Kubotas at play. Er, I mean work!

I was thinking today that my glow plugs are almost never used because I use the block heater.

There are magnetic heaters for the oil pan. Easy to attach as needed. I haven’t been too impressed with their heating ability in the past.

The Alaskan guys here write of a style that glues onto the oil pan and sounds much more effective.

The snow just started here, in Chester, VT, so you guys further east should be seeing it soon.

 

Mines plugged in now.. But it is -4..

 

I fired up my Kubota and let it run for about 15 minutes heater is plugged in ready to go. Calling for 14 - 20 inches then turning frigid. 12* now and just started snowing here in eastern NY.

 

You fella's new to diesels, take the above to hart. Finding & thawing a froze up (fuel) tractor down at the end of your drive, in the wind, in the dark, in the middle of the night, and in the middle of the road.....
It can involve tenting the machine with a tarp, a kerosene torpedo heater, and a generator or lot's of extension cords.

 

Here’s one of the Alaskan comments on the pad style heater...
Colder here. What's your temp? What ya burnin?

fuelrod , I’ve had to replace my block heater twice in 2000 hrs. Is that typical?

 

I said above, I'm not a mechanic
I did just yesterday find that the block heater on my SS is not working, it's at 2000 something hours and only been plugged in a few times.
I couldn't give you an answer on what's normal, but the diesel pickups that I've had did not have any troubles up to 5-6k hours but my SS at 2K

 

A state plow truck just went by with plow down. I think they are bored with waiting.

 

Ok, didn't mean to start a feud on block heaters. I just know that diesels are different than gasoline engines and don't wanna bugger up my engine.

I've heard of using kero as a "thinner", as diesel can gel in very cold temps.

I have an "excess" of #2 fuel oil, where does that exist in the fuel realm?

It's cheaper than diesel at the moment, but unsure if the "thinners" would be bad in the tractor.

 

I was having trouble carrying a tote of ash up the hill into the garage so I put the chains on the kubota today. What a difference they make!


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Be careful on how much you add. 10-20% max. It works great! But any left over cut fuel will make your diesel run a little warmer than normal when it gets warm out.


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Power Service in the white can in every tank of fuel. Cheap & effective. Power Service diesel 911 in the red can in the filter if you didn't use the previous. Gelled fuel at 0 & below sucks bad & restarting them in the cold sucks even worse.

 

Ya, only wicked dummies would do that...
Diesel gelled in tractor now what

 

I refill my off-road diesel in the Fall once I know they have started treating it for the cold. I generally add a little Power Service as insurance. No problems to date (17 years of diesel tractors here in the northeast).

I’m told the #2 heating oil and diesel come from the same rail tanker here.

 

I am a former Diesel tech and fuelrod gave good advice about starting a cold tractor. All synthetic oils help an awful lot. I remember starting skidders at -40 and even with the coolant circulator from the service truck it took hours. Tarps, silent glows, and frozen fingers. Not fun! No black flies though...
I plug mine into a timer and set it to come on about 3 hours before I need it. Above freezing i don’t bother. If the element on the block heater touches anything inside the block or is really close it won’t hold up over the long term. Otherwise it should last if you change your coolant every couple years or so. Like anything else they do just fail sometimes though. I’ve seen some that were decades old and still working.

 

In my experience 75% of the time when a block heater isn't working it is the cord that is bad, and the element is alright. And I am a strong believer in fuel additives in diesel in the winter. I like the chains slocum has.

 

My wife buys fuel for logging crews from multiple different oil companies. One mixes on-site, 60% off-road and 40% kerosine.

I never tested the cord vs the heater, Jnb. I think I still have one, so I’ll check that out. Maina, I’m thinking the first time I replaced the heater on this tractor I was surprised at how narrow the passage was where they installed it. The Kubota parts counter guy is a friend and lives here in town- I’ll ask if he sees these being replaced more often for different models.

 

Retraction; The Mrs says she was told by a dealer that all local dealers draw diesel from the same rail tanker. I conflated that with other unconfirmed stories I’ve heard regarding heating oil. Apologies for that!

 

The plow just went by for the first time. I’m trying to decide whether to go out before it ends but

Good point! I’ve seen that a lot also, but mostly when the cord wasn’t secured out of the way properly. They tend to get ripped off when they drag on the ground.
We had one log truck driver who was infamous for stuff like that. His truck was always missing the cord it seemed. He was just lazy. Finally got fired after getting out to take a leak and only set the trailer brakes. New truck, trailer and a full load rolled down over a bank. Took us almost a year to replace the frame on the truck.