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As others said -- using blankets to keep the engine warm is only beneficial when stopped for short periods of time. Overnight, it'll still cool all the way down to ambient temps. In Gunluvver's situation, he's keeping the engine running and using tarps as a wind break (keeping the engine warm -- as diesels do not get nearly as hot as regular petrol engines).
Using a blanket to keep frost / ice off the windshield, however, will save you a HUGE headache in the morning!
Installing a cheap, lower radiator hose heater will take a non-professional less than an hour, and is much better than the old blanket and lightbulb method.
Y'know, what you can or can't see has little to do with reality.
The reality is it's physics. The easiest way heat moves is through convection or air currents, a blanket is going to do very little to stop that since there is so many ingress and egress points for those air currents.
Y'know, what you can or can't see has little to do with reality.
The fact remains, we used to do it, and it DID slow the rate of cooling. That is FACT. It is not open for debate. It worked, for a while. For overnight, no, it didn't help.
Uh, actually no. Or yes, I suppose. It all depends upon your definition of the word "fact".
a piece of information presented as having objective reality
You are "presenting" a "piece of information" as having an "objective reality", but that does not rule out "debate", because facts can be wrong. Facts can be true, or false, or conditional, etc... You are conflating the idea of "fact" with "proven fact" or "scientific fact", and unless you've got a double-blind study that compares the effect of blankets on warm vehicles in cold environments to warm vehicles in cold environments without blankets, all you are doing is offering your non-scientific, and non-proven opinion on what you think you remember from what you believed happened at some point in your past.
It's your subjective experience. And I assume you did not measure or document those experiences.
As a practical matter it seems like a stupid idea as extreme cold (let's say minus 20) or a strong wind (30 mph+) is going to negate whatever insulative effect the blanket has. We'd all have to agree on some kind of scale in order to even have a conversation about it. What temperature does the vehicle start at, at what ambient temperature, with what wind speed and over what period of time and how much warmer is the vehicle at that time compared to what it would be if it did not have a blanket?
You've not mentioned any of this very complex process, and yet you expect everyone to accept your conclusions based on no evidence at all, and (here's the truest test of someone that doesn't really know what they are talking about), you've attempted to ban all conversation on the matter, as being "not open for debate". I imagine this attempt at authoritarian control might work in real life against intellectual inferiors, children and people that are physically smaller than you are, but this is the internet, and you haven't any power here save for a mind that I would describe at best as "marginal", and marginal minds do not command the obedience of superior minds particularly when it comes to a discussion/debate on that "reality" is. That is how this country has come to being 13 trillion dollars in debt and tottering on the edge of bankruptcy. Superior minds have allowed inferiors to have a level of control over us and now look at what they've done, running around, stomping they widdle footsies and telling everyone what the "facts" are and are not, and presuming to tell others what they can and can not debate. It's time to start telling the stupid who and what they are. The fate of the entire country depends upon it.
I traveled for a living and I was in ND. The motel manger told me to be sure to plug in.
The first time my husband and I went to ND in our early 20s, we stayed at a motel near Minot.
There was an outlet outside every, single room. Nebraska kids, we knew what it meant to plug in a vehicle on occasion, but had never seen a motel that provided an outlet for every room.
"Geez! When they say it gets cold up here, they mean it!" lol
(Ironically, we moved to ND about three years later )
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gunluvver2
When I was operating big rigs in Alberta and B.C. and the nearest plugin was two hundred miles away I often used tarps to build a windbreak around my truck and trailer both. Of course on those minus 40F night I left my engine running and cranked up to about 900 RPM's.
The first winter we lived in ND, we drove the company diesel pickup to town one early morning on a parts run. It was December, miserably cold and that diesel pickup started over-heating!
What on earth??
So when we got parked, DH pulled the radiator cap and antifreeze came bubbling out the top, plopped on the pavement and promptly froze, like a watery-green cow pie.
Apparently the anti-freeze was only good for -40 lol
Last edited by itsMeFred; 02-16-2015 at 08:53 AM..
My dad used to throw a blanket over the hood and a light bulb under the hood on especially cold nights. Of course it helped keep a little heat in the engine compartment.
I used to put a blanket over the engine cowling on my plane when I'd plug in the cylinder heaters (basically heated bolts for each jug). The plane was parked in a hangar so there was no wind, and the blanket would certainly help keep the warmth inside.
Some pilots in cold climates buy insulated cowling covers. When I lived in Alaska I'd often see these covers on planes in the winter with "smudge pots" under the cowling. And when the temps REALLY drop in the interior, pilots sometimes drain the oil into a pan when they land, take it indoors and place it on the stove to keep it warm until they're ready to take off again. (Hint: it's got to be drained while the engine is still warm, as the oil will solidify somewhere south of -20F.)
My dad used to throw a blanket over the hood and a light bulb under the hood on especially cold nights. Of course it helped keep a little heat in the engine compartment.
I used to put a blanket over the engine cowling on my plane when I'd plug in the cylinder heaters (basically heated bolts for each jug). The plane was parked in a hangar so there was no wind, and the blanket would certainly help keep the warmth inside.
Some pilots in cold climates buy insulated cowling covers. When I lived in Alaska I'd often see these covers on planes in the winter with "smudge pots" under the cowling. And when the temps REALLY drop in the interior, pilots sometimes drain the oil into a pan when they land, take it indoors and place it on the stove to keep it warm until they're ready to take off again. (Hint: it's got to be drained while the engine is still warm, as the oil will solidify somewhere south of -20F.)
Of course, a blanket helps in combination with a heat source. The OP does not mention a heat source. Just a blanket.
I've known people to do it before, but for a different reason. They'll do it if there's a strong chance of hail and there's no cover available for the car. A blanket could keep the car from getting the dings of hail damage.
well I am a city-slicker from the Northeast and not used to these wicked temps, but I believe another good thing is to take my auto out for a good long ride every once in a while. Particularly since all of my driving is within 5-10 miles, stop-and-go.
To clean the engine.
Do you agree?
esp. in this cold when things might get slovenly.
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