Block and HST Hyd oil preheaters, found and invented, $48

[TMB1320]

I used to tuck a pull of extension through the door handl of the car, until the they went to flush mount pulls. Almost ripped a mirror off once.

Jinman. I planned on using a bit extension, the drill is 12" inches on the other end of a junk cooler.
Ya, all in the cooler pump, drill, litre of glycol mix to top up the heat exchanger. I don't understand why a mess. I just will not tolerate leaks. The cooler stays where I park the tractor. There maybe a dribble of oil
From the 2 quick connects. Pocket or bag with absorb pad for them when stored in cooler. Quiets the drill
also. The outside wireless thermometer gets a spot in the cooler also.

 

[aczlan]

How cold does it get around you, 0F/-18C sustained? If so, that is nothing that 2-400 watt heater on the bottom of the transmission/engine wont handle (assuming that you block out the wind like I suggested). You MIGHT also need a stick on heater
I would try the heater on the bottom and a insulator/windblock over the top first. I would bet that such a setup will keep things above freezing unless you are significantly below 0F (and if you are, you would be time and money ahead to just change the oil to a lighter weight/synthetic oil then do the same).

The risks I see with your plan are:
1. You are bringing the fluid out of the tractor, this will increase the risk of a unplanned hose failure (even if you "dont tolerate leaks" they WILL happen)
2. You are running a drill to power a pump that isn't rated for the (flammable) fluid you are pumping, while this might not leak for a while, it will eventually leak.
3. Using a heater and flammable liquid in the same enclosed space with the aforementioned drill and pump
If you go down this road, be sure to park your tractor far enough away from everything that it wont burn anything else down when something breaks or leaks and it catches on fire.

I would HIGHLY recommend that you use something like magnetic heaters on the bottoms of the pans, then (IF needed) you could put something like Kat's 24025 25 Watt 1"x 5" Universal Hot Pad Heater : Amazon.com : Automotive on the tube that you are worried about and on the base of the filter.
Yes, it will cost more, but you wont risk burning your tractor to the ground (I doubt that any insurance company would cover your loss if it was caused by your proposed heating rig, but dont take my word for it. Ask your insurance agent).

Aaron Z

 

[TMB1320]

Fire. Risk management for sure. Suppose I should make room in the cooler for fire suppressor.
It should include a few fail safes that were obvious, such as abrupt drill speed change, cut all power.
Minimize connections inside to 1, pump it coil. Naturally a remote shutoff.


Your right about taking oil off the tractor, and got me thinking.
The block is getting 400 watts for the puny 1.3 litre. And just today I flushed all lines through the cab heater because I thought they were blocked. Turns out to open the valve to the heater coil, turn the
Remote (cable) control on the headliner panel ccw. Go figure. Any way , I could route the heater feed
Any where I want , including cuddling the hydlines and filter. Marine heatexchangers are common.
Mout one of those between hydraulic feed/return with a rated pump inline. Second pump to circulate the hot water to the exchanger, and still be under half an hour for 20C rise. bonus for instant on cab heat. Definitely more money.

 

[jinman]

Ty, I don't tolerate leaks either, but they don't go away because I "spank" them. I think that adding fittings and a pump rated for short-term use and run by a drill that is also not rated for continuous operation is shaky logic at best. If I wanted to ensure less chance of leaks, I'd try to reduce the number of fittings rather than increase them. Also, quick connects are not 100% clean. Every time you connect/disconnect, you will have small amounts of oil to deal with. Just hooking up and disconnecting as many times as you will be doing is gonna get really tedious; much more than sticking on a couple of magnetic heaters and plugging them in. I wish you the best of luck, but I think there are several good reasons people don't do what you are suggesting. You have a very adventurous nature, and that is great for "out-of-the-box" solutions. I hope you prove us wrong and this works perfectly, but I admit I'm highly skeptical.

 

[TMB1320]

Thanks for the well wishes. I think you meant to say "outside the box". I wish there was an "out of the box" product that does what I wanted. Not many low volume no pressure gear pumps with ac motors
Showing up on searches. Vending machine grade, low voltage dc, but I'll keep looking.
On the fire aspect, and I know it's not really something to laugh at, but I admit to having a chuckle at the thought of a plastic ice cooler on fire in a snowbank in a blizzard.

 

[flyingcow]

Sounds to me like you need a nice heated 2-bay garage with a flat screen Tv, full satellite, and nice pool table in the second bay. problem solved

 

[TMB1320]

Tall cab on, so it will need the high doors. Smiles. My city lot is long but only 55 ft wide, and the house is
In the middle, 100' of driveway to the curb. Been here for 35 yrs, and never a shelter for any vehicle.
Minus 20C and below is where I have always preheated gas v6&v8 cyl with block heater, for 1hour before start. Minus 30 and below is good for 2 hrs of preheat. There were some winters that 30 below overnight
Acouple of weeks straight with a 20 c rise through the day. That's still minus 10. Good thing when
It happens its usually a high pressure/clear sky, ie no snow, and sometimes breezy. The wind chill
Will suck the heat out of the devil if exposed to moving air at that temp.

Anybody know how to post images here from an i(diot)Pad?