Cold weather do’s (1 Viewer)

[coldtaco]

Seen a lot of posts in the last month or so about how to prep your 70 series for life outside in the cold. I’ve had a BJ71 in Fairbanks, AK, as a daily driver. My Ute was my daily driver in the banana belt here in Anchorage. Due to my current job the Ute spends its days in the warm garage unless I take it out on dry road days when I’m home.
I recommend for those in long term cold country, like lots of days at temps below 0F:
1. Block heater or other electric water heater that has a water pump built in
2. Budget allowing a Espar or Webasto diesel fired coolant heater
3. Permanently installed trickle charger. Keeps battery from freezing due to the excitement of the electrons and keeps battery happy. I can’t remember if I used a trickle charger on my BJ71. I do know I didn’t use one on my Ute here in Anchorage. If you can park your rig in a heated garage at night then a trickle charger probably wouldn’t be needed, just make sure at the beginning of the cold season you are confident of the conditions of your batteries.
4. If you have a auto a heater pad on the transmission

If you live in the banana belt (0F-32F)
1. Block heater, or other electric water heater
2. Any of the other items listed above for real cold country would be nice for your 70 series.

My RAV4 that was a daily driver in Fairbanks I have a block heater, permanently installed trickle charger, and a small space heater on the drivers floor aimed under the dash, keeps frost off the windows and dash happy, but I don’t do this if actively snowing. In los Anchorage I just use the block heater and space heater inside.
I know our friends in the Canadian cold country don’t need any help with this
This morning in los Anchorage is probably the coldest yet this season, at my house it’s-7F.

 

[coldtaco]

Battery heaters I don’t believe in as being a good way to protect your battery. I believe there can be issues with not getting proper heating throughout the battery when it gets really cold, therefore I encourage the use of a permanently installed trickle charger that keeps the electrons bouncing around preventing the freezing up of the battery fluid and keeps them happily charged. Someone smarter than me will have to explain how to use trickle chargers on a 2 battery (24v or 12v) setup.

 

[bcsteel]

Webasto heater makes a huge difference and although they are an added cost they are not hard to install and make the cold winter starts smooth I usually change my oil to a lighter 5w40 oil for the winter months. Top up batteries etc..

 

[Rigster]

Battery heaters I don’t believe in as being a good way to protect your battery. I believe there can be issues with not getting proper heating throughout the battery when it gets really cold, therefore I encourage the use of a permanently installed trickle charger that keeps the electrons bouncing around preventing the freezing up of the battery fluid and keeps them happily charged. Someone smarter than me will have to explain how to use trickle chargers on a 2 battery (24v or 12v) setup.

My battery charger finally gave up the ghost this past weekend. I already repaired it once last year, but I think I will just let this one go, it has had a good life. It has been so long since I have bought one of these, that I was surprised at all the inexpensive, feature-rich chinesium chargers out there. I decided to give one a try. $30, repairing, 12v or 24v, multi-battery support, automatic, etc. I paid more than double that on sale for a charger that did not have 1/2 these features, analog. It lasted about 10 years.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004421426632.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.67.21b769fdWOGyRC&algo_pvid=79d53d56-4ed2-4a14-9f33-7f1c81775586&aem_p4p_detail=202401221532324150954951604490004035548&algo_exp_id=79d53d56-4ed2-4a14-9f33-7f1c81775586-33&pdp_npi=4%40dis%21CAD%2132.50%2127.00%21%21%21170.24%21141.43%21%40210307bf17059663522392828e4927%2112000031570058003%21sea%21CA%210%21AB&curPageLogUid=txglfoiM6ziN&utparam-url=scene%3Asearch%7Cquery_from%3A&search_p4p_id=202401221532324150954951604490004035548_34

If all you have is a 12v charger, you need to separate the batteries and charge them one at a time. Will see how this new one does.