Almost Fried

[Doofy]

-50 yesterday and had to drive 20 miles for a dental appointment. Temp gauge pegged out on the way in, but I made it. Let it idle for about an hour, kept an eye on it and everything returned to normal. On the way home...same problem. Stopped several times to check...no boil over or anything. Made it home, stuck it in the garage and discovered that the antifreeze in the overflow tank was frozen solid. Glycol tester showed that I was good to -30.

Whew! Lucked out this time! Also, the side window on my canopy imploded. All I can figure is that the bright sun hit that -50 glass and caused it. Might have also been caused by a jarring bump since everything was so cold and stiff.

Yay, New Projects! Ordered mechanical oil and water temp gauges, A-piller gauge pod, new thermometer that reads to -58 and a piece of 1/16" Lexan to replace the broken window. I just love excuses to work on the Ranger.

 

[grey ghost]

you sure were lucky.. were are you at that it's that cold?

 

[Doofy]

Been here in Alaska since 1963.

 

[97ranger4x4]

dude. Thats freaking crazy. Is this a normal occurrence in Alaska?

 

[kunar]

is that fahrenheit or celsius?

 

[Danger FX4 Ranger]

Been here in Alaska since 1963.

What part? I lived in Anchorage for almost 5 years and I don't remember it getting that cold.

 

[Doofy]

Yep, It sometimes gets down to -50 to -60 degrees F. It's been cold for about 3 weeks now. Due to warm up some next week. Maybe in the 20s by next weekend. We are gaining daylight now, too. I think we are getting about 5 1/2 hours.

 

[Doofy]

I'm in Glennallen. 166 miles from Anchorage, 135 miles from Valdez and 276 miles from Fairbanks.

 

[Danger FX4 Ranger]

I'm in Glennallen. 166 miles from Anchorage, 135 miles from Valdez and 276 miles from Fairbanks.

Ahhh. My father used to work on the slopes. I remember him talking about it being that cold there. I remember having crankcase heaters. It's odd because you never see one where I live now.

 

[Defective]

We're not seeing that cold here in Meadow Lakes area, but my digital thermometer has been averaging -22 F for damn near 4 weeks. Almost every night it gets down to -28 F. One day after New Years it got up to 0.


Had that problem with my ranger last year. I'm pretty sure I drove it around for quite a while with frozen coolant. If I remember correctly, my water pump was leaking and I had left a bad mix in it. I was leaving it plugged in but it didn't keep up and froze. Inside the radiator looked like a slushy. Mine never heated up beyond normal though. Somehow our cavalier's antifreeze is bad this year. I never got around to checking it and it's frozen now. Can't idle it for more than 10 minutes, even at -25, without getting too hot. It's plugged in and the block is warm, but the hoses are cold and hard. I gave up on thawing it out till it warms up.

 

[4x4fun]

one would think at -50 plus the wind chill you really wouldnt need coolant. it would be air cooled

 

[svtranger04]

-50 holy cow.....how do you function when its that cold?

If its that cold i'd run straight antifreeze in the winter and a mix it in the summer.

I've got a friend who is from swerd(sp?) AK, and he's been wanting me to come up and go hunting.

being that its -50f how do the animals survive? Fur and fat doesn't seem like it would enough.