I am looking into a heavy duty 12 volt heater that has huge power draws. Is designed for 80% duty cycle. Maybe it will force engine to run harder during warm up. Warm engine and cabin faster. I have 2 alternators so I can get a pretty big 12 volt heater is what I am guessing.

 

Never had much luck with 12V heaters. I tried a couple to help warm up the inside of my airplane before taking off. They just don't produce a lot of heat. I eventually resorted to using a 120V ceramic heater during pre-flight. Was a pain running an electric cord but was the only way to get enough heat to warm up the cabin and the instruments (i.e. expensive gyros).

 

Just realized.... The truck I have on order comes with a 120V outlet. Anyone know what the max amp draw on it is? If you have one of these and it has a good max amp rating, you could be in business.

 

Just found the online manual. It is rated for 150W at 110V or a little more than an amp. Just enough to charge your electric toothbrush and not much more.

 

I would warn you against this because you already have the Rapid Heat system. Your electric supplemental heater draws 1,850 watts! Dual alternators are great, but if you put another substantial electric draw on the system the Rapid Heat will shut off when the PCM detects 100% alternator load.

I would recommend either the 120V ceramic heater suggested above or a diesel-fired supplemental heater like the Webasto BlueHeat or Espar Air Top.

Webasto and Espar make units designed to heat the truck's engine, but for reasons above that may not be the best idea. The large size air heaters put out as much as 18,000 BTUs, which is more than 3x what you'd see out of an electric 120V heater. They also use very little electricity.

Using the remote start to "idle" your truck up to temp is a bad idea in those temps, it is NOT good to run a diesel engine cold. At -40 your truck will not make enough heat to warm the engine, so you end up running the engine for 30 minutes or longer WAY below temp, which can cause serious issues with wet-stacking and fuel dilution. Needs to be driven to warm up!

 

I don't need the rapid heat where I live so I've never researched it but I would have never guessed 1,850 watts...wow.

 

5x40 oil, grill cover.plug in block heater,get up half hour early,run out and start your truck.go back inside,have coffe,brush teeth put on your coat and go to work.

 

You can change your run time to 15 minutes in the setup menu....mine is an XLT and I can do it. But that's still pretty short.

In my O5, I had installed a Canadian Tire brand...."Design tech".

It was great. It had a 25 minute run time....

It also had a "cold start" option....which would start your engine every two hours....and would do this up to 12 times. It was great if you were at a dance (like new years eve) when it was -35. Or at a hockey game, or overnight at a motel that you could not plug into.

My 05 also did not have a 'chipped' key, which made it easy to install.

--
Gordon

 

Where is the productivity screen to change the amount of time it runs?

 

When you are up against -40C/F, here are the established / proven methods are:

A) Garage in heated garage that raise temp to -20C

B) Keep motor on idle all the time (routinely done in Alaska and therabouts)

C) Fuel powered supplemental heating

Heating both coolant / cab

However the Webasco etc. can be kludged to make it work do it.


Electric heating.

Most circuits you have commonly available is 15A, very lucky if you have 20A, and only in commercial / industrial settings will you find 220V / higher amperage plugs.

The factory block heater is around 600 watt, I think (please check) which in those temperatures, is a drop in the bucket.

You can try adding a 1,500 watt heater for the cab, but that will probably overload the circuit (causing the 15A breaker to pop).

Keep in mind that even with a heavy duty extension cord, the losses are significant.
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I designed my custom built 6.0 to run down to -40, and it took quite a bit of work to engineer the interior insulation (still a work in progress) to get the heating load down to a reasonable level.

I am now (at max insulation) pushing a heating load of 1,000 watt for the insulated passenger area @ -15C and trying to get it down to 2,000watt for -40.

1,000watt = 3,500 BTU.

However, I have the entire heated area insulated (no single pane windows).



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As for the engine, 600 watt = 2,000 BTU.

Let me put this in perspective --- a common Coleman tent heater is about 6,000 BTU, and a Coleman single mantle lantern puts out nearly the same (4,000 to 6,000 BTU depending on size of the mantle etc.

Work it backwards to the mass of the engine / amount of oil / coolant that is uninsulated (thus heat loss to engine surfaces is completely unimpeded) and you can see that a block heater is hardly any good.

For any serious heating, you are looking at maybe 3X that heat output --- beyond the ability of a single plug in electric.

Don't forget... batteries like to be kept warm... and often... oil benefit from a heating pad under the sump.

If you are going to do all that... a Webasco heater works real good.

Or, if you run enough hours, an auxiliary engine.

Nobody tells you to use the vehicle in those conditions...

Oh -- a bubba shield is mandatory.


I am studying the issue of actually insulating the entire engine compartment --- but the results are not in yet.

 

I honestly do not believe that the Webasco heater will kludge up and cause a CEL.

If it does --- take your handy dandy code eraser and erase it.

I would call up the local truck stop and ask how they are plumbing it in for the medium duty Fords --- your install will be largely the same.

Be rest assured that every Medium and HD truck on the "ice highway" and in Alaska have these heaters, and they sure made it work without CELs come on.

 

Um.. in those parts.. there is a 0W-40 oil specifically made for that climate..

Diesel Engine Oil in 15W-40, 5W-40, 0W-40, 10W-40 grades | Petro-Canada

It is called Duron-E / Synthetic... and believe me.. it works real good.

It is rated CJ-4 and cryptically, for "upcoming 2010" (aka CK-4) standards.


There is also Arctic diesel (he probably don't need).


But even with this, he is going to have to burn fuel for supplemental heat for both engine and cab.