Winter Storm preparation - Back up heaters, shovels, food, what you need.

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plgfarts said:
Upper Midwest, we don't let our fuel tanks drop below 1/4. You WILL be wanting to warm your vehicle up before you get in it.

And leave early, drive slow if you have to. 90% of those news clips of highways littered with cars in the ditch are retards thinking that instead of doing 5-10 over the speed limit like normal, they just have to keep it at the limit.

If you HAVE to drive, there is nothing wrong with keeping it 10-15 LOWER than the posted speed. Make sure your headlights and taillights are bright and operational of course. Check your wipers (raise them if you will be parked during the snow).
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Also if you have a block heater and can hook it up to power, use that. Letting the engine heat up from "a hunk o' fucking ice" into "kinda cold" before you crank it gives enormous benefits in both comfort and car lifespan, and if your battery is on the fritz then this little push makes it that much more likely for it to even crank in the first place.

Mine is even provisioned for a cabin heater with a little 1500W unit plugged into it, no need to scrape my windows if I get to plan my departure ahead of time.
 
Seymour Duncan said:
Also if you have a block heater and can hook it up to power, use that. Letting the engine heat up from "a hunk o' fucking ice" into "kinda cold" before you crank it gives enormous benefits in both comfort and car lifespan, and if your battery is on the fritz then this little push makes it that much more likely for it to even crank in the first place.

Mine is even provisioned for a cabin heater with a little 1500W unit plugged into it, no need to scrape my windows if I get to plan my departure ahead of time.
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Another solution to this issue is to dig a pit and place the engine block over it before turning the vehicle off prior to the deep freeze. The next morning if you used a wood stove you can throw the still warm wood coals into the pit and slowly warm the engine block, or even use wood coals from a new fire if you have the time.

Obviously don't be a retard and use wood still burning with a flame. You want the hot bits that are left over after the fire dies down. They are increadibly effective at getting an engine block to the appropriate temperature prior to trying to start it. This is rrally only relevant to cold starting an engine at temperatures below -10 freedom units.. Modern vehicles well maintained should have no trouble starting even in the single digits, but if you have a hooptie beater, this method may be useful to you.
 
mindlessobserver said:
The Kitty Litter is a bit more esoteric, but often times when your are stuck its because your car can't get traction with the road. If you can get enough foreword momentum you can start moving again. Using your shovel, clear space in front of your car. Then lay down the kitty litter underneath the tires and a few feet in the direction of travel. The agregates will break up the ice and snow as well as give your tires friction to start moving foreword.
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I have gritted sand. The sand they use for aquariums, I think. Not the lumpy clay sand. I do need another shovel for the car.
 
The Last Stand said:
I have gritted sand. The sand they use for aquariums, I think. Not the lumpy clay sand. I do need another shovel for the car.
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I've had this one for 20+ years, works like a champ. Some municipalities have free salt sand, too. Keep a 2.5 gallon bucket of it in the trunk, your folding shovel, and BAM. If those can't get you out, your vehicle is somewhere it shouldn't have been to begin with.
 
plgfarts said:
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I've had this one for 20+ years, works like a champ. Some municipalities have free salt sand, too. Keep a 2.5 gallon bucket of it in the trunk, your folding shovel, and BAM. If those can't get you out, your vehicle is somewhere it shouldn't have been to begin with.
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so fucking useful. and it folds into a nice little square that fits right in the middle of my spare tire well, so it's always in the best place (you'll never forget it if you forget it's there!)
 
Kerosene heater earning its money tonight. House is toasty roasty even though the temperature is below 0. Set it off in the living room and the house is warmer then the 60 degrees my central electric heating has been set too. Which basically means that little heater can do this even if I had lost power. Been running it since the storm started on late Friday evening. Just finished off the first 5 gallon Jerry can of Kerosene, which cost about 30 bucks for three days of heating the whole house. Got 5 more gallons left in another can, so I could in theory stay snowed in for another 3 days, but will probably dig out tomorrow.
 
Because its supposed to be cold off and on this coming week I will also shill on kerosene. Its cheaper to heat the house with it when the temp is below 20 degrees or so, and barring wick fouling or water in the kero, the heater itself lasts indefinitely. Even if you have water in your kerosene, you can deal with it by using 1/3 tsp of 90% alcohol per gallon to "absorb" the water so it doesnt clog the wick. Any wick issues are usually solved by burning the heater dry every week or so. Lastly, for summer, NEVER store it with kerosene inside, it will rust!
 
Seymour Duncan said:
Mine is even provisioned for a cabin heater with a little 1500W unit plugged into it, no need to scrape my windows if I get to plan my departure ahead of time.
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The classic extension cord to a space heater in your car, or how people warmed their interiors up before remote start was common. If you're lucky, you have an external outlet that is on a breaker you can leave off. You put the space heater in your car the night before and when you get up for work the next morning you turn the breaker on and the heater has the interior warm and the frost melting off the glass by the time you leave.

DiscountRichEvans said:
i don't even get it. and they always grab the shittiest of shit bread possible - wonderbread and all the sugar-filled crap
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Well it's what they eat, but from a survival supplies standpoint it keeps a lot better than bakery bread so I would go for the blunder bread first too. A delicious bakery fresh baguette will be a moldy baseball bat after a week.
 
mindlessobserver said:
. Also important to NEVER let it burn on empty, because after the fuel is gone the wick will start burning. And once your wick is gone you will have to replace it. A very obnoxious thing to do, and impossible if you don't have a replacement wick and are snowed in.
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You should do a dry burn every once and awhile to burn off the tar that builds up on the top of the wick.

From the DynaGlo manual (I own a few of this style)
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If you havnt done a dry burn in a long time then let it burn outside, it will smoke like a motherfucker if there is a lot of tar built up.
Wicks don't last forever. They are a consumable item. If you depend on these heaters for emergency use then you really should have a few spares on hand and the experience in changing them so your not trying to figure it out when your cold in the middle of a blackout with no youtube how-to :lol:
 
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