winter time, my 7.3, and my shared driveway

[kbos]

Hey guys, aside from a leveling kit I have a completely stock 7.3 scsb. 97,000 on it. Synthetic oil, rotella 5w-40 I believe.

During the semester I live at school and my truck is relieved of its hauling duties and becomes my short range daily commuter. I live with 6 other guys and we use one long driveway. There are usually a couple occasions every week where somebody parked behind me needs to get out quick, which leaves me firing the truck up for a quick in and out of the driveway. Is there anything reasonable I can do to make this less stressful under the hood?

Additionally, I plug it in every night if I need to drive where the temps are mid 30s or lower for roughly 8hrs (while I sleep). Usually get a little white/grey smoke on start up and that clears up pretty fast. No plug in it takes several more tries to start and the smoke is worse. If I floor it on the highway I expel a similar smoke, but I have only done this maybe 2 or 3 times since I bought the truck last june. My truck sees a couple 1-2 mile drives a week, I try to let it warm up just past the C line (5-10mins) then drive it gently and give it a minute or two to run when im home, and my work commute is maybe 7 miles, I do the same for that. For the most part unless its pretty warm and/or im on the highway I try to stay below 2000rpm. Am I treating my truck right? Feel free to throw in any helpful 2 cents about my operating habits, I know they are not ideal for my truck so I want to take care of it as best I can.

[dieselcrawler]

You're on the right track keeping it pluged in... a warm motor will be ok with the quick start ups more so than a cold one. I also hate to just fire them up for a minute or 2, will often just let them sit there and run for 10-15 minutes if I can just so they get to run a bit, recharge the batterys, and heat things up inside.

[bly8397]

Just tell all your friends/roommates to park on the street. Your truck deserves to have the driveway all to itself. Ha HA j/k. Seriously though, I echo what dieselcrawler said. Keep her plugged in on cold days and nights. Sounds like you're treating the truck fine. Does your leveling kit ever cause issues with hauling in the summer?

['01SilverBullet]

Put a timer on drop cord you use for the block heater. A few hours is plenty of time for the most part. Plus it's easier on the wallet not having that heater run for so long...

[ScottyP5947]

If you split the house with 6 guys, I imagine you split the electric bill so I'd be all about plugging that thing in!! That's the best you can do in this example.

Scott

[kbos]

Thanks for the responses guys - and yes I do split the electric bill lets hope nobody catches on and trys to get a little extra out of my pockets haha. A timer would be a good idea, probably 3 or 4 hours would be enough.

bly8397, I haven't done any heavy hauling since I put the kit on, when I had a duramax I really put that sucker to work but my 7.3 just didn't get a chance to be used to its full potential last season.