Winter Preperations

[km-ri]

Winter Preparations

This will be my first winter with my TYM 273. I have a FEL and backhoe and living in New England I suspect I will be clearing snow or continuing to work in the woods.

What can I do to insure my tractor starts regularly and how long do they need to warm up? It will be stored in an unheated enclosure.

Is there a block heater available?
Is there such a thing as a hydraulic fluid heater?

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks

(Also posted in TYM Forum)

 

[bpattie]

Forst thing is I use a winter additive to the fuel to keep from gelling. I believe the 273 has glow plugs which maybe all you need. I am sure that you can also get block heater either as standard option from your dealer or there are always hose inline heaters that will heat the coolant. not sure about the hydro fluid heater, I have never heard of that.

 

[Mark_in_NH]

In my opinion, Diesel 911 or some other fuel addative, is an absolute must.
I also had the forethought to include a block heater at the time of purchase and it has paid for itself several times over.
I learned the hard way in the winter of 2003, my first winter with the new tractor. Nothing worse then a snowed in driveway and a $23,000 piece of machinery that won't start due to cold weather and congealed fuel.
It took better then half a day of having the block heater plugged in and a reddy heater blowing heat under the tractor with blankets covering the tractor to trap and hold the heat in to resolve the problem. NEVER AGAIN !
I now use the diesel 911 year round so as to make sure it is always in the fuel system. Before I even put the empty fuel jug in the truck to go fill it, I dump some addative in the jug.
One of the other things I do when it's real cold is to just go out and start the tractor and let it run for a while. I don't need to use it for anything but I just let it run,get everything warm, maybe drive it around the yard and circulate all the fluids etc.
But the biggest thing I can suggest and I can't emphasize it enough, is a fuel addative. I find that Walmart sells the big jugs of the 911 pretty inexpensively. Don't forgt to let the glow plugs do their thing. I wait untill the glow plug indicator light goes out and then I will turn the key off then back on Sometimes I will use mine 2 or 3 times when it's cold before I try to start the engine.

 

[artfull dodger]

Diesel 911 is for when you have a gell up, not as a preventive. Use a good name brand fuel treatment like powerservices ect. Also, if you getting your diesel thru service station, ask them what the blend is, or it might say on the pump that the fuel is winter blended down to 20 below zero ect. Dont excessively idle the engine, just firing it up and letting it run without working it is extreamly bad for diesel engines, it will carbon and coke up the injectors. Your better off to let it sit and not use it then just idle it or let it run with no load. Good winter prep is making sure you fuel is properly blended, this is normaly done with a 60/40 or 50/50 blend of keroscene(#1 diesel) and normal #2 diesel fuel. Then ontop of that I put my stanadyne fuel additive in it to boost cetane and deal with moisture. I have never had a diesel, either my pickup or the tractor gell up or wax a filter during the winter time. Make sure to change the engine oil and fuel filter prior to the winter operation session, and have a spare fuel filter with you in your tractor's tool box just in case.

 

[gboudreau]

I agree with Mark an additive is a must. I use Powerservice in the white bottle during the winter months, and the grey bottle in the summer in both my tractor and truck. I live in NH as well and have never had a problem, I know people who have though. Make sure who you buy your fuel through is a station that sells a good amount of diesel. I only buy from 2 or 3 stations in town and during the winter months I only buy from one, which is the most active diesel pump in town selling to truckers and contractors. My Kioti had glow plugs and let them warm up and them let the tractor sit for a short time to warm the other fluids. check your owners manual and it might give a reccomendation as to how long to idle for prior to use to warm the fluids. Other then that enjoy it and buy some warm Carhartts if you don't have a cab.

 

[dave1949]

Now is a good time to take your battery cables off, clean up the cable ends and terminals. If you have acid corrosion building up, brush/scrub them good with baking soda and water mix. You can also clean the battery case with this solution. Check the battery fluid level.

Believe it or not, you can read voltage from a terminal to the goo build up on the top of the battery case. This goo is conductive and slowly drains your battery. Strong battery absolutley needed in winter startups.

A fully charged battery looses over 50% of its cranking power at zero degrees F.

Dave.

 

[dave1949]

Big ditto on the Carharts! I don't have a cab and feel like I can almost move with all my clothes on! Hardest part of cleaning the driveway is getting from the house to the garage through 3 feet of snow wearing 30 pounds of clothes

 

[Mark_in_NH]

Diesel 911 is for when you have a gell up, not as a preventive. .

I stand corrected, botamike is right. The red jug is the 911, for correcting already gelled fuel. The white jug is the fuel supplement and cetane boost ( preventative ).

I know that all diesel fuel is "treated" at the pump in the winter But it will be cold day in He!! before I will trust any of them to have it treated adequatly enough for me. I will always take my own added precautions.

If letting a diesel engine idle for long periods of time is so bad for them. Why is it a very common practise for truckers and heavy equipment operators to let their engines idle for long periods, sometimes all night long, even 24 hours a day, in extreme cold regions ?

