Bring the balls from the car...???

[J Anderson]

If you keep your bowling balls in the car and they are cold what effect does that have when you bowl?

I'm not sure what effect it has when you bowl as I don't leave mine in the car for more than an hour or two.

The main danger is that leaving the ball in a car that is either much colder than your house or the bowling center, or much warmer can cause the cover of the ball to crack.

[Aslan]

The topic is whether to bring equipment inside or not during extreme weather periods. I still say yes.

If you'd like to argue weights of bowling bags with me, please feel free to do it via PM.

I was just making the point that, as the OP stated, bringing balls back and forth from his car to workplace is kinda a big deal. You seemed to "poo poo" it as not an issue or an issue of a person being out of shape and in need of exercise. I was merely pointing out that the average bowling ball bag weighs a great deal more than the average luggage...so I agree with the OP...it's an issue.

[Aslan]

If you keep your bowling balls in the car and they are cold what effect does that have when you bowl?

Physically speaking...they'd shrink and thus have less pin carry. Or on hot days, expand and have more pin carry.

From a practical standpoint though...I had this happen to me last month...I left my bag in my car (which I rarely do) and when I got to the alley and started bowling, the ball kept getting stuck in the ball return. I'm still not 100% sold that it was because my ball had expanded...I think it's because most AMF alleys have equipment circa 1958...but thats what happened to me. I've bowled at that same alley...same ball...never had that problem except the one day I left it in the trunk.

[Jaescrub]

The wife and I always bring our equipment from her truck into the house. if I had to leave from work to bowl I would bring my equipment in and put it in my office or locker. You don't want a ball you like using to crack from expansion and contraction from temperature change.

[bowl1820]

Physically speaking...they'd shrink and thus have less pin carry. Or on hot days, expand and have more pin carry.
.

The smaller ball should have the better carry.

Back in 2004 Ron Hickland, Ball Design Engineer at Ebonite International did a experiment on ball size. It's in a article titled "Doe's Ball Size Matter"

[Aslan]

The smaller ball should have the better carry.

Back in 2004 Ron Hickland, Ball Design Engineer at Ebonite International did a experiment on ball size. It's in a article titled "Doe's Ball Size Matter"

Interesting. I was thinking purely from the standpoint of size...a larger ball would be more likely to hit more pins. Would you rather bowl with a beach ball or a marble? But...I stand corrected...and I like his article title...very precise yet suggestive.

[JJKinGA]

The cold weather does some shrinkage, but the real change is i the elastic nature of the coverstock. teh colder you go, the stiffer and less flexible the cover will beocme. The less elastic, the less hook you will get (smaller footprint and less grip).

[circlecity]

The cold weather does some shrinkage, but the real change is i the elastic nature of the coverstock. teh colder you go, the stiffer and less flexible the cover will beocme. The less elastic, the less hook you will get (smaller footprint and less grip).

that makes sense... So, would it be the opposite with warm or hot bowling balls? They would hook more.

[JJKinGA]

Yes hot balls will hook more and also to lose energy more rapidly. And the time it takes for the ball to cool can be fairly lengthy. If the ball is 100 degrees F and the center is 70 degrees F then you can expect it will take an hour for the ball to be cooled down. The same is true if the ball is close to freezing. Usually we don't have such extremes. the bigger impact in temperature and humidity is on the lane. The kegel webstie has a good article on the effect of temperature and humidity on lane topography.

http://www.kegel.net/V3/ArticleDetails.aspx?ID=75

[circlecity]

Yes hot balls will hook more and also to lose energy more rapidly. And the time it takes for the ball to cool can be fairly lengthy. If the ball is 100 degrees F and the center is 70 degrees F then you can expect it will take an hour for the ball to be cooled down. The same is true if the ball is close to freezing. Usually we don't have such extremes. the bigger impact in temperature and humidity is on the lane. The kegel webstie has a good article on the effect of temperature and humidity on lane topography.

http://www.kegel.net/V3/ArticleDetails.aspx?ID=75

Thanks for the info. I guess the safe and easy solution is to get those bowling balls out of your car.