Stupid me, using a shovel!
It sure was a nice respite to get those warm warm temps the other day. Got a chance to get most of the mud out.
Today it froze up again and i'm back at spraying the calcium chloride. It does work, cuz i was able to bust off big chunks of frozen mud tonight. Seems like if you get the calcium onto the steel under the mud, the ice doesn't stick. Rather, it sticks, just not so bad you can't bust it off.
I spray the chloride before working in the morning, and after cleaning at night.
I still have to heat the rollers in the morning. It only takes a bit of frozen mud to prevent them from turning. It is pretty straight forward to just heat them in the morning with the big burner. It only takes a few minutes per roller(provided all the mud is cleaned out the night before)
I have been keeping track, and ever since the weather has dropped below freezing, my efficiency has dropped to 70%. That is to say, chargable clock hours (moving dirt) is only 70% of total clock hours on the excavator. The rest is spent dickin around with propane, shovels, prybars, and chloride. Also, since i have to get the pickup(with all the tools in it) to the excavator, i have to drive it to where the truck can reach. I spend a few minutes warming up, a few minutes cycling the hydraulics all around, then running each track, morning and night. Checking final drive real close for leaks.
Add to that all the cleaning each day, and it adds up to about and hour 40 minutes each day.
Winter is proving to be a whole lot of dickin around.
A pic of the rig i use to help with the cleaning. Works great, and i got the idea on HEF!
Thanks everyone :drinkup