Cold (Fridid) Weather Start Diesel?????
I am struggling with a gas vs diesel dilemma for myself. (Most recent generation of diesel). A concern that I have is cold weather start. For example, I am in the middle of nowhere deer hunting. I...
Forum Discussion
One of the uses of my diesel truck is pulling the snowmachine trailer. We've often gone out on a Thursday afternoon when it's above zero and when we've come back on Sunday night to load up, it's been down to -35 or colder.
I make sure I have good batteries with clean terminals, I put on battery heaters, a pad heater siliconed to the side of the oil pan and use synthetic oil. When we get back to the trucks, I pull out a Honda 2000 to plug the truck into while we're loading up the machines. And a Honda 1000 won't pull that load, it takes a 2000. While the battery charging cables always stay tied to the handle of the generator, I usually take a larger battery charger with me that can put out a 50 or 200A boost charge.
I don't silicone the pad heater to the bottom of the oil pan incase I have to put a propane heater or weed burner underneath for heat.
Yes, I do use Power Serve.
We also try to park the trucks side by side or nose to nose so that one can jump the other. You should know which truck is the easiest to start in the cold. Run the jumpers from the other truck (before trying to start it and running its batteries down) to the easiest to start truck and start it with the extra battery power. Then start the worse truck after the running truck has put some battery charge back into the worse one.
The above is only needed for when it gets really cold, but we never know how cold it's going to get when we're going to be gone for several days.
Bill
I make sure I have good batteries with clean terminals, I put on battery heaters, a pad heater siliconed to the side of the oil pan and use synthetic oil. When we get back to the trucks, I pull out a Honda 2000 to plug the truck into while we're loading up the machines. And a Honda 1000 won't pull that load, it takes a 2000. While the battery charging cables always stay tied to the handle of the generator, I usually take a larger battery charger with me that can put out a 50 or 200A boost charge.
I don't silicone the pad heater to the bottom of the oil pan incase I have to put a propane heater or weed burner underneath for heat.
Yes, I do use Power Serve.
We also try to park the trucks side by side or nose to nose so that one can jump the other. You should know which truck is the easiest to start in the cold. Run the jumpers from the other truck (before trying to start it and running its batteries down) to the easiest to start truck and start it with the extra battery power. Then start the worse truck after the running truck has put some battery charge back into the worse one.
The above is only needed for when it gets really cold, but we never know how cold it's going to get when we're going to be gone for several days.
Bill