 

[PILOON]

Do the block heater thing, or lower hose heater.
Naturally battery, cables and other routine maintainance.
Changing to a winter weight oil is also a good move.

I have had my tractoe for 18 yrs and only started to use additives last year, mainly as a preventative as it is cheap enough to do so.
I also double filter my fuel as once before I had gelling from frosting and never want to drain/prime again at -25.
Every winter starts off with a new filter for me!

 

[dodge man]

I'm also not a big fan of letting your tractor warm up for long period of time. I let mine warm up maybe 2 to 3 minutes, and then start out very slowly until I see the temp gauge start to rise. I treat mine with Howse(sp?) fuel treatment.

 

[LBrown59]

1*Make sure who you buy your fuel through is a station that sells a good amount of diesel.
2* I only buy from 2 or 3 stations in town and during the winter months I only buy from one, which is the most active diesel pump in town selling to truckers and contractors.

1*&2*
Better than that I buy from a
distributor which saves me about 40 cents a gallon and I don't have to run after fuel.

 

[LBrown59]

This is best left to suppliers not by individual homeowners as this could cause overblending .
I defenitate would not want to run over blended fuel.

1* Good winter prep is making sure you fuel is properly blended, this is normaly done with a 60/40 or 50/50 blend of keroscene(#1 diesel) and normal #2 diesel fuel. Then on top of that I put my stanadyne fuel additive in it to boost cetane and deal with moisture. I have never had a diesel, either my pickup or the tractor gell up or wax a filter during the winter time. Make sure to change the engine oil and fuel filter prior to the winter operation session, and have a spare fuel filter with you in your tractor's tool box just in case.

This is best left to suppliers not by individual homeowners as this could cause overblending .
I defenitate would not want to run over blended fuel.

 

[foggy1111]

Somehow I had a hunch we would see that fuel system of L Browns.

 

[smfcpacfp]

A block heater makes starting much easier, so I would definitely get one if I were you. I always plug it in for at least a half hour if it is freezing, and up to two hours if well below zero. I am sure that someone makes a hydraulic heater, but I am not aware of who does.

Once started, the colder the temperature, the longer I let the tractor warm up, but not more than 15 minutes in really cold weather, unless I get busy and forget.

In terms of fuel, the best thing to do in the winter is to use #1 diesel fuel which has a cloud point of -40F. I wouldn't be attempting to start my tractor at colder temperatures than that, I will wait out the cold. In our area, which can get to -40F, they sell what they call "winter diesel" which is a blend of #1 and #2 diesel. The problem is what is the blend proportions? #2 diesel has a cloud point of +40F whereas #1 has a cloud point of -40F - big difference. I have a simple solution - use # 1 in winter. There is a problem with #1. It is a poor lubricant, thus you need to use a diesel additive with #1. #2 has excellent lubricating qualities, so little if any diesel additive is needed.

 

[Johndeere3720]

Ive never used my L118 in less than 40 degree tempatures but last winter, I let my Dad's CT322 skidsteer and 3720 both idol for about 10 minutes before I ran them. I could have put them in the heated garage but the truck and all the other stuff we have was in the way. Ive never used additives. Oh, those are some nice fuel systems. Since my lawn tractor has a whoping 2.1 gallon tank, my gas can can fill it 3 times.

 

[missourithunder]

Jake,
Keep doing what your doing and listen to your dad. You don't need a block heater in Oregon and you don't need LBrown59's fuel station. Just keep doing what your doing and everything will be just fine. Now get your homework done and get to bed. No college ever accepted a genius tractor owner without good grades !!! And make no mistake about it young man, you are one of the few, gifted people in this world that can make a difference !

MissouriThunder

 

[km-ri]

Gentlemen,

Thanks for the very informative replys. I feel much better regarding winter preparations. I am now searching for a plow and will use the many forum posts to help with the set up. I also contacted my dealer regarding a heater, while TYM does not make a standard heater for my machine the dealer did say Ithey could provide a block heater if I wanted to go that route. They indicated they have never needed one while using this type machine during snow removal and general yard movements.

By the way I do have a nice set of Carharts ready or the chill. This forum is grat for newbies like me. Thanks all, I really appreciate your responses.

Keith

 

[PILOON]

Somehow I had a hunch we would see that fuel system of L Browns.

.
.
In that his indoor fuel storage is greater than 5 gals as permitted by most insurance companies (and fire dept's) for fuels and paints he'd better hope that they don't monitor TBN as he might be in for a rude shock if ever he needed to make a claim.

 

[myyaz33]

Here are a couple pictures of the block heater on my TYM 273. Due to the size of the engine, it doesn't take long to do its job. You can just tuck the plug-in away over the summer as you can see in the second picture. (I poked it out the hole for the picture) Not cold enough here yet!

 

[JoeL4330]

If you install a block heater, you might also want to permanently mount a battery tender or equivalent and plug both into an octopus/three-way/etc. Then, one plug-in heats the block and warms and tops the battery.