The Weather Outside is Frightful

[RJSakowski]

Up in Wisconsin, we still get cold and snow, despite climate change. My main machine for clearing any snow is a diesel tractor. The problem is that it is cold blooded and a pig to start when the temperature drops below freezing. I have electric radiator hose heater on the tractor and one to two hours of preheat and it starts like on a warm summer day.

The problem is it resides in my barn which is 300 feet from the house. If I intend to use it, I have to slog through the cold and snow to plug it in. Last year, I ran across a set of three remote switches and a remote for $8.
https://www.amazon.com/Smart-Electrician-Outlets-Wireless-wireless/dp/B079MGKZKJ
However, the effective range was 80 ft or about 1/4 the needed distance. I decided to pull one of the switches apart and look at the circuitry. The receiver antenna was a small coil of wire tucked inside.

I set about modifying it by adding a 20 ft. length of wire and bringing it through the case. The wire was draped along the wall of the barn and made an effective long wire antenna. I could now stand in my dining room and turn the tractor heater on and off while in my robe and slippers sipping a hot cup of coffee. Great! In order to verify that the heater was on, I added a another outlet via a power strip and 60w equivalent LED "indicator" light.

This winter, I decided to add a second switch control the heater on my Ford 8N, also a pig to start in cold weather. Rather than just add a long wire, I installed a pin jack in the side of the switch case and wired the internal antenna to it. With a pin on my long wire, I can conveniently add or remove the antenna extension. To simplify the setup, I added a new two gang box with two duplex outlets arranged back to back so they would clear each other. I also added 1 to 3 outlet adapters to the switch outlets so I could eliminate the need for power strips.
The modified switch.

The 1 to 3 adapter
.

 

[mmcmdl]

Do you plow or have a blower on your tractor ? I have my Kubota that I use the bucket for heavy snowfalls which we very rarely get , but I keep eyeballing the blowers for it .

Here is what I'm looking to get next for the tractor . I can use it on the property up in the Adirondacks ! I wanted to get up into Canada last weekend but their plant was closed , so maybe in a few weeks .

 

[RJSakowski]

I use a 6' grader blade. After almost 70 years, I finally flipped the blade over to use the second edge. I have a 3 pt. snowblower that I bought many years ago but have never used. It was too much for the little 8N so it's been parked for more than three decades. It would work with the new tractor but it's not really convenient. The grader blade and front end loader do a good job on the 5,000 sq. ft of driveway.

My problem is that between the public road and the buildings, I have no place to blow snow. I learned many years ago that I needed to move snow out of the area completely. If you don't the path keeps getting narrower and narrower .

 

[mmcmdl]

That's my thinking with the 3 pt blower , it wouldn't get used much down here in Md . ( but I like tools )

Now if I do ever get up into the mountains for good I may rethink that , but for now I have the plow on the 4 wheeler , the Kubota , and a couple of older Cubs with blowers on them .

 

[f350ca]

Have to laugh at the way things can go in the cold.
New Years day went to clean the yard, made a blower for the front of a John Deere F935 front mount mower. Need to replace the battery (before the warranty runs out), has little capacity and goes dead in the cold.
Go to start it, the key is frozen and the glow plug button, get the heat gun, no the battery is low, get the charger, wait a half hour. The key and glow plug button is frozen again, thaw again, almost catches but the battery goes dead. Plug in the block heater and battery charger, wait another half hour. The key is frozen again, thaw again, the engine starts. One back tire goes low in the cold, was fine all summer, it was low. Go to drive it to the front of the shop to add air, it doesn't want to steer right, have to go back and forth to get turned around and up to the front of the shop, still moving odd, notice the front drive tire really low, low enough the chains start to come off. Finally get it to where the air line will reach. Find out the valve stem is on the inside of the wheel. AHHH Get the hydraulic jack, jack it up and take the wheel off, straighten out the chains, pump it up, then find out the tractor isn't high enough to get it on. Go get blocking, block the axle, rearrange the jack to get it high enough. The hydrostatic drive is causing the unloaded axle to creep, no studs, bolts to mount the wheel, not a hope to get them lined and bolt in. Go to shut off the tractor, guess what, the switch is frozen again, get the heat gun and extension cord to reach it. Spent the best part of two hours getting the tractor ready to clean the yard.
I HATE WINTER

Greg

 

[pdentrem]

Winter has still not arrived in this area of the Niagara region. Supposed to show up Wednesday. I took this yesterday.

 

[Bob Korves]

Have to laugh at the way things can go in the cold.
New Years day went to clean the yard, made a blower for the front of a John Deere F935 front mount mower. Need to replace the battery (before the warranty runs out), has little capacity and goes dead in the cold.
Go to start it, the key is frozen and the glow plug button, get the heat gun, no the battery is low, get the charger, wait a half hour. The key and glow plug button is frozen again, thaw again, almost catches but the battery goes dead. Plug in the block heater and battery charger, wait another half hour. The key is frozen again, thaw again, the engine starts. One back tire goes low in the cold, was fine all summer, it was low. Go to drive it to the front of the shop to add air, it doesn't want to steer right, have to go back and forth to get turned around and up to the front of the shop, still moving odd, notice the front drive tire really low, low enough the chains start to come off. Finally get it to where the air line will reach. Find out the valve stem is on the inside of the wheel. AHHH Get the hydraulic jack, jack it up and take the wheel off, straighten out the chains, pump it up, then find out the tractor isn't high enough to get it on. Go get blocking, block the axle, rearrange the jack to get it high enough. The hydrostatic drive is causing the unloaded axle to creep, no studs, bolts to mount the wheel, not a hope to get them lined and bolt in. Go to shut off the tractor, guess what, the switch is frozen again, get the heat gun and extension cord to reach it. Spent the best part of two hours getting the tractor ready to clean the yard.
I HATE WINTER

Greg

Good place to be FROM, far from, at least in the winter...

 

[eugene13]

Someone on this forum mentioned building longer shoes to use a snow blower on gravel and I finally got around to building some, I may be able to try them out tomorrow as it started snowing this afternoon,

 

[Mark Needham]

39C, winter....?
What is winter, last year it was down to 22C, for 2 Freezing days. Longest winter we've had for yonks.
Chuckle, ( Gloats in warmth)
Now Heat, Humidity, That I really bloody hate.
Love your remote switch. clever.

 

[RJSakowski]

39C, winter....?
What is winter, last year it was down to 22C, for 2 Freezing days. Longest winter we've had for yonks.
Chuckle, ( Gloats in warmth)
Now Heat, Humidity, That I really bloody hate.
Love your remote switch. clever.

Thanks, Mark.
While 22C sounds inviting right now, I think it would get old really quickly. Anyway, with the global warming, we don't see winters like we used to. I can remember two weeks where the thermometer never topped -20ºF (-29ºC) and times when we had six foot high snowbanks. Nothing like that anymore although a hundred or so miles to the northeast, they had over eight feet of snow on the ground last winter.