Ice Station Zebra: My cold start procedure and a whole lot of snow blowing.

[FatTire]

Something's come over me. All of a sudden this winter I'm lusting over the cab tractors. I just had a birthday, I'm thinking that has something to do with it...

 

[Ford850]

Ford, I do have a block heater. I didn't use the footage from that part. My block heater was dealer installed and was, apparently a Bobcat block heater as Kioti didn't offer a block heater.

Wow, even with the block heater that sounded a little rough starting. I don't get the cold temps you do, but I see below zero more than I like. Mine starts relatively smooth if I have the block heater comforting it. It's parked in an unheated barn though, and I think the protection from the wind is the difference. I guess the wind really robs the heat and cools the engine counteracting the block heater, similar to a fan on a radiator.

 

[Tinstafl]

We usually do not get too cold but it was minus one the last couple days and it was 1 degree when o went to start the tractor. It started with nothing warming it and I let it warm up as you stated. I don't have a hydrostatic but gears so I lifted the front end and backed out after ten mins. I got the needle on the te,p gauge to nove dragging the rear blade around but I am thankful for a cab.

 

[RNeumann]

Thanks for posting. I didn't see anything about covering the grill. The owners manual for my machine says to cover the grill in cold weather. Is that standard?

 

[George2615]

Covering the grill will help get the operating temperature up in the normal range if it is running too cold. The engines are designed to operate most efficiently at temperature. For those with cabbed tractors in cold temp areas the cab heater may not put out enough heat if the engine temps are not kept in the normal range of the temp gauge.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Man all that snow is pretty but I am glad I don't have to put up with that. A few seconds on the glow plugs started my B26 easily. The hydraulic oil was a bit thick so the FEL didn't want to raise easily at first but it warmed up quickly in the 22F temp which is almost as cold as it gets here. We have had 14F as the coldest I have seen it here in the 6 years of living here.
TODAY it is 59F at 7am so a pretty good swing in temps.