Now let's talk pre-heaters....
I was around airplanes for the first 26 years of my life. Many friends parents had airplanes, two were aircraft salesmen and owned FBO's at local airports. I worked for those folks at two different airports for 6 years from high-school through tech school, so I've pre-heated my share of aircraft engines in winter. Aircraft engines are air cooled. So are gasoline powered Power Tracs. So this should be an easy cross-over. :confused3:
Aircraft engines had to be pre-heated in cold weather. If they didn't, they stood a very good chance of trying to start, popping a few times, you'd think it would start, then it would just crank and crank and crank and never start. What would happen is the first time it popped, it condensed a bunch of moisture out of the fuel/air charge and that moisture coated the cold spark plug electrodes, shorting it out, then freezing on the electrode, thus the term, frosting the plugs. The ONLY solution was to pre-heat the engine for quite a while to get it warm enough to melt the frost. Or, you could pay the mechanic to remove the plugs, clean them, and pre-heat the engine and try it again. So, NO ONE would ever try to start their engines without preheating them in very cold weather.
So what's the best way to pre-heat a Power Trac when you have no AC power to run an electric heater, be it forced air or glue on heat pads on the hydraulic tank?
Propane fired 12V blower heater cart and some thermal blankets to hold the heat in.
Engine Preheaters – Flame Engineering
Now, these are expensive, so there should be some sort of less expensive, yet safe, propane alternative, I'd think.
Here's a milkhouse heater with some thermal ducting, but its 110V.
Inexpensive and effective engine preheater pre-heater w/ photos - VAF Forums
Here's a cordless heater that says 5-6 hours of runtime off of a charge and uses propane tanks. Less than $200.
HEATSTAR-F1439 | Acme Tools
Here's another cordless one from Northern Tool for $160. This one looks interesting.
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200485166_200485166
I'd think if you put a thermal blanket (fireproof) over the engine/hydraulics and pointed this thing in there, you could get some heat in there. Just be sure not to cook the gas tank on the tractor!
