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Post by aquaduct on Jan 11, 2022 20:34:27 GMT -5
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Dub
Administrator
I'm gettin' so the past is the only thing I can remember.
Posts: 19,904 
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Post by Dub on Jan 11, 2022 21:16:22 GMT -5
Thanks for posting. I sent the link to a close friend who's a Tesla owner. |
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Post by TKennedy on Jan 11, 2022 22:14:02 GMT -5
Sounds almost as bad as our old VW bus. We finally had a gas heater put in that ran off the gas tank. Worked great but was a thirsty bugger. You could almost watch the fuel needle go down.
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Post by majorminor on Jan 11, 2022 22:33:32 GMT -5
Thanks for the heads up. I never got clear from the article whether the issue was a Tesla design problem or it’s just impossible to run heat in an EV at extreme low temps?
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Post by aquaduct on Jan 11, 2022 22:34:55 GMT -5
I remember when I was first married we went through a spell of -40 degree weather in Detroit. Biggest problem was you couldn't keep a battery charged overnight. Royal PITA.
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Post by aquaduct on Jan 11, 2022 22:48:17 GMT -5
Thanks for the heads up. I never got clear from the article whether the issue was a Tesla design problem or it’s just impossible to run heat in an EV at extreme low temps? Probably both. Batteries lose capacity in the cold. Don't know if there's some magic in a Tesla to help overcome that. Seems it may have something to do with how you're charging it (a Tesla-approved high powered charger or just into 120 V home A/C). I do know that Ford offered an electric Ranger when I worked there in the '90s with a sweetheart lease deal for employees that had a range at the time of about 110 miles. Living 10 miles from work it might have been attractive if it hadn't been for living in Detroit when that range might drop 40% and you had to go anywhere other than back and forth to work at all. Also, a normal gas/deisel vehicle gets its cabin heat from the engine which would have to come off battery power in an EV. In Saskatchewan in the middle of winter and the middle of nowhere, it might add up to no heat in the cabin. |
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Post by billhammond on Jan 12, 2022 8:02:41 GMT -5
I was astounded the other day to read that Tesla had delivered nearly 1 million cars worldwide last calendar year. (936,000, to be precise.)
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Post by howard lee on Jan 12, 2022 8:11:15 GMT -5
I remember when I was first married we went through a spell of -40 degree weather in Detroit. Biggest problem was you couldn't keep a battery charged overnight. Royal PITA.
My ex-wife's family in Minnesota told me they used to hang work lights with high-wattage bulbs in them under the hoods of their garaged cars to keep the batteries and oil pans warm.
Minnesotans here: true or false?
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Post by billhammond on Jan 12, 2022 8:18:35 GMT -5
I remember when I was first married we went through a spell of -40 degree weather in Detroit. Biggest problem was you couldn't keep a battery charged overnight. Royal PITA. My ex-wife's family in Minnesota told me they used to hang work lights with high-wattage bulbs in them under the hoods of their garaged cars to keep the batteries and oil pans warm. Minnesotans here: true or false?
Possible, but more common was the so-called head bolt heater, which kept oil warm enough to allow the engine to turn over in the morning more easily. |
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Post by jdd2 on Jan 12, 2022 8:37:03 GMT -5
electric dip sticks
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Post by coachdoc on Jan 12, 2022 8:45:18 GMT -5
All of the above. Anything to keep the engine block unfrozen.
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Post by aquaduct on Jan 12, 2022 8:52:22 GMT -5
My ex-wife's family in Minnesota told me they used to hang work lights with high-wattage bulbs in them under the hoods of their garaged cars to keep the batteries and oil pans warm. Minnesotans here: true or false?
Possible, but more common was the so-called head bolt heater, which kept oil warm enough to allow the engine to turn over in the morning more easily. Yeah, plug in block heaters are the schizz in cold environments. But they're also a kind of obscure option for most. They're particularly important with diesels since the vaporization temperatures of the fuel are kind of high (10-20 degrees F). If the fuel doesn't vaporize, it don't burn. When I was with Volvo I did a lot of travelling to check out customer fleet engines and operation. One of the most interesting was a fleet in the mountains outside of Denver. They literally kept left the engines running in their trucks 24/7 for maybe a month at a time, whether the place was manned or not, because it got so cold, if they shut the engines down, it would take a full work day to get them all started again. |
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Post by dradtke on Jan 12, 2022 10:25:28 GMT -5
All of the above. Anything to keep the engine block unfrozen. My mother told me that back on the farm (before rural electricity) they would slide a pan of hot coals from the wood stove under the car. Somehow hot coals and gas and oil never seemed like a good combination to me. |
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Post by epaul on Jan 12, 2022 10:39:48 GMT -5
Before we got block heaters, on really cold nights we would just put some cats in the engine compartment. Give them a fluffy blanket and some food and they would settle right in, and gratefully so. Had to remember to remove them prior to starting the car, however.
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Post by majorminor on Jan 12, 2022 10:46:10 GMT -5
In Alaska where I grew up all cars have block heaters and many of the 18 wheelers run 24/7 through the heart of winter. In Fairbanks when it gets down to 40 below(or often colder) one old timer trick was to put some self light charcoal briquettes in a paint roller pan and slide it under the oil pan.
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Post by TKennedy on Jan 12, 2022 10:53:08 GMT -5
And of course the mandatory case of ether bombs in the back seat. It always seemed like a nasty wake up call for an engine peacefully at rest.
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Post by billhammond on Jan 12, 2022 11:02:57 GMT -5
I reckon that fuel injection, computerized combustion mapping and synthetic oil have made our cars a lot more startable in winter.
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Post by majorminor on Jan 12, 2022 11:05:06 GMT -5
And of course the mandatory case of ether bombs in the back seat. It always seemed like a nasty wake up call for an engine peacefully at rest. I'd almost forgotten popping the air filter housing off of the top of the engine and spraying starter fluid right in to a carburetor. |
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Post by aquaduct on Jan 12, 2022 11:15:19 GMT -5
I reckon that fuel injection, computerized combustion mapping and synthetic oil have made our cars a lot more startable in winter. Not really. Still comes down to the basic physics of the fuel and batteries. Fuel injection and computerized combustion mapping go a long way to making pollutant emissions lower and improving overall reliability, but in the end you can't fight physics. |
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Post by aquaduct on Jan 12, 2022 11:17:02 GMT -5
All of the above. Anything to keep the engine block unfrozen. My mother told me that back on the farm (before rural electricity) they would slide a pan of hot coals from the wood stove under the car. Somehow hot coals and gas and oil never seemed like a good combination to me. Depends on how good the gaskets are. |
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