NoJacketRequired
Active member
Equipment
B7510 & LA302 FEL & B2782 blower, B7510 & B2781 blower, B2410 & B2550 blower
A couple of points which I hope will build upon some of the excellent information shared in this thread...
Block heater operation...
I preheat my B-series tractors with the block heater any time temps are near or below freezing. It really makes starting a lot easier. As noted by others, the engine is up to operating temperature in no time at all, a couple of minutes. I start the tractor, run it for about a minute at idle, then bump it up to about 1400RPM which really speeds up the warm-up process, particularly for the hydraulics. This engine speed also gets the alternator producing sufficient power to start recharging the battery. The cab heater is producing heat as soon as the tractor is running.
With respect to remote control, aircraft engines are very high-dollar devices. They are air cooled so a block heater isn't easy to accomplish. My new airplane has seven silicone rubber heating pads bonded to various parts of the engine (a pair on the oil pan, one on the oil cooler, and one at the base of each cylinder). My hangar is little more than a pole barn - a tin shed with air flowing freely through it. The engine cowling is wrapped in an insulating cover - before installing the cover I run an extension cord into the heater plug inside the engine bay. This cord plugs into a wifi-enabled 115V wall plug. In turn, the wall plug is wifi-connected to a cellular wifi device. Through a smart phone app I am able to manually turn the engine pre-heater on and off. It works flawlessly in a hangar where there is no other wifi service. With this setup I could run a camera if I chose, or sensors to detect temperature or any of several other parameters.
With this in mind, I would suggest the easiest / most effective / best bang for the buck would be a wifi-controlled block heater to preheat the tractor. If you don't have an easy way to get wifi in your tractor shed, a cellular device is often the cheapest and easiest way to go. Some US cellular providers offer data plans that are extremely cheap. I my case here in Canada I am paying $7/month for my cellular wifi device so it's quite economical since I live eight miles from the airport - it doesn't take many trips in the car to gobble up seven bucks worth of gas!
Block heater operation...
I preheat my B-series tractors with the block heater any time temps are near or below freezing. It really makes starting a lot easier. As noted by others, the engine is up to operating temperature in no time at all, a couple of minutes. I start the tractor, run it for about a minute at idle, then bump it up to about 1400RPM which really speeds up the warm-up process, particularly for the hydraulics. This engine speed also gets the alternator producing sufficient power to start recharging the battery. The cab heater is producing heat as soon as the tractor is running.
With respect to remote control, aircraft engines are very high-dollar devices. They are air cooled so a block heater isn't easy to accomplish. My new airplane has seven silicone rubber heating pads bonded to various parts of the engine (a pair on the oil pan, one on the oil cooler, and one at the base of each cylinder). My hangar is little more than a pole barn - a tin shed with air flowing freely through it. The engine cowling is wrapped in an insulating cover - before installing the cover I run an extension cord into the heater plug inside the engine bay. This cord plugs into a wifi-enabled 115V wall plug. In turn, the wall plug is wifi-connected to a cellular wifi device. Through a smart phone app I am able to manually turn the engine pre-heater on and off. It works flawlessly in a hangar where there is no other wifi service. With this setup I could run a camera if I chose, or sensors to detect temperature or any of several other parameters.
With this in mind, I would suggest the easiest / most effective / best bang for the buck would be a wifi-controlled block heater to preheat the tractor. If you don't have an easy way to get wifi in your tractor shed, a cellular device is often the cheapest and easiest way to go. Some US cellular providers offer data plans that are extremely cheap. I my case here in Canada I am paying $7/month for my cellular wifi device so it's quite economical since I live eight miles from the airport - it doesn't take many trips in the car to gobble up seven bucks worth of gas!
