Getting the old tub ready for winter...

[greg g]

I believe at night you can never have enough light. Especially toward the shoulders of the road were the lurkers wait to jump out in front of you.

My brother and I used to run a series of endurance road rallies. these would start at 3 in afternoon and finish at 10 the next morning. My car had conversion high lows in the outboard lights, airplane landing lights for highbeams, 2 hundred watt long range driving lights(I think the relfective range was 2 miles) and 4 wide beam fog lamps. One pair with beams crossing in front of the car and the other pair facing out toward the verges of the road.

So for me all of the above.

My wife referred to the car as the portable stadium, but we hever hit anything bigger tha a racoon.

But all that might cause too much glare for ice driving with snow for berms.

[bamfordsgarage]

This post isn't exactly about winter preparations, but it's cold here now and we're preparing to take a trip later this winter...

Jerry built a sturdy cartop carrier/platform last year prior to our Hershey run to carry camping gear and goods for sale, etc. It's mounted semi-permanently, which is fine, but I've always thought it looked a little out of proportion being so wide, long and flat but with effectively no height. Sort of a tabletop look— in fact somebody referred to it the other day as a dance floor. I kept the spare tire up there just so it looks like there is a purpose to the thing and to give it a bit of height.

Over the past week I've built a fence for the cartop carrier and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out and with the extra utility it provides (I'm unenthusiastically doing some home renovations right now and am maintaining this was essential for carrying drywall and insulation).

Photos: Carrier as-built with no sides; Fetching materials in the '26 Ford T; Completed car top carrier — Fir lumber was used for weather resistance and typical 1940s look; Rear corner details... back fence slides up and out as needed for loading and long goods, side and front are a very snug fit into the perimeter pockets; Rear view with back fence removed.

[littlemo]

Heck, in my day we just used "cardboard" in front of the radiator as "winter front" !!! lol... Cass... Add: with that "fence" around your car top carrier, you won't loose that moose et.al. even if you do hit-em !!!

Edited December 4, 2011 by littlemo

[RobertKB]

The "fence" looks good and should be very practical. Also, I believe your date with the engine rebuild is rapidly approaching. I am looking forward to that thread.

[bamfordsgarage]

My new 600x16 studded knobbies and tubes are ready to mount once the car is mobile and can be driven to the tire shop. Tires and tubes arrived last week from Collectors Auto Supply in BC, three weeks to the day — exactly as promised — from when they were ordered.

I inquired at a few shops about getting them studded or siped but only Kal Tire was willing and able to help. Modern studdable tires have the holes pre-molded in the tread ready to accept the studs. Studding has to be done before the tires are used — otherwise road grit gets into the holes and studding after the fact would cause the studs to work that grit further into the carcass and eventually leak.

I worked with Studmaster Garry at Kal Tire to determine the diameter and depth of drilled hole to best accept the new studs. After a number of test holes, we settled on a 5/32" (0.156") hole just slightly shorter than the 0.200" diameter stud. Photo #2 shows an earlier set-up with the drill stop set for a slightly deeper hole. Drilling the five tires was an hour and a half job.

The pneumatic stud gun has two sets of three jaws. The outer set bottoms in the hole and spreads wide enough to allow the inner set to ram the stud into place at the bottom of the hole. Ideally, only the carbide head and a tiny bit of shank stand proud of the tire surface. There is a rotating hopper which orients the studs bottom first and drops them down the clear feed tube which appears to be coming out of Garry's mouth.

In the end, a number of studs are standing proud of where they ought to be — I hope the rolling contact of tire on asphalt will help push them in enough to counteract the 60-70 mph centrifugal force trying to throw them out. We'll see.

What I have learned about studded tires is they are noisier than regular tires, slightly "wandery", offer reduced traction on dry pavement, are very effective on ice and hard-pack snow and "everybody in Finland has 'em".

Flat rate for studding tires at Kal Tire is $26 per. I more than got my money's worth — every tire got 81 studs on each edge (centre sections are rarely studded) for 162 studs per tire and 810 studs total including the spare. Kal wouldn't charge me more than the regular rate but I gave Garry a $20 tip for working most of the day on my job with a sore right wrist to prove it.

Tire project costs: 5 Tires and tubes $1,008.00 tax in, $77.55 freight from BC, studding $156.50 tax and tip in = $1,242.05 total at $248.01 each plus eventual mounting and balancing. If it keeps us out of the ditch once or twice, money well spent!

[greg g]

That is a nice pattern. We used to stud our own tires for Ice racing. Drilling a few extra holes and using 17 mm truck studs instead of the normal passenger car 15mm. Our gun was a tired used one with no automatic feed. So it was one at a time. Our racing rules permited 20 studs per linier foot of tread surface. Most pass car tires are 11 to 15 studs per foot. So we looked solid tread blocks to drill extra holes.

I got fancy one year. Since we raced on simulated road race courses, going clock wise, right turns were more promenent than lefts. So I studded up a set with an asymetrical pattern favoring the center and the left hand shoulder. Studing only every other hole on the right shoulder.

That way in a right turns the car's weight was concentrated onto the higher concentration of studs. What I lost in the 3 or 4 left hand truns was more than made up for into and out of 6 or 8 right handers.

The handling on dry roads is a bit skittish, and in the wet with studs and no sipes I would be more than carefull. They should serve you well on hard pack and ice and if the snow gets deep they should knife down to traction rather than float onthe snow like todays wide tires do.

[Don Coatney]

In the late 60's I knew a guy who drove a souped up ElCamino. He studded his tires one winter. Driving home from work one night on dry roads he got in a street race as most of us used to do in those days. At somewhere around 120 MPH the studs started going north as the tire was going south. This riddled the inner fenders of the bed and looked like a machine gun hit it. He was lucky that he was not riddled.

[Plymouthy Adams]

120 in a El-Gaweeno..his front bumper must have been snagged by the rear bumper of the Roadrunner to attain that speed..probably slowed the Raodrunner down by 3.5 seconds on his shift from second to third.

[bamfordsgarage]

Last spring when we were visiting Tim Adams in GA, I spied a lovely vintage NOS Anco accessory windshield washer unit. I thought about it from time to time since then, and a lot more in November when our streets were sloppy and keeping the 'shield clear was a major hassle. Something had to be done for safe winter driving and Tim was kind enough to let the Anco kit go for a very reasonable price. With the car off the road for engine work, I was in no rush so Tim asked for a bit of time to find "just the right packaging" to ensure safe travel up to Edmonton.

Little did I know... If there was ever a package better suited to shipping a glass bottle and parts to another country (or perhaps another galaxy) I have yet to see it. Pardon all the pictures, but I thought this was sooo cool. And for those wondering, the tire tube has nothing to do with the washer, just a bonus from Tim as an extra spare for our trip north. Thanks Tim — will be thinking of you whenever we squirt. (No, wait, that didn't sound quite right...)

[Plymouthy Adams]

I was just thinking this morning that you should have that package by now...glad for all concerned it arrived intact..I would ask that you scan the installation instruction for prosperity..(include a copy of the scan back to me via e-mail if you could, as my scanner was acting up....) original instruction are a plus..the box I found this thing in under the fallen in garage south of Macon was a total loss..

Am glad it found a good home...I probably would never have used it on any of my cars..

Edited January 5, 2012 by Tim Adams