Plugging in your truck in the winter

[colinmitchell111]

well im pretty sure i need new glow plugs and right now i dont have the time or the money to replace them. the first morning it was in the upper 20's last week my truck didnt want to start not plugged in.. At home wont be a problem plugging it in this winter but im worried about when im at work. I work 3rd shift and there is no where for me to plug it in there. i was wondering if anyone on here has gotten creative? i have a black and decker booster pack that has a 110v power inverter built in with 2 plugs, i was thinking about leaving that in the truck and running an extendo cord to the block heater. anyone every try something like that? how much electricity does the block heater pull? i have a feeling that thats the only way im going to be able to drive my truck in the middle of the winter

[RRonning1984]

I guess you could plug in to the booster pack but I dont know how long that would last for.

[colinmitchell111]

thats my concern.. well when i try it, say it doesnt last for 8 hours on a charge, say if it went out half way through the shift and turned it on so it only ran for 4 hours, would it still get hot enough if its 10 or less degrees outside?

[RRonning1984]

Truck only needs to be plugged in for about 1 1/2 - 2 hours.

[colinmitchell111]

Originally Posted by RRonning1984

Truck only needs to be plugged in for about 1 1/2 - 2 hours.

thats even better, i could go out at last break then and plug it in.. im sure it will last 2 hours, it has a built in air compressor too and i had that running for over an hour 1 time and the battery meter still read almost full

[choctaw]

I believe the heater is 1000 watts...........like 10-100 watt light bulbs, not to sure that will do it.

[colinmitchell111]

anyone else with some advice?

[chrispaine]

Man, I feel your pain. I am in the middle of buying a house and if I had your problem it wouldn't be easy to spend the cash to fix it at this time. There are a few things I need to do to my vehicles but have been putting off for money reasons. But in your case your going to have to look at it like this, say you skip your next phone bill or alike and buy the new glow plugs.... So you might have a late fee and a large bill next month but at least you know your truck is going to start when you need to go work or home from work. If you can't get to work, you can't put fuel in your truck and i don't think it's going to start without that either!

Seems this stuff always happens at the worse times, I say fix it so you know your going to get to and from work. Good luck bud.

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Last edited by chrispaine : 10-25-2009 at 08:53 PM. Reason: I missed a key, spelling!

[jamstoyz]

our heaters are 1000 watts. theres no way your inverter thingy will work. they draw too much power. you cant even run a extension cord in your work place?

[wrench]

Had this problem last winter.....mixed with failing batteries.....it was a disaster. I cycled the ignition like 5 times before I even tried to crank it. Ignition on for about 2 mins then off. Then repeated....not sure what I was accomplishing but it seemed to work. You sure its not the relay?