Construction schedules rarely respect the changing of the seasons, and working the dirt in the dead of winter introduces a brutal set of mechanical and geotechnical challenges. Operating a plate compactor when ambient temperatures drop below -10°C [approx. 14°F] requires a masterclass in thermal management.
Let’s address the subgrade first. Frozen soil is impossible to compact. The moisture between the soil particles crystallizes into ice lenses, turning the dirt into the equivalent of solid concrete. If you run a heavy diesel reversible plate over frozen ground, you are simply shattering the ice. It might look solid, but the moment the spring thaw arrives, the ice melts, leaving massive voids, and the entire slab or roadway above it will collapse. If we must compact in winter, we use massive ground-thawing glycol heaters to completely defrost the trench, and we only backfill with imported, bone-dry aggregate that has been protected from freezing moisture.
From an equipment standpoint, the powerplants behave entirely differently. Diesel engines are notoriously stubborn in the cold; the fuel gels, and the thick 15W-40 oil prevents the engine from turning over fast enough to create combustion heat. We switch to winter-blend fuels and synthetic oils. Gasoline engines suffer from carburetor icing. And the new electric plate compactors? Lithium-ion batteries suffer severe voltage drop in sub-zero temperatures. A battery pack that gives you an hour of run time in July might only give you thirty minutes in January. We manage this by keeping the spare batteries inside a heated truck cab until the exact moment they are needed. Furthermore, the oil inside the exciter housing becomes as thick as molasses in the cold. You must let the machine idle and vibrate gently for several minutes to generate internal friction heat, thinning the exciter oil before you ever attempt to run it at full throttle.
