Oh my…where’s the global warming when you really need it?It was brutally cold this morning at around -30F. With the wind, I think today has offered the coldest and most dangerous conditions I've ever encountered. I made the mistake of plugging in the block heater at around 7:45am and trying to start the tractor at 10:00am. It wouldn't start after many attempts. I was concerned about how many starting attempts the battery had in it. The fuel is fine (I add Stanadyne), water separator is clear, simply not enough energy from the glow plugs to overcome the very cold engine block.
I went into town, came back around 11:45am and the tractor started fairly easily after being plugged in for close to four hours. I learned my lesson this morning. Leave the block heater plugged in overnight when it's going to be as cold as this if there's a good chance I'll need to use the tractor the following morning. I used to run a hot water heater timer down in the barn that collapsed, but haven't hooked it up to the panel in the garage. That was a mistake since it worked well for turning block heaters on and off.
Anyway, this was the view from the office this afternoon. I'm still having great success running the blower with an engine speed of 2,200 rpm. I reduce the rpm to 2,000 heading down the lower driveway where I push snow. I get way better fuel efficiency and I can't remember the last regen. Did I mention that it's brutally cold?
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Good call on the fuel supplement. (I treat all my diesel year round with Hot shots…not sure brand matters…I hope I don’t find out).