Construction does not stop just because the mercury drops below freezing. But running a gasoline or diesel impact rammer in the dead of winter requires a completely altered operational playbook. Let's talk about the engines first. A diesel rammer in sub-zero temperatures is notoriously difficult to wake up. Diesel fuel contains paraffin wax, which crystallizes and "gels" when it gets too cold, clogging the tiny fuel injectors. We mandate strict winter-blend diesel and anti-gel additives on our sites, and operators have to allow the engine block to warm up significantly before engaging the clutch, otherwise, the cold, thick oil won't properly splash-lubricate the crank gears.
Gasoline rammers have their own winter demons, primarily carburetor icing and choke management. But the engine is only half the problem. Remember that critical polyurethane bellows I mentioned earlier? At -15°C [approx. 5°F], that flexible plastic boot becomes rigid and brittle as glass. If you fire the machine up to full throttle immediately, the violent stretching will shatter the frozen boot instantly. We always let the machines idle for five to ten minutes, allowing the ambient heat from the engine exhaust to soften the plastic before we put it to work.
Finally, you have to read the ground. Frozen soil is essentially concrete. If you take a jumping jack to frozen clay, you are not compacting it; you are just breaking ice. When spring arrives and that ice melts, the trench will collapse into a soupy mess. Winter compaction requires importing dry, unfrozen fill material, or utilizing massive ground heaters to thaw the trench before the rammer ever touches the dirt.
