How cold is too cold?

san-man

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I left out of town for two days. Now my truck won't start. I take it, it is one or both the batterys because as soon as I can get a jump it starts right up (I jumped it last night to get home, it was -5 degrees). It just will not start now.

If the date on the battery is good since feb of this year why would it be just about drained now?
 

Tbar

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-5 degrees is cold. Plug the trucks block heater in for 3-4 hours and try again.


Tbar
 

F350DRW1

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Are they replacement batteries? Not sure what you mean by "Good since feb. of this year". Do you have any sort of parasitic drain? Like cell phone charger? -5 is cold. Especially if it sat for a few days at that temp. Crumm will need to chime in, to me he's the "how cold is too cold" guy to ask.
 

Kleetus

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-5 is cold, but not cold enough it should kill the batteries in a couple of days, something else is at play here...

my truck is outside, and I've had it sit from friday afternoon till monday morning on a couple of cold weekends, and it fired up with some clatter... made noise but never hesitated.
 

pete37922

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check batteries...replace if need be...then plug in truck and try 2 start up !!!
 

san-man

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I changed my batteries and everything has been fine. Till last night, it was -14 degrees and it was having trouble starting and I had her plugged in. Once she started and got warmed up everything was fine.


Just curious if the motor is just that cold or is there something else going on?
 

F350DRW1

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Mine started at less than that temp w/out being plugged in. It sounded like machine gun fire, but it started. Synthetic oil makes a big difference. What oil you running?
 

Tail_Gunner

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I changed my batteries and everything has been fine. Till last night, it was -14 degrees and it was having trouble starting and I had her plugged in. Once she started and got warmed up everything was fine.

Just curious if the motor is just that cold or is there something else going on?


If you have it plugged in for 3 to 4 hours at least, it should fire right up, right down to -20, -30 or maybe less.

The heater cord plug on my truck has been a real PITA for cracked wire insulation right at the plug hanging out the front bumper. When the insulation cracks, moisture gets in there and eats the copper wiring like mad. Unless you inspect the cord closely, you'll never notice a problem, unless you notice an arc at the point of breached insulation or a GFI outlet keeps tripping. I replaced the male cord end and fixed mine. It was just like changing the cord end on an extension cord.


I began to keep an outlet tester in the truck and would watch for a spark when pluggin it in, slight dimming of building lights, a sound from the block heater element perkulating or any other indication that it was working.
 

ashmass

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Make sure you've got power to that block heater. I live in Alaska and my trucks starts easy at -40 with the heater plugged in, but it's not gonna start at that temperature without the heater. I know, I've been this route a dozen times in the last 2 years.
 

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