As The Trail of Broken Headgaskets posted yesterday, winter made an early appearance in New Mexico. Winter, generally, only makes occasional visits to the desert lowlands (sorta, at 4000ft in elevation) of Southern NM, and yesterday was the earliest recorded snowfall ever in Las Cruces. It was 85 degrees two days ago. We got about 3" in my area, and this made the head of household security very happy. She always likes snow, and she would not be denied playing in it. In fact, it was the first time she’s actually played since becoming an only doggo.
I only took pictures from later in the day once it started melting off, but I took full advantage of the icy and snow covered roads at 3AM that morning to play with the Pajero. As expected, it rocks in the snow. The weight distribution leaves it with plenty of traction even in 2WD, and the full time 4WD mode (4 Hi, center diff unlocked) fells like cheat mode. All the traction, and none of the crabbing going around corners via the viscous coupling mode of the transfer case. Donuts were done, and the lack of ABS was enjoyed.
The afternoon called for taking some pictures. I took the opportunity to run a bunch of errands with the Pajero yesterday. Things discovered included that the heating system on the truck freaking rocks. I’ve never had another vehicle that can output cabin heat like this thing can once the engine is at temperature and the front and rear heaters are set to blast furnace. Its almost like the truck was designed for use in cold climates.
I let the Pajero sit outside in the driveway last night to see how it likes an actual cold start for the first time since I’ve owned it. It was 25 degrees this morning when I fired up the Pajero for a coffee and pastry run to the best local roaster around. I failed at remembering to shoot a cold-start video, but the overall startup was less grumpy than I expected. I sputtered roughly to life almost instantly, and just a bit of throttle feathered it up running smoothly. After about 20 seconds of a bit o’ throttle, it settled down to a smooth idle. This has confirmed that the glow plugs actually are functioning on the truck, and it cold starts better than expected. The previous old school, mechanically injected diesel I owned in the form of a 7.3 IDI in a 1992 F-350 was much more grumpy cold starting in freezing temperatures.
And hey, I only lost power three times yesterday. As predicted in the NWS briefings for the event, falling branches on powerlines was an issue in Southern NM. Some icing, a wet, heavy snow combined with trees that haven’t lost leaves yet meant linemen crews were busy yesterday.