Cold-Weather Tools

It’s January, but I only added long handles to my wardrobe this past week.

Most years, they become my innermost layer of protection by October.

But this balmy Winter of Summer seems to be done.

So I pulled on another layer and went to work preparing for below 0 temperatures and high winds.

Extra pickup batteries are inside.

Wood is piled next to the woodstove.

Water troughs without heaters are drained.

Every diesel tank contains anti-gel.

Emergency anti-gel is in every pickup bed.

Extension cords now reach every gas and diesel engine, ready to warm motors.

And my super cool portable jump-starting power source sits inside -- warm, cozy and charged.

This portable jump starter has saved me many times. I count it as one of the best miracles of modern technology.

Basically, it is a high-amp battery with jumper cables. If I need to boost a cold battery on my tractor, I no longer need to start a pickup, pull it within jumper cable reach and share precious starting juice from the truck to the tractor.

My magnetic oil pan heater is ready for action, too.

I have used this second-coolest miracle of modern technology intermittently for a long time. Now I always use it.

I learned the hard way after blowing up an oil pump that sits deep inside the engine of one of my tractors.

My tractor mechanic has a lifetime of experience, but he had never seen a blown oil pump in a John Deere 4020 before. Finally, he found a retired tractor mechanic who enlightened him.

It turns out that tractors owned by farmers rarely blow an oil pump, but tractors owned by ranchers often blow an oil pump.

Farmers use their tractors almost exclusively during the warm growing season. No doubt, they blow parts that keep the engine cool.

Ranchers use their tractors to feed livestock in the cold winter. The thick-as-cold-molasses oil doesn’t flow freely until the engine warms up. That poor oil pump just can’t muscle through forever.

If I would have warmed the oil pan before starting the tractor, I would have prevented a massively expensive repair bill.

On my tractor with a cab.

Now, I warm the oil pan on my trusty plein-air tractor for a long time before I crank that motor.

Then I stick my hot rechargeable hand warmers inside my gloves, pull my facemask over my nose and putt-putt my way to the haystack.

The cattle and sheep need a lot of hay to generate enough heat right now.

As I putt-putt out to the haystack, I think about the brutal winter of six years ago.

My tractors were plugged in outside the shop.

I didn’t have my hot rechargeable handwarmers, cool portable jump-starter or my handy magnetic oil pan heater yet. Those would come as I learned challenging lesson after lesson.

Fortunately, that winter offered storm after storm for my edification.

The second or third storm sucked the last of the life out of my tractor battery.

I pulled many 1200-pound bales to the cows with my pickup and tow ropes until I could get through snowdrifts to town.

That hard-won trip to town yielded a new battery that still wouldn’t get the tractor started.

More bales pulled with the pickup meant that I replaced a few tow ropes when I hauled the new battery back to town to be tested.

It was new, but bad.

The third battery worked, I still have the replacement tow ropes and now my shop has room for a tractor inside.

With my handy cold-weather tools and experiential learning, this bout of cold should be a cinch.