Well, guys, at the ripe oid age of 62, I have acquired my first diesel-engined vehicle, my new Kubota RTV-X1100C. It's a great machine and I love it, but I'm beginning to think that many years of owning gas-engined vehicles has left me unprepared for coping with a diesel in cold weather.
I live in northern MIchigan, and although our proximity to Lake Michigan helps moderate the the weather here, it still gets cold. We'll have a lot of 0*F nights and 20 below isn't unusual.
Many of those cold mornings will also see us blessed with a nice heavy dump of lake effect snow, so I need to get out and clear my 1000' long private road. Up to this point, I've done that work with a John Deere Gator (gas EFI, instant starts no matter how cold) and a John Deere X739 garden Tractor (gas EFI, slow to start, terrible snowblower).
I've never had a diesel, though, and I think I had better plan ahead. What do you guys who deal with deep cold do to keep your diesels ready to go? Oil pan heater? Block Heater? Anti-Gel? #1 diesel fuel?
My Kubota is stored in an unheated shed that I built a few years ago. I suppose I could throw a heater in there, but it has board-and-batten siding on post frame construction, so it's neither air-tight nor easily insulated.
If worse came to worse and a blizzard was on the way on some frigid night, I guess I could park the Kubota in my 2 car insulated garage. It's an attached garage, though, and the idea of letting it spew out diesel exhaust into the house for 10 or 15 minutes while it warms up on some cold morning is less than appealing. The best thing would definitely be to leave it in the shed. I know my wife sure wouldn't enjoy the smell of diesel exhaust in the house.
So can I get by with an oil pan heater and careful use of the glow plugs -- or do I need to make other preparations?
Thanks!
I live in northern MIchigan, and although our proximity to Lake Michigan helps moderate the the weather here, it still gets cold. We'll have a lot of 0*F nights and 20 below isn't unusual.
Many of those cold mornings will also see us blessed with a nice heavy dump of lake effect snow, so I need to get out and clear my 1000' long private road. Up to this point, I've done that work with a John Deere Gator (gas EFI, instant starts no matter how cold) and a John Deere X739 garden Tractor (gas EFI, slow to start, terrible snowblower).
I've never had a diesel, though, and I think I had better plan ahead. What do you guys who deal with deep cold do to keep your diesels ready to go? Oil pan heater? Block Heater? Anti-Gel? #1 diesel fuel?
My Kubota is stored in an unheated shed that I built a few years ago. I suppose I could throw a heater in there, but it has board-and-batten siding on post frame construction, so it's neither air-tight nor easily insulated.
If worse came to worse and a blizzard was on the way on some frigid night, I guess I could park the Kubota in my 2 car insulated garage. It's an attached garage, though, and the idea of letting it spew out diesel exhaust into the house for 10 or 15 minutes while it warms up on some cold morning is less than appealing. The best thing would definitely be to leave it in the shed. I know my wife sure wouldn't enjoy the smell of diesel exhaust in the house.
So can I get by with an oil pan heater and careful use of the glow plugs -- or do I need to make other preparations?
Thanks!
Newbie Diesel Cold Weather Questionms
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