Heated Gloves

[tex]

a good set of batteries should see you a good hour or more - can easily turn them on and off - get warm - turn off a while - get cold warm up - shud last longer.

[Welly Jen]

I drive my Westfield year round, and have tried a variety of approaches to keeping comfy on the move. Another vote for SealSkinz gloves. They also come with a grippy surface so you don't risk them slipping on the steering wheel. I also take off the pedal box cover in winter. Pinto engines have the exhaust manifold on the right, so plenty of warm air on my feet. Good point by Gadgetman about the risk from scalding if the header tank overflows. Mine is right above the pedals. Will need to investigate. Not tried heated gloves, though I've seen them for sale. sealskinz work well for me down to a few degrees below zero. Below that I'll hire a tin top or take the train if they are running!

 

I'm blessed with decent circulation, so if my core is warm, then my fingers and toes are OK. On Sunday I drove up to the Yorkshire Dales to go caving. 2 hours each way, plus a six hour caving trip in snow melt in between. I wore my down jacket under my wind/waterproof and was toasty on the drives. Aeroscreen also helps I Think as you get less buffeting than a windscreen on its own, where the air flow is continuously excavating warm air out of the cockpit. I found windscreen plus sidescreens a bit claustrophobic, let alone them plus hood. This from someone who goes caving for fun!  I leave the passenger side tonneau cover on when its just me, which also helps build up a pocket of warm still air. A helmet, which I wear for long journeys, acts as your own personal hard top. A winter weight fleece buff protects my neck.

 

Jen

[AdamR]

Good point by Gadgetman about the risk from scalding if the header tank overflows. Mine is right above the pedals. Will need to investigate.

 

I had a hose at the rear of the block go pop on me - all I got was warm legs luckily... By the time the coolant (which was at about 85) reached me it had cooled sufficiently.

[dombanks]

i found the pedal cover thing out by accident. works well.

 

for a long time i had no cover on the gear stick and that also worked well as a warm air vent. so it got me to wondering. as our cars are not the most water tight things, and alot of us dont drive in the rain etc what about the possibility of putting some sort of vent inthe tunnel top/sides or scuttle that just diverts the air around a bit?

[Norman Verona]

Probably because the air will have noxious stuff in it. You wouldn't want to be falling asleep when driving with the hood on, would you?

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

It's funny, years of driving German saloons with black leather interiors and black headlining seems to have conditioned me to find a Westfield with the hood up a nice cosy place!

(And those that know me from turning up to Club Christmas  do's in an aeroscreened, heaterless car, with snow on the ground will know how shocking that is from me!)

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

The spinning prop does seem to mean any road muck ending up in the tunnel gets liberally spread all round the tunnel, so I'd be wary of venting from there. But just removing the carpets would mean you could use the tunnel panels as a crude heat exchanger!