> This sounds simple
Especially for someone who never experienced anything lower than -5°C. Most cars wouldn't even start at -20°C if not equipped with a more powerful generator and battery from the factory. This is measly 20° difference.
Especially for someone who never experienced anything lower than -5°C. Most cars wouldn't even start at -20°C if not equipped with a more powerful generator and battery from the factory. This is measly 20° difference.
Going up the mountain was surprisingly fine. I even had taken off both my jackets and was just wearing thermals as the heat I was generating working to go uphill was enough to keep me comfortable.
Unfortunately when we reached the top, we also ended up directly in the wind with no available cover. Within the ten minutes it took to put my jackets back on and transition to go downhill, I was nearly hypothermic. I couldn’t even operate my fingers enough to bring the idiot-proof magnetic clasp on my helmet together. The whole group was on the verge of panic to get off the top of that ridge. If we’d stayed there five more minutes, I’m not confident we would have made it back home that day.
I can’t fully express how obscenely, unconscionably, and incomparably cold that was. I have never felt anything like it and I hope never to again.
The cherry on the cake of the experience was that you get into water that is 70+°F but every part of your body above the water line is exposed to -30°F winds. Fun!
But there were plenty of snowmobile riders in the area. Some of them who bundled up and attempted to ride at these temperatures learned that their lungs did not work well after a short time.
My most notable discovery was when I wanted to jump start my car, because the battery died due to the cold. I was about to bring out my jumper cables when my local friend told me to bring the cables inside first.
I didn't understand why and naively ignored what he said only for the rubber jumper cables to literally crumble in my hand, breaking as I tried to straighten them.
Mongolians are so resilient and have so much knowledge on how to survive in extreme weathers with a simple yurt and a livestock of 100 sheep goats and horses.
A couple years ago temps here went below -25° and there were a lot of cars which didn't go nowhere. Sure, some of them just had a battery too low from the usual urban minimal distance travel, but I heard enough rants from and about people who was forced to abandon their car and use the public transport or taxi. Diesels without an engine heater were among them.
> don't ask me how I know, you just need to know what you are doing
Ye, have an 'offline' (lol) charger for your car battery or have a 'kick-starter' kit. The thing is what the cars sold here are prepared for the winter conditions, yet many of them failed at a slightly lower temps - which again shows how a mere 5° difference can be way too much even for things what work otherwise just fine.
What exactly does depressing the clutch do as compared to not doing it and starting the vehicle in neutral? Is it to reduce the engine load further? Or something else?
-200C in a vacuum is an entirely-different engineering paradigm as I understand it. Materials just don't behave the way we expect at regular temp/pressure.
The fuel freezes, the oil freezes, the rubber in the tires and gaskets becomes brittle, and basically nothing normal works. I recall it being similar-but-different to the SR71 modifications, where the parts are loose and continuously leaks fluids because the materials all change shapes so much in the environment they're designed for. And of course it all has to return to the initial state for (a safe) landing.