<font color="blue">Do you leave the short cord that plugs into the heater always plugged into the heater end or do you remove it when operating your tractor? </font>
The short cord stays on my tractor all the time. Since the positive cable from the battery (on its way to the starter) runs right underneath the block heater, I tie wrapped the heater cord to it. The plug end of the cord rests on the battery tray. Fortunately, there's a 1.5 inch hole in the battery tray (for drainage I assume), that allows me to reach in, with 2 fingers, grab the plug and pull it down when I want to plug in the heater. When I am ready to use the tractor, I unplug the cord, tuck the plug back into it's resting place and start the tractor. Since I have the extension cord hanging down from directly above the tractor, I shouldn't miss the fact that the heater is plugged in, something that could be a concern if the extension cord were on the ground.