters.
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Yeah, not sure what's up with batteries these days. My brother has a little fleet of trucks and equipment. He used to swear by Interstate for an "over the counter" battery. He says they are not what they used to be. I've heard others say that ALL batteries these days seem to be suffering from some kind of longevity issue.

My brother has slowly switched all of his stuff over to AGM batteries in hopes of getting longer life. I looked into this and I think some vehicles may not charge AGM batteries properly so I have stayed with FLA (flooded lead acid) on my older stuff. My Wife's car (a BMW) still has its original battery, now ten years old, and my little car (a second generation Prius) has a seven year old battery. Both of these are AGM but the cars were designed to work with them. So in the right application AGM batteries can last fairly long. We'll see how my brother's trucks and equipment do over time since they are all supposed to be FLA.

I will say that my last couple of Interstate batteries have been pretty good. And the OEM Kubota battery was pretty good as well - it lasted six years.
 
The quality issue isn't limited by any means to Interstate batteries. From an accounting perspective, build product to last just barely past warranty and no more, just to get repeat sales. Or.... service parts. Everything is just being made cheaper. I just bought a new laptop to replace a 7 year old laptop, only time will tell how this works out.

My '12 CTD pickup came stock with AGM batteries, and I got 10 years out of them. I spent a pile on the replacements, and I can already hear the change in starting noise only a couple of years later.
 
Coldest week of the year coming up here. We were in drought, but the ground is saturated from all the rain of late. Haven't seen a decent snow around here for some time now.
 
Cold and sunny here this morning. Clear blue skies and -16F with wind chill at -38F. Snow piled everywhere and not forecast to be above 0 until Wednesday. Oven and stove top cooking until then.
 
We got about 8” overnight, the most ever since I’ve moved to Idaho. I shoveled about a third of my driveway and fortunately, my neighbor brought over his corded heavy duty electric snowblower and helped me finish or I’d still be out there. Sunny now through Wed. when there’s an 80% chance of frozen mix, then sunny again through Sat. with highs in the teens and 20’s.
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I’ll be jiggered! So cold that I heard a little “Thunk” and just thought it was an icicle or something but, I came downstairs and while watching the weather people telling me that it was -20 with wind chill of -26 (virtually no wind!) I looked at the living room window to see that the inner pane had cracked!! Warranty repair so, this should not be a big deal but, Gee!
 
JKalchik said:
My '12 CTD pickup came stock with AGM batteries, and I got 10 years out of them. I spent a pile on the replacements, and I can already hear the change in starting noise only a couple of years later.
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<BEEEEP> <BEEEEP> <BEEEEP>ity <BEEEEP>.

It did get down to -10 overnight, I did plug in the block heater around 9:30 AM, and went out to start it around noon with an ambient temp of just below 0 F. It was not happy starting. I was starting to swear rather profusely at the batteries, but, wait a sec.... I've been specifying and paying for full synthetic oil at oil changes. Doggone it, this is just what dino juice does at cold temps. Last oil change was several months ago, can't really go back to the shop.
 
Been way colder than usual here, but not like a lot of you are describing. Haven't dropped down below zero yet but close. Supposed to warm up going forward, will have to see. today hit 52, 8pm and 39 much better than the 12 we were having.
Still staying inside to cook. Did a beef stew in the instant pot that was very good tonight.
Stay warm and safe.
 
Rich Dahl said:
Been way colder than usual here, but not like a lot of you are describing.
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Actually.... it's still warmer here than I expect. By now, I'd expect to have a week or more between -10 and -20. Annually, 2 weeks or so at those temps.

January, 2014, I spent a week straight in the office (no, I'm not joking....) working with a few dozen other people recovering from a storage array disaster. Outside temp never got above -5. Holy crap..... that's now 10 years ago. That event is rather firmly ingrained in a few of us.
 
I won’t say it’s been “warm” but I’ve sure as shootin’ seen colder! I hope that Ive not jinxed myself with that, but it’s just a simple statement of fact. It is not anywhere near the “Cold Season“ for this area, so, I think I’ll just keep my mouth closed! When April comes along, it will warm up.
 
Currently -5 (actual). on it's way down to -15 projected. My close to 6yo battery is still going. Had to go out today unexpectedly as dad was rushed to hospital again with O2 readings in the low 70s. Another bout of pneumonia. So when leaving it was still -10. Roads treacherous between here and the hospital. So cold the plows are not even trying. Not expected to see above 0 temps for awhile here. Just happy the Highlander is doing well. Thankfully it is quite sure footed as well with the awful roads.
 
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