RTV900 oil pan heater

[ayelvington]

I did my oil change today, and I installed a 50 watt oil pan heater while I was at it.

I am very disappointed with the stock block heater for the RTV900 since it only heats the cylinder heads and does nothing for the rest of the water jacket. If it was lower on the block it would create circulation throughout the entire water jacket. oh well

So, here are the photos of the oil pan heater going in. I like the patch-style heater since if fits nicely between the pan and the skid plate. I added some cable loom around the power cord where it runs under the skid plate mounting bracket as a chafe guard. I'm thinking that this should do the trick for at least a few winters. :thumbsup:

I'll plug both in about two hours before starting and that should take some of the stress off of the RTV.

 

[wayupnth]

How's that working? Thinking of trying it on a gator XUV diesel without a block heater. Burned out a radiator hose heater in a week

 

[ayelvington]

I've only had to use it once so far, and it may have helped. My real reason for having it (and only 50W) was to keep the oil viscous enough to get flowing faster. My starts really depend on the battery charge and the glow plugs.

I installed a battery charger (Harbor Freight) right on the battery compartment to keep that plugged in too...

I must confess that I don't have troubles any more since I started using the RTV as a rolling wood pile. I fill it with wood and back it into our garage that I keep at 50F.

So, I'd focus on the battery charge and all of the battery/glow plug connections for the easiest solution.

 

[lloyd123]

Here's a post I did back many years ago:

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/atvs-utility-vehicles/46564-oil-heater-rtv900.html

I put a heater on the oil pan and transmission.

My RTV900 is now almost eight years old. Still has original battery but I must use a trickle charger to keep it working on real cold starts. I only use for plowing so only have about 280 hours.

The only real problem I've had is the "A" frame on the plow broke and it's about a $350 part to replace.