Cold Start for C60S

[Phil Waterman]

Hi All

Well C60S Pat 13 cold start after sitting all night in below 0 F temperature, or -17 C in fact in the past 24 hours it has never gotten above -14C with 20MPH winds. I know that trucks don't feel wind chill but the people out working on them do with temperature -14C yesterday and today that means the Wind Chill for people was -25C that feels cold.

But let me back up yesterday as the storm rolled in I went out to do the first pass at plowing in my pickup. The plow was frozen into the ground and when I started to rock the truck I heard a loud bang followed by clunk clunk. Got out to look and as suspected the Universal joint on the front drive shaft had snapped. Next problem was it was snowing like mad and temperature was dropping only heated shop space to fix the plow truck was where Beauty sleeps away the winter in the shop. Had to drain the water system for the shower and hot water heater on the truck and remove the toilet so that Beauty could go out for the night.

Plow truck came in for the night to get warmed up and dried out from the snow that had already accumulated. In the morning went and got new universal joint. It took just under 2 hours to replace the universal.

Next came starting Beauty which now had sat out in the cold for 24 hours tried to start with 6V engine turned slowly but didn't catch. When I put the 261 cu.in engine in I was worried about starting so I installed switch to allow just the starter to get 12V from the radio/auxiliary battery. Flipped the switch and the engine turned a little faster but still didn't start. Went and got the battery charger to charge both the batteries for about an hour.

Hit the starter on the 12v and the engine spun to life. But the truck let me know that it thought it was cold steering, very stiff, transmission and transfer case hard to shift, even the brake booster was stiff. Gently move Beauty back into the heat shop and let it go back to sleep for the winter.

Of course all the oils and greases are summer weight so they are a bit stiff in these temperatures. But with a fresh charge on the battery the truck started I suspect that it would have started on the 6V if the battery had been warmed by charging for and hour before trying to start. Next time I'll know charge the battery for and hour before hitting the starter.

Cheers Phil