what's the coldest you ever fired-up your TO?

The coldest I ever starting my 6 Volt TO-20 was 5 degrees F, and that was the "heat of the afternoon". Started up right away... although I must admit I gave it a shot of ether first.... my battery was weak and I had a LOT of snow to push. That was a few years back, before my rebuild & running 40 WT oil.

It has been in the -2 to -8 degrees F range every night for the past week, I hadn't run my TO in probably a month. I waited 'til ~ Noon, temp. was 13 degrees F, and decided I better start my TO-20 and clear the drive, expecting ~8" more snow tomorrow. Started right-up, no ether. I had to keep my foot on the clutch for a minute or two, she kept wanting to stall trying to turn that cold tranny oil & PTO. After a minute or so, was able to let out the clutch & idle in neutral (PTO turning) for a another couple minutes before getting busy. Noticed a slight weeping of antifreeze around the radiator hose connection on the water pump for a few minutes until things heated-up enough to seal-up the cold rubber.

My secrets - I switched to 10W40 oil after my rebuild, clean the electrical connections every year and cover with light coating of grease, I stomp on the clutch before starting, hit the starter first, THEN pull the choke knob, but only choke for ~3-4 seconds at a time.

I live in "fairly mild" Ohio, I'm sure some of you guys up North can beat that.

George

All bull laid aside,the coldest time i can remember was 7 above 0 and it started right up and moved,hydraulics were kinda slow going but she purrrrred along.But here in Va,we don't have many long real cold snaps.It can be 10 tonite and 30 tomorrow night.Not like some of you who sleep through the winter months.Hehe

ok...i've probably had it going when it was down around 10 degrees or so, but only to get another load of wood up near the furnace. i spent too many hours trying to start machinery where i retired from in the freezing cold to allow myself to do it now. if it gets that cold out, this old man stays IN!

-mike

Sure didn't need choke!!

Do you guys use anti freeze (e.g. Prist or similar) in the fuel??

Temps often get into the 40s here in the Summer, but its a very dry heat. Highest I remember was trying to take off (in a King Air) at Mt Isa in 48 C/118 F ambient temps - and the aircraft/engine Performance Charts indicating max 42 C max TO temp. Turbines down on power and a significant lack of lift!!!

There is to add to this that at the high altitude the power went so down that they had to adjust the governor to run at a much higher engine speed and instead use lower gears.

I also wonder, you know, some track ribs is connected with square steel rings, but on the tracks used to the south pole they had gotten rubber bands from Norway and the track ribs where bolted to the rubber bands. I can not understand why the rubberbands did not break when they got brittle in all that frost.

My dad used his TEA 20 in bad winter conditions. Once he told me the entire tractor was covered completely in drifted snow, nothing to see.
They were building roads, and they needed the tractor. Some of the guys said the tractor would never start, and there would not be done any work that day.
Dad went out with a shovel, digged one hole for the distributor, one for the air filter intake, and one for the crank. The battery was not good, so he just gave it some trottle, choke, and turned the crank a couple of times, and the engine run.
He went in the cabin to the others and they did not believe the tractor was running, until one of them got out for more firewood and he saw some smoke coming up from the snowpile.

So, there is strong evidence that the grey menace pleased their owners in many ways.

Bill