Shop Breakdown

[Ed62]

The trick to having a garage for the car in the winter is to have a basement where you can put the tools until warm weather comes back again.

Ed

[rlah]

I follow Warren's method here in Indiana... glad I got a new battery last fall... hope it works over the weekend when it gets below zero. I looked into a dipstick heater but no auto parts stores carry them here. Some carry some kind of magnetic piece to stick onto the oil pan and heat it up. Also some water heater device to insert onto lower radiator hose... but this seemed more involved than I wanted to tackle.

For the really cold nights when I lived in N. Dakota, I'd pull the battery out of my Datsun and bring it inside... but my Lumina would take 2 hours just to get it out because it's so buried in the frame!

For now, if it gets maybe -10 or lower, I thought to try an electric blanket over the engine... maybe this is laughable, but seems a possible easy solution if it works.

My .02¢

rlah

[L. D. Jeffries]

1. Every big tool I have is on a mobile base. 2. My shop/garage has an 8' wide by 25' "bay on one side of the 25' by 25' shop/garage where all the tools live when I'am not using them, also this is my lumber rack storage area. When the weather get down to -15, as it has lately at night, I put the car away overnight. Otherwise it's parked outside under a "carport" during the day and in warmer times. Just part of the "joy" of living in this part of the country!

[BigguyZ]

I wish I could have a garage shop. I'd be a LOT less self-conscious about using the shop (I have renters in the apt above my basement shop). I have a shop, but int he city where I live, having a garage shop is an open invitation to be robbed (I've already lost about $1000 from my first shop I kept in my brother's garage).

[Russianwolf]

That is still friggin' cold! I'll take 'rarely gets below 20' thanks very much. And besides, 2 weeks of sub-zero is not 'rarely'. I know the current modulates the temps in Anchorage somewhat, my question was really about Fairbanks, and really just a soft poke.

before this global warming hit I can recall sub zero temps in Rock Hill SC. Teens and single digits were very common.

And if it continues to melt all the ice up north, they say that the gulf stream could change and we'd be getting frozen water down as far as the Chesapeake Bay.

Just something to think about.

[dramey]

Not to hijack the post but why on God's green earth would anyone want to live up there full time? I'm sure Alaska has its attractions but geez!

David, if we have to explain it, you wouldn't understand.

Living in Alaska is a state of mind.

[crokett]

David, if we have to explain it, you wouldn't understand.

Living in Alaska is a state of mind.

Probably not. As far as I am concerned it is not so much a state of mind as it is an altered one. I really am just funnin' with you guys.

[ufg8r85]

Winter down here is when we can actually go out into the shop/garage and not sweat to death. Although last night was a bit for the kids, it went all the down to 47.
Steve

[Warren]

David, I didn't even think of it as a poke or a soft jab.

I couldn't get out of Fairbanks fast enough when I was going to school. Minus 60 in the winter and 100's in summer, with mosquitos big enough to carry off a small dog. There's a tough, hardy bunch of people living up there. It's like Anchorage when I was growing up. A small, dirty, lively little town with really great people.

However, the people I really feel for in the winter are those living in the Dakotas. Those barbed wire fences up in Canada don't do much to slow the Siberian Express.

I think it is all in what you are used to or exposed to while growing up. I'm not a fan of snakes, hurricanes, or tornados. So, your part of the country, I was stationed in Va. for bit, was a real education for me. I liked the rolling hills everyone refers to as mountains. And, I'd kill to be able to attend another real pig pull, eat pork and listen to the music. You folks are sure socialable.