# Alaska 2018



## scottr

Been a warm winter up here so far. Today things started trending down a bit. This shot is off our SCADA screen showing temps at our maintenance camps. Manley Hot Springs got down to -49F this morning. Burrr


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## On a Call

so how do the homeless survive ?


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## Mr.Markus

I thought that earthquake wiped you guys out...


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## scottr

Mr.Markus said:


> I thought that earthquake wiped you guys out...


Ha. Never felt it


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## On a Call

Coldest I have seen was minus 23.

chilly for us...

i was out working the other day my help made a comment how cold it was...I laughed. It was about 18.


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## Mark Oomkes

scottr said:


> Been a warm winter up here so far. Today things started trending down a bit. This shot is off our SCADA screen showing temps at our maintenance camps. Manley Hot Springs got down to -49F this morning. Burrr
> View attachment 176995


I'd like to experience that.

I've been in -20's and even -30's, but never that cold. That would be awesome.


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## On a Call

Mark Oomkes said:


> I'd like to experience that.
> 
> I've been in -20's and even -30's, but never that cold. That would be awesome.


Ever try licking a flag pole in those temps ??


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## Mark Oomkes

On a Call said:


> Ever try licking a flag pole in those temps ??


I'm not from Detoilet or Toledo...


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## Freshwater

Mark Oomkes said:


> I'd like to experience that.
> 
> I've been in -20's and even -30's, but never that cold. That would be awesome.


That very first polar vortex that one year, early Jan 2011? It got own to -26ish. I'll pass on any of that.


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## On a Call

I just saw a movie about a kid once...as far as I know he was not from around here


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## Mark Oomkes

Freshwater said:


> That very first polar vortex that one year, early Jan 2011? It got own to -26ish. I'll pass on any of that.


Taquemenon Falls and Jackson Hole.


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## tpendagast

it doesn't get that cold here in Anchorage. I was a cold weather instructor at Ft Greely for six months back in 97... not far from Fbx. I almost died one night, think it was colder than -48 but can't recall exactly at this point.
Went snowmaching at -30 and that was zero fun.

You could feel the earthquake here, but despite it's high rating (7.9 or 8.2 depending on who you hear it from) it didn't really do anything but wake people up from anchorage on south.

I heard you guys got a mess of snow up there early on in the season this year? Wouldn't stop snowing for a week?
Suddenly all the plows and plow techs in the state were swallowed up by fbx for half the month. How much did you guys actually get?


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## scottr

Coldest winter Ive spent here was in 89, my oldest daughter was born that spring, had weeks of -60 - 68. I still have a tee shirt hanging in my shop from that winter. I was working for a large gold mine at the time, we drilled, blasted and stripped over burden all winter, we kept loosing machine after machine as the diesel fuel gelled at -60F. Snapped D-10N corner bits off it was so brittle, finely gave up till the weather broke.


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## tpendagast

scottr said:


> View attachment 177066
> Coldest winter Ive spent here was in 89, my oldest daughter was born that spring, had weeks of -60 - 68. I still have a tee shirt hanging in my shop from that winter. I was working for a large gold mine at the time, we drilled, blasted and stripped over burden all winter, we kept loosing machine after machine as the diesel fuel gelled at -60F. Snapped D-10N corner bits off it was so brittle, finely gave up till the weather broke.


I remember working up there 
Leaving engines running 24/7
Wearing gloves inside gloves 
Having your breath frozen to your eyebrows inside your face mask.
Good times 
That's why I live in anchorage!
-6 is good enough!


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## LapeerLandscape

tpendagast said:


> it doesn't get that cold here in Anchorage. I was a cold weather instructor at Ft Greely for six months back in 97... not far from Fbx. I almost died one night, think it was colder than -48 but can't recall exactly at this point.
> Went snowmaching at -30 and that was zero fun.
> 
> You could feel the earthquake here, but despite it's high rating (7.9 or 8.2 depending on who you hear it from) it didn't really do anything but wake people up from anchorage on south.
> 
> I heard you guys got a mess of snow up there early on in the season this year? Wouldn't stop snowing for a week?
> Suddenly all the plows and plow techs in the state were swallowed up by fbx for half the month. How much did you guys actually get?


Been snowmobiling at -20 a couple times its no fun.


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## On a Call

LapeerLandscape said:


> Been snowmobiling at -20 a couple times its no fun.


A couple few years ago I remember reading about a fella who was riding from one village to another and his sled died. It was like - 30 or something like that. He happened to find a large cardboard box crawled inside and was found two days later alive and well. I guess those natives know how to survive  .

