How Cold Is Too Cold?

[D&SYukonDenali]

Is it ever too cold to drive the truck?

 

I left the truck sit outside of the garage last night (gave the woman the garage since I have the remote start; damn condo and 1 car garage). I let it warm up for 10 minutes before driving. The whole 25 minute drive into work it felt like I was pulling the boat. Plus all the fluids were thick (e.g. Stearing was tight). I check the trans temp before pulling out and it was 23 degrees.

 

Maybe I'm just looking for an excuse to work from home . BTW, truck temp said -13 F and weather man said -30 to -45 with windchills. Maybe I should look into a job in Texas again.

[Crazy Canuck]

I hear you, I give my lady the garage as well although she is away on business tonight so I might do a swap and get a morning of repreive tomorrow. It was -38C here for the second day in a row today (-36.4F) and my Sierra is protesting the morning start with some pretty loud screeching and other various noises. It feels as though the rear drums are frozen when I first start off in the morning and the steering and everything else is very tight. When it is this cold, I prefer to start it manually, and what I do notice is it takes some time (maybe 7-9 seconds) to build any oil pressure. Have you noticed this as well?

 

Crazy

[jrrod2004]

yeah it was like 37 degrees here last night and the current temp is about 46 degrees. I would say to get back to texas

[pwall]

Only -29c here today.....

 

Car started no problem, but thank God for remote-starters. ;)

[D&SYukonDenali]

I hear you, I give my lady the garage as well although she is away on business tonight so I might do a swap and get a morning of repreive tomorrow. It was -38C here for the second day in a row today (-36.4F) and my Sierra is protesting the morning start with some pretty loud screeching and other various noises. It feels as though the rear drums are frozen when I first start off in the morning and the steering and everything else is very tight. When it is this cold, I prefer to start it manually, and what I do notice is it takes some time (maybe 7-9 seconds) to build any oil pressure. Have you noticed this as well? Crazy

 

When it is this cold out I always use the remote start on the vehicle to let it warm up 10 minute before I head out to drive it. Therefore I never really see the oil pressure at start up on winter days; not much help to your question. If it is still this cold tomorrow morning, might have to let the truck warm up 15-20 minutes.

 

Once again, thank God for heated seats and a heated steering wheel.

[slemmer]

-20 in Toronto. It wasn't happy yesterday (today was fine) - had the dreaded battery light but the voltage guage was between the middle and red zone. Got to the office, restarted the motor and all was fine again. Thinking it maybe having issues with the battery; low electrolyte levels perhaps? Was going to search under the truck for the heater plug but decided it wasn't worth getting all that ice gunk all over my sleeves.

[ALange]

My record cold start was -59F on the mercury in Canaan Vermont. I had to put a Coleman catalytic heater under the oil pan to get it to crank fast enough. Truck was outside on an ice fishing trip. That was too cold. Once started it was fine. It was a rusted out 74 Toyota with more miles than the QMII

[D&SYukonDenali]

yeah it was like 37 degrees here last night and the current temp is about 46 degrees. I would say to get back to texas

 

No more business trips to Texas for me; the group I supported is no longer part of the company. I now go to So Cal. Warm, but I would prefer to be in Texas over Cal; Texans are more my type of people.

[pennzoil29]

My truck sit's outside constantly, no garage. She fire's right up when it's this cold. They tore down an old house next to me, and I'm going to look into buying the property. Then I'll have a garage.

[slemmer]

Salt is ineffective when it gets to low.

[Rat4go]

I remember seeing a TV show or a commercial or something that GM tends to test their stuff to at least -40 (C or F...same at that temp!) and is pretty hard on it (don't wait for oil pressure to press the go-pedal) etc. For most of us 'normal' folks, I'd think we'd look for oil pressure or at least wait 'til the power steering pump is done squealing before we mash the go-pedal. I tend to let 'er idle, usually while I'm scraping windows, etc, 'til I can see the coolant temp gage move off of the low pin as that gives me confidence that the oil is getting warm and flowing, and that also means there's hope that my breath won't instantly fog the windows once I climb inside.

[Darkanion]

yeah it was like 37 degrees here last night and the current temp is about 46 degrees. I would say to get back to texas

It's still 25 up here.. Actually, I think the temp has dropped, since I got up...

[Wingnut]

You people are flippin' NUTS.

 

That's too damn cold.

 

BTW, when it's 22 degrees (F) out and you have summer tires on a GTO...It's like driving on some hard pack snow....Seriously...I can drift without effort at like 2500 rpm. It's pretty flippin' sweet.

[pwall]

When I came home yesterday, decided I would start the truck (my car is my dd) and see how it behaved.

It was -28c (without windchilll....vechicles don't feel windchill), and not plugged in.

The glow-plug light came on for 3 seconds, then I turned it over. started immediately. And no it was not plugged in.

Not that I would be in the practise of starting my truck when it's this cold without plugging it in (since it is a diesel), but wanted to know how it would do in these temperatures when I'm at a scout camp and no hydro to plug the truck in.

I was pleased to know it turns over well and started immediately (2 batteries probably help).

[slemmer]

Good excuse to carry a portable generator around.