" '65 mph appears the usual speed of tractor trailer rigs on our interstate and state highways.' Wow. In your mind."Yes. As tractor-trailer rigs pass me as I am doing 55 mph, when they pull into my lane I often gently accelerate and draft them. They are usually right at 65 mph even where the speed limit is 70 and 75.
"I had a dream like that once."Always good to dream of and effect efficiency. Amazing the increase in fuel mileage when drafting tall trailer tractor-trailer rigs. Best was a tall bus heading to Mexico. He was doing 75 to 80 mph in 75 mph zone. He never used turn signals for any of his many lane changes and slightly cut off a car. I plan to post our dashcam video on YouTube and send a link to his company.
“Lightbulbs” would break. The outdoor floodlamps work well! Cheap and no attaching a magnetic heater to the oil pan.
A “cable” would be far cheaper than a remote system. But I can’t design circuitry to start the SUV without risk of harming the computer.
I take corners gently - Expeditions be top-heavy.
Truckers say they just can’t hear sirens at highway speeds with a large trailer behind.
They are good people and signal and move as soon as they notice the red lights.
Viewers enjoy the dashcam videos, especially the one where a Mexican-looking driver caught up in lane 2 and paced us at 105 mph.
Robert, in my experience lightbulbs can handle the cold, but it would be good to remember that lightbulbs are designed to convert as much of the energy as practical to light, heat being only a necessary byproduct of the process (a filament produces both, and how much of each depends on the filament and the inert gas used. How much of both its able to produce depends on these things plus the ability of the surrounding hardware (the bulb mainly) to survive heat. Quartz Halogen bulbs use fused quartz to enable the higher temperatures, and that allows the filament to burn brighter. They put out both more light and more heat.
The reason I made the point is to suggest that perhaps something designed to produce prmarily heat rather than light would make better use of the energy purchased to operate it. You may want to look for a heater rather than rely on the heat produced by something designed to create light.
just a thought.
Thank you.
Yes. But I need to save money, already have old inefficient outdoor lamps, three ceramic lamp sockets and leftover 14-2 cable.
An electric skillet may be better, but water may drip onto the temperature controller or leak into the connection.
These lamps have reflectors which direct the heat and light onto the engine and transmission.
Also nice to have light in the garage.
Ford wants a fortune for an engine heating element and the supply cord which connects to it.
When I was in North Dakota I had one of these types.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=lower+radiator+hose+heater
Cheap, easy to install, and they work beautifully. The heated coolant circulates through convection.
Thank you. Looked at those last November.
Would be nice. How much of the coolant convects up into and loses its heat out of the radiator? (But a bedsheet covers the hood and radiator.)
Also, one outdoor lamp heats the transmission.
What about using heat lamp bulbs? They put out an IR light that heats the surface it strikes. Be careful though, these can heat up a surface much hotter than you would expect.
Thank you.
I’d have to shield a heat lamp bulb because it may fracture from a drop of cold water.
I already have inefficient incandescent outdoor flood lamps which wereplaced with halogen lamps.
Are these old PAR lamps 95% heat and 5% light?
They are under the engine and transmission shining straight up.
Have you considered heat tape? You could wrap it around the engine, oil pan, and/or radiator hoses, then you only need to plug it in as needed. It has a built in thermostat so it won’t get very hot, only around 40°F or so.
If what you’re doing is working for you, than by all means stick with it.
Heatape would not melt or get torn up?
40°F is better than 0°F.
Heattape is designed for wrapping thing slike exhaust headers. It’ll definitely withstand heat. I have no idea how it does with cold.
This is not the heat tape you wrap exhaust pipes and headers with. I should have used the term heater tape, but heat tape is a common term for this in the building industry. It is used on water pipes that are exposed to freezing temperatures.
It would melt if it got on the exhaust pipe but I think it can withstand the temperature of a hot engine. The installation would have to be secure or it would get torn up. It would take a little Ozark Engineering to get a good install.
It was just an idea.
"That's not too racist."Why not state what I Bobserved? My girlfriend was from Mexico City. She said that many Mexicans who come to the US think thathey need not obey US laws. She said thathey feign not understanding English so that police will let them go.
My employer allows me to leave on emergency transports.
Thank you, but no need for worry. I attain such speeds when no other traffic.
Not often do I see a car in the rearview mirror catching up. Motorcycles more often.
I don’t careen. It’s an SUV.
Why apply heater tape to an exhaust manifold? To prevent thermal shock?
The floodlights keep the engine and transmission warm enough. Only needed on very cold nights and a few days. I simply unplug the lights and drive away.
Glad to find a use for the inefficient incandescent lamps. I was planning to donate them to Goodwill.
It’s used on exhaust headers of performance cars to prevent the headers from overheating the other componentry under the hood.
There is a way to test the heat tape that you’re referring to. Measure the underhood temps on a hot day after a highway run (I use an infrared thermometer). Then take some of the tape and using a broiler oven and an oven thermometer, heat it up until it’s hotter than the underhood temps + a “fudge factor” of, say, 25%. If it shows no sign of failing, you can feel confident that it’ll survive under the hood. If it fails, you’ll know not to use it and how it fails. The only caveat is to be sure it doesn’t absorb water. Since it’s used for buildings, I’m guessing it won;t.
It appears that the link I posted above gives different results each time you click on it, not always the one I intended. Just to clear up the difference between the heat tape for water pipes and for exhaust systems, I have two more links.
water pipes, heat tape, aka heat cable
headers and exhaust pipes, heat tape, aka exhaust wrap
http://www.jegs.com/p/JEGS-Performance-Products/JEGS-Ultra-Hi-Temp-Exhaust-Wrap/1225481/10002/-1
But this is getting into the “too hard to do” category for anyone who has not graduated from the Dogpatch School of Engineering and Taxidermy, so I withdraw my suggestion.