Me...frozen solid or frost bit.

And...I thought...why was there a large cardboard box out there ??


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## On a Call

scottr said:


> View attachment 177066
> Coldest winter Ive spent here was in 89, my oldest daughter was born that spring, had weeks of -60 - 68. I still have a tee shirt hanging in my shop from that winter. I was working for a large gold mine at the time, we drilled, blasted and stripped over burden all winter, we kept loosing machine after machine as the diesel fuel gelled at -60F. Snapped D-10N corner bits off it was so brittle, finely gave up till the weather broke.


amazing...


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## Mark Oomkes

LapeerLandscape said:


> Been snowmobiling at -20 a couple times its no fun.


It izn't...frozen eyelashes, boogers, hands, feet.


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## scottr

Hadn't tested my plow rig in colder weather yet, Had it plugged in for a couple days, oil pan heater, trans pad heater and a 100w pad on my hydraulic tank. Fired it up at -26. Purred like a kitten..........for 30 seconds, then the return line off my power steering cooler blew off, puking a qt of synthetic atf on the ground. Oops. Easy fix, but still a mess


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## BUFF

scottr said:


> Hadn't tested my plow rig in colder weather yet, Had it plugged in for a couple days, oil pan heater, trans pad heater and a 100w pad on my hydraulic tank. Fired it up at -26. Purred like a kitten..........for 30 seconds, then the return line off my power steering cooler blew off, puking a qt of synthetic atf on the ground. Oops. Easy fix, but still a mess
> View attachment 177104


It'll help keep the dust down in that area.....once it warms up and can soak into the dirt....


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## scottr

That’s no kidding


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## LapeerLandscape

scottr said:


> Hadn't tested my plow rig in colder weather yet, Had it plugged in for a couple days, oil pan heater, trans pad heater and a 100w pad on my hydraulic tank. Fired it up at -26. Purred like a kitten..........for 30 seconds, then the return line off my power steering cooler blew off, puking a qt of synthetic atf on the ground. Oops. Easy fix, but still a mess
> View attachment 177104


I'm calling the EPA its the exxon valdez all over again.


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## BUFF

LapeerLandscape said:


> I'm calling the EPA its the exxon valdez all over again.


Narc.....


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## scottr

LapeerLandscape said:


> I'm calling the EPA its the exxon valdez all over again.


Didn't they get de-funded? There's an agency that has gotten out of control.


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## LapeerLandscape

scottr said:


> Didn't they get de-funded? There's an agency that has gotten out of control.


If they didnt they sure should be.


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## LapeerLandscape

The EPA should have stepped in when those people left that were protesting the pipeline but no those people were there to protect the environment. They left one heck of mess behind.


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## scottr

Been getting some good snow in the last couple days, 8-11"depending on elevation. Snow is piling up. On my residential accounts, running out of room to stack. Rented a JD 744 yesterday to push back everything at one church lots. Roads seem skinny with lots of traffic when roading the loader. This snow is very fine and wet, not the norm for us this far North. Can feel it pushing the front end of my rig when wind rowing.
Seen this skid-steer stuck on the way to one of my jobs, oops.


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## Mark Oomkes

scottr said:


> Rented a JD 744


Why only a 744? lol


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## scottr

Mark Oomkes said:


> Why only a 744? lol


Ha, get the job done faster. I'm more comfortable in larger loaders. And I dint think the price was to bad. $800 bucks for 8 hours. Day rate.


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## LapeerLandscape

scottr said:


> Been getting some good snow in the last couple days, 8-11"depending on elevation. Snow is piling up. On my residential accounts, running out of room to stack. Rented a JD 744 yesterday to push back everything at one church lots. Roads seem skinny with lots of traffic when roading the loader. This snow is very fine and wet, not the norm for us this far North. Can feel it pushing the front end of my rig when wind rowing.
> Seen this skid-steer stuck on the way to one of my jobs, oops.
> View attachment 178549
> View attachment 178550
> View attachment 178551
> View attachment 178552


The roads never too skinny when you a big loader.


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## buttaluv

What kind of temps have you been getting?


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## scottr

buttaluv said:


> What kind of temps have you been getting?


Been real warm last week, mid 20's and into 30. Sky's cleared and back down to 5 above today,


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## scottr




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## scottr

It just keeps coming here, got another 10" the last couple days. Running out of places to put it. I cleared my roof once already this season. Their showing us at over 74" so far.


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## scottr

Burned some holes and bolted on a chunky cutting edge to try and cut the ice and hard pack on my road and driveway. Had a rain storm in early winter and its showing up now that spring is coming on. I only have 2500 psi of down pressure so it took several passes to get it cut down.


