Door Peninsula eh? I'm just a stone's throw from you then.
Love the Door and Antigo areas, Not a real big fan of anything in the Fox Valley...
And I've seen you farm boys here in WI do some things that would make MacGyver go back to school.
Thanks for the info, good to see some tips for this specific climate.
See ya in da woods eh?
I just realized something, you don't by chance have an extra set of 8 lug rims you care to part ways with? Let me know if you got a price in mind, I should probably get a set of dedicated snow tires.
Start throwing stones, I'll figure out where you are.
Yeah we farm boys are an interesting breed, in some cases that's one hell of a compliment. When I lived out in WY doing HVAC, the people I worked for and with called me MacGyver because I managed some rather interesting things. My specialty was working with oil furnaces which were a rarity out there and I made some spectacular saves in emergencies. I've always been gifted with wiring up systems of all kinds to incorporate safeties into furnaces that came manufactured in the VERY early days by the likes of Chrysler and Timken.
Even though I grew up in Door, it's not the place I remember as a kid. The small fish govt's want it to be another Dells, and they are pretty much accomplishing it by driving out jobs and farmers by blaming every water quality issue on them instead of the condos and cottages belonging to Chicago and other big city tourists that are built on bluffs, and which have failing septics but aren't required to replace them like everyone else. Instead it's always the farmer who is polluting the creeks even though we aren't allowed to farm anywhere near them anymore. But there is a positive side, and they are very wealthy women (college girls too) in the summer time that make it all so worth while. If you work it right, you can go out on a warm summer night, not spend a penny out at the establishments, and have a nice time with a posh place to spend the remainder of the night. From what I hear...
The Antigo/Birnamwood/Mattoon areas are where I like to be now. I can relax as easily as waking up in the morning and can hunt as much as I'd like. I love being in the middle of nowhere. Crappleton is too much of a cluster-F now. Visiting my uncle in the mid 80's was fun then because it was much more spread out and actually had some green space. Say all you want about the environment and people that get paid way too much to study it, but if you cut down the trees and pave over all the grass, that can't be too god for things. Can it? It has to be worse than an older diesel with the occasional puff of particulates, and of farm tractors which are facing a lot of scrutiny because they work hard and sometimes smoke. Anyway...
I wish I had some extra 8 lugs to part with, but truth is I am sitting with one set per 3/4 and 1 ton vehicle I have including the set on the '77 being 16.5" rims. If I come across an extra set, I will let you know.
You know I just realized that of all the tractors we have that are setup with ether assist in them, none of them have cans attached because we don't use them. No sheds to put them to sleep at night either, so there's no protection from wind which slows down the heat buildup in the engines when either starting them, or running the block heaters. And for our newest diesel being a mid 90's Case skid steer, we don't do too badly. All the tractors are older by at least 20 years, except for an early 80s IH that my brother used water for coolant in the summer and left it in over winter. So now that the head is cracked, we don't use it at the moment. For an intelligent guy, he sure is an idiot.
Anyway, I don't pretend to be a genius or anything when it comes to tractors, diesels, or even living - but I am very good at surviving and working in the super cold. I may not run quad batteries, 6 volts in series like in the tractors, or every kind of blanket heater available, but in a worse case scenario I once isolated my batteries and plugged in my block heater using one of the batteries and an inverter I keep to run my laptop and other equipment in the field. Plus I do make sure that since 1993 I run synthetics in my personally owned vehicles. It just saves so much on the internals as well as reduces friction.
Just my opinions, everyone has what works for them. Oh yeah, and since diesel has lowered the sulfur levels I run atf or 2 stroke in every tank and it has definitely helped things out.
And Runaway, if you ever feel like talking firearms, I'm always up for a chat. Happy hunting!!!
