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I used to travel like that with GF, but she has insanely abnormal weather thresholds - she won't sleep in a car, unless it's 55F (and above) at night. Which means it's going to be 70F (or more) at day. That's no weather to drive around the country. Gimme blizzards, gimme -40F, just not sun and heatwaves.
I don't even hike, if it's above 40F, and to hike at 40F, it must be a really nice mountain that I really, really wanna go, because at 40F, it's miserably hot to climb up and you need gallons of water...
Besides, a human in that scenario, as I experienced, does not in any remotely comparable way, provide warmth in cold as Husky's fur does.
Below 0F, her fur is simply like a heater. If your hands are freezing, I can guarantee you that even at subzero they will warm up under 2 minutes once you put them on her belly. It's, literally, a portable, always-on heater. Just insert food (lots of chicken, though ), and out comes the heat
. . .
I could be wrong on this, but I read it few times, that as long as you are not at the mountaineering-levels of exhaustion, your body should wake you up (e.g. when my hands would be freezing).
However, with carbon monoxide, what are you gonna do ? . . .
I neglected to mention the CO2 / CO issue, but a very small opening of one of the windows, and you'll be fine.
And, yeah, you have to be major exhausted, to a point that very few people ever get, unless you've gone running on a 24 hour marathon course, to not wake up when you start getting so cold you are freezing. Cyclists who race across the country get that tired. Even if you've had a few beers you'll be ok. If you're DRUNK, then no. Or if you've been doing chemicals of one sort or another.
While in military we slept in tent -43C couple of weeks, proper sleeping bag and wood burning fireplace, no problem, need to undress to bare underwear as otherwise would be too warm. I would think that -40C in car in sleeping bag could be possible but my worry would be that car would not start on morning. Battery dies fast in -40C and oil in engine needs to be winter quality synthetic to be fluid. Also even locks can freeze and cannot get out.
Yeah, but that's exactly the problem : with hypothermia, this is not a Mount Everest expedition, where your body is beyond sane levels of exhaustion, and body wouldn't wake you up.
I could be wrong on this, but I read it few times, that as long as you are not at the mountaineering-levels of exhaustion, your body should wake you up (e.g. when my hands would be freezing).
However, with carbon monoxide, what are you gonna do ? Set alarm every 2 hours ? In Blizzard, I wouldn't trust two hours, as you'd simply wouldn't wake up
Yeah, well, that's what I was doing previous 20 years (till about 2 years ago):
- you can't check in before 10 pm, or you won't get anywhere on long multiday trips
- the check in process and moving your stuff from car is something that will wake you up like coffee
- regardless of how exhausted I was, by the time I'm in the bed, I'm fully up
- now it takes 2-3 hours to fall asleep, if I'm lucky
- if I'm not, I will take till 4-5 am to fall asleep (statistically, about 75% of the time)
- but now I gotta check out at 11am, so I would only get 5 hours of sleep
So, at 11am you check out, you are already exhausted and start getting microsleeps around 2-3 pm, regardless of caffeine you poured in. Rinse and repeat for 3 days.
But, with sleeping in a car, the moment my eyes start closing, I just pull up at nearest truck station, get 20-30 minutes nap (or 2-3 hours, I wake up when I wake up) and go back to driving.
Driving is suddenly a super enjoyable experience as you don't feel like crap all the time, and you can easily get 7 hours of sleep and drive remaining 17 hours.
One word: ambien. It'll do your body wonders when you can't sleep. Usually it's about 20 heartbeats and then I'm out...
[quote=hiero2;54551964]I neglected to mention the CO2 / CO issue, but a very small opening of one of the windows, and you'll be fine.
/QUOTE]
Yep even with snow drifts blocking the exhaust pipe if you have a small crack in your window you won't die of C02.
Your heater will be able to compensate for that little crack. Also have the heat on fresh air from the outside with the fan on full blast with heat on. It may actually get too hot but that's okay, you can go down to underwear if you need to or open the window a little more. Also if you have heated seats you'll sleep like a baby.
I can remember some cold camp-outs as a boy scout, but never that cold. I have a decent sleeping bag and I wear plenty of layers even when driving to work, so I could probably hack it. My car is 16 years old, so it definitely wouldn't last idling all night. If I survived the night, I don't think I would wake up until the state trooper hooked the car to a tow truck.
I can remember some cold camp-outs as a boy scout, but never that cold. I have a decent sleeping bag and I wear plenty of layers even when driving to work, so I could probably hack it. My car is 16 years old, so it definitely wouldn't last idling all night. If I survived the night, I don't think I would wake up until the state trooper hooked the car to a tow truck.
Yes I was thinking the same. Even at rest stops if you are there for too long a state trooper will be there thinking you're up to no good. If you're on the side of the road in extreme weather conditions, a tow truck will eventually be there.
I had to do it one time before, so no, I would never ever do it again by choice. Sleeping in your car or even under an overpass or in a subway area for a night is completely miserable. I have no idea how some people can do it.
Yes and no. Twice in the 70s, the upper-Midwest was hit by huge snow storms, leaving many stranded cars on the route between the Twin-Cities (MN) and Denver (C0). In both cases, we delayed our trips to Denver by a day. The day following both storms brought clear, icy-cold (below 0 deg F) weather. We drove straight through. Along the way, there were many, many empty cars littering the highway lanes in bot directions. Their occupants had been rescued and brought to gas stations along the way. On one trip (morning mind is foggy), we spent something like 10 hours weaving right and left to avoid them. We made pretty good time until we hit Lincoln, Nebraska, late at night. I had pulled over to the side to take a leak. When I stepped out of the car, I was hit by a sub-zero blast of wind and lost balance and fell over. It turned out that, under the cover of snow, there was nothing but black ice. Eventually, the job done, I got back in the car and drove the rest of the way, very carefully. The occupants in my Ford Van included my wife and I, one small child, 2 cats and a dog. We eventually made it safely to our destination after18, or so, hours.
One word: ambien. It'll do your body wonders when you can't sleep. Usually it's about 20 heartbeats and then I'm out...
Or if you want the herbal route then melatonin.
Yeah, I heard so many people to get hooked on these things that I'm afraid that the short-term positive effect won't overweight the long-term ones. Never tried it, though.
But, you do bring an important point that I didn't consider before - take something for sleep ONLY when travelling and go cold turkey once at home.
If I could GUARANTEE that I will fall asleep within, say, 2 hours (via some substance), then motels would be an option again, because then I could check in at 11pm, fall asleep by 1am, and still have a buffer till 11am.
THANK YOU ! I will definitely try this next time!
Any ideas for such strong OTC meds I can buy at Walgreens/CVS ?
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), and out comes the heat 