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## Mark Oomkes

scottr said:


> Burned some holes and bolted on a chunky cutting edge to try and cut the ice and hard pack on my road and driveway. Had a rain storm in early winter and its showing up now that spring is coming on. I only have 2500 psi of down pressure so it took several passes to get it cut down.
> View attachment 179869
> View attachment 179870
> View attachment 179871
> View attachment 179872


That's awesome...how did you cut the edge? Using a template?

After our last bad ice storm in Dec '13 I considered doing this for some of my Eblings, but we don't get a half inch of ice very often.


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## BUFF

Mark Oomkes said:


> That's awesome...how did you cut the edge? Using a template?
> 
> After our last bad ice storm in Dec '13 I considered doing this for some of my Eblings, but we don't get a half inch of ice very often.


Looks like a grader edge.


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## BUFF

scottr said:


> Burned some holes and bolted on a chunky cutting edge to try and cut the ice and hard pack on my road and driveway. Had a rain storm in early winter and its showing up now that spring is coming on. I only have 2500 psi of down pressure so it took several passes to get it cut down.
> View attachment 179869
> View attachment 179870
> View attachment 179871
> View attachment 179872


How long is your mud season, 3-4weeks?


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## scottr

Mark Oomkes said:


> That's awesome...how did you cut the edge? Using a template?
> 
> After our last bad ice storm in Dec '13 I considered doing this for some of my Eblings, but we don't get a half inch of ice very often.


Yep, Like Buff says below, just a standard cutting edge for a grader, we have gone away from these and onto edges that look similar but wider teeth so they have better wear.


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## scottr

BUFF said:


> How long is your mud season, 3-4weeks?


Good 2-3 weeks for sure. Hope to see slow melting this year.


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## Mark Oomkes

scottr said:


> Yep, Like Buff says below, just a standard cutting edge for a grader, we have gone away from these and onto edges that look similar but wider teeth so they have better wear.


Not sure why I didn't consider trying to make one work on an Ebling. Just thought about cutting up a normal edge.

Last big ice storm we had, we had to use loader buckets or very heavy plows to break up the ice before the temps dropped. It worked, but the edge on the loader took a beating.


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## Mr.Markus

Our town uses scarifying edges on the graders for ice storms on the gravel roads. I do my fair share of gravel drives and would love to do this.
The little mini grader would be way too slow for getting around...


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## On a Call

How far and how long did you run that blade ? Did any of the teeth snap off ?

And did you use a cut off tool like a Matabo or plasma cutter to cut off.

I have never seen anything like what you did before. Very interesting.


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## On a Call

How far and how long did you run that blade ? Did any of the teeth snap off ?

And did you use a cut off tool like a Matabo or plasma cutter to cut off.

I have never seen anything like what you did before. Very interesting.



scottr said:


> Burned some holes and bolted on a chunky cutting edge to try and cut the ice and hard pack on my road and driveway. Had a rain storm in early winter and its showing up now that spring is coming on. I only have 2500 psi of down pressure so it took several passes to get it cut down.
> View attachment 179869
> View attachment 179870
> View attachment 179871
> View attachment 179872


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## scottr

On a Call said:


> How far and how long did you run that blade ? Did any of the teeth snap off ?
> 
> And did you use a cut off tool like a Matabo or plasma cutter to cut off.
> 
> I have never seen anything like what you did before. Very interesting.


I just bolted it on yesterday, so not much wear on it so far. No teeth snapped, however when running them on a grader you can snap them if your not paying attention. The cutting edge comes like this, I just cut 3" off each end with my plasma, 60 amp tip.


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## On a Call

scottr said:


> I just bolted it on yesterday, so not much wear on it so far. No teeth snapped, however when running them on a grader you can snap them if your not paying attention. The cutting edge comes like this, I just cut 3" off each end with my plasma, 60 amp tip.


Certainly looks like it worked....what is you opinion ??

And, what were you temps like when you did this ?


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## scottr

On a Call said:


> Certainly looks like it worked....what is you opinion ??
> 
> And, what were you temps like when you did this ?


Well, it works better than a straight cutting edge for sure, no way can I cut ice and hard pack with my normal cutting edge. However my edge is 1" thick, so I suspect a 3/8" or 1/2" would do better. With multiple passes I can take up 3-4" of hard pack in 20 degree weather, ground temp are still cold. Bottom line it would do better on big iron like it's intended for, by I'm willing to try things and it has helped me a lot at my own place.


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