Cold Weather / Tractor

With the first really cold weather coming in on Thursday should I leave the tractor plugged in all night or go out in the morning and plug it in an hour before I start it.

 

I don't trust my block heater to be plugged in overnight, an hour in the morning is all my little 3 cylinder needs.

 

I leave for work around 615 and I wired in a timer to plug into that would come on around 330 worked great....

 

Thanks for the replies, I'll try plugging it in two hours ahead of time and I'll also see if we have an extra timer so we could go that route.

 

I think my bro also only does a couple 2-3 hours in advance.

 

This was a finicky Ford 6 liter and I also had a 1973 IH 574 diesel with a little Tsc hose heater on it that I'd plug in for an hour or two and be just fine otherwise she wouldn't even think to fire under 30 F without a shot of diesel crack (ether) and I didn't like using it even though it was a factory electric ether injection

 

Be careful with timers...Get an outdoor one intended for block heaters and not the Christmas tree lights indoor wimpy ones. Saw a wimpy timer look like a brown blob on the end of a tractor tank heater and coulda burned it up if breaker hadn't stopped the meltdown.

 

I'll second that I hardwired mine in and made sure it was good for some amperage

 

Plug it in over night and pay plug in two hours pay little less but could cost if she doesn't fire

 

You only need to plug it in a hour or so before your gonna start it. You gain nothing by leaving it plugged in all night. Make sure you are running winter grade fuel though, as you'll get gel build up in your filters otherwise. Since it is new, your battery is no doubt good and strong so make sure your glow plugs are good and warm before rolling er' over.

 

If it's a block heater 3-4 hours
If it's an inline circulator/heater an hour.
Those inlines heat stuff up quick.

 

I used to use a block heater on a specific block-heater timer on my dumptruck with a 6.5. An hour before work was plenty of time with that particular truck.

 

Ok maybe I missed it in all the diesel talk here but what are we warming up to start?

 

I took some weight and length off the back end today.

 

The engine block heater, it then changed over to talking about the diesel.

Doesn't the diesel get changed over automatically to winter blend like gas?

 

Haha sorry I was talking about what the block heater was on as in tractor pictures as far as the winter blend fuel I'm not sure if they do it anymore or not and if they do i think it can still gel

 

My tractor is in a unheated garage. It will startwithout the block heater-I plug it an hour to save some wear and tear on the engine from a cold start.