I agree, even though I won't need it as much as the fellas up north, it will be easier on the truck. It's my DD so having it plugged in over a cold night would be nice to have.

 

Easy on the truck means plugging in a few hours before driving in +20F or colder...

 

Here's what's amazing. Last winter I was on a sledding trip with the wife in Fort Kent Maine. Takes 11 hours to get there so the first day was not a riding day. Morning one we woke up to a bit of a chill. -27 at 9 AM. Not a big deal to us riders as our gear is made to ride at 100 MPH at these temps. However, the Red Cross had also pulled in the night before and had forgotten to plug in their truck. So, lots of blood with no place to go. I walked out of the lobby to play hero and give them a jump. Went from 73 to -27. 100 degree drop in the lungs felt like a bat to the chest...LOL. Anyways, I too hadn't plugged in because I didn't want to disconnect my trailer and pull up to the hotel to do so. (Plus, I was too cheap to pay the $5 a night plug in fee...) I was curious how my truck would start at -27. Turned the key and fired right up like nothing. I couldn't believe it! I was about to try to straighten my jumper cables (which isn't exactly easy at -27) when a tow truck finally came in to help the Red Cross. I scraped the icicles off my nose and headed in to warm up very impressed with my truck in extreme cold.

 

No doubt it will start at -27F... There are plenty of youtubes of superduties starting in -40F (or C) or colder in Fairbanks, even after a couple of days of cold soak. Of course if you start a Ford and Ram at the same time at those temps, you'll be in warm truck and well on your way to work drinking hot coffee well before the guy in the Ram will... They have a 1 minute wait to drive and a 5 minute wait for full power. Ford have a slight delay, but the fact that they have glow plugs makes a big difference. (No glow pluigs in the Ram, just an air intake heater)

BUT Does that mean you should do it all the time?

How did it sound at startup? I will be monitoring this as the winter comes on in Alaska. The other day according to the truck, it was mid +30Fs out and I noticed a slight difference in engine sound at startup. Also the rapid supplemental interior heater turned on right away, which was nice. In the low 40s it doesn't seem to turn on and it takes longer for the cab to heatup than it did when it was colder!

Anyways good to know that you didn't have any issues Rodney.

 

Oh yeah, I agree. Wouldn't do this every day for the life of the truck. I was just amazed at how well it handled the situation. As far as sound, it ran smooth. No worries. Agreed too on the supplemental heat. Was one of the reasons I chose Ford as no one else offered it. Mine heats up faster than either of my gas vehicles...

 

And my new one has the heated steering wheel. Never thought about that until now. And even in the mid +30s in the morning... I like it. Not a big glove wearing person unless I have to.

 

Yep, the wife's Durango has it and it's great. There was a thread about retrofitting it on here a while ago but I think it was way too involved...

 

My truck didn't come with one, but I wanted one. So it and it's cord are sitting in the boxes in my garage now. I AM planing on putting it in before winter just to have it. I like the truck being warmer in the winter. I know it is hardly ever needed here in GA, but the warmer the start the better it is for the engine. I too saw and talked to the OP that stated to practice the switch from plug to element, then do it quickly. Stating he only lost around 12 ounces of fluid, makes me want to so this even more. I've taken pics of the wire routing on all of our med units so I will know exactly where each tab on the wire goes. My dealer here treats me well with discounts, so mine ran around $130 for both the cord and element.

 

Cool...err... Warm Beans? Monty...

And I bet a bucket in the right spot would catch most of the coolant and you could filter an reuse it... Unless it looks too nasty because it picked up a lot of debris on the way down.

You never know on the temps, this year could be worse for GA than last year.

 

Being in Houston, I've plugged my truck in a few times last year. Usually if it forecasts below 40F I'll set the timer to come on a few hours before I'm supposed to leave. 2 hours below 40F, 3 hours below 30F. I really noticed a difference in how the truck sounds on a cold start with/without the block heater on. It's good reassurance that the truck seems to simply start better when warm.

 

What would you do -30F? 10 hours?

j/k... They say anything more than a few hours is overkill and won't help... Good idea to do that though.

 

Just as an FYI, the heater element just warms the coolant in the block and I believe I've read somewhere in the forums that it really does not do a very good job of warming the oil in the block.

So, if you specifically want warm oil for your cold starts, you're not going to get it. I think the info may have been studied and posted by Tom, the moderator.

The coolant will be warm and you will get cab heat faster, but the engine oil is believed to be about the same temp whether it's plugged in or not.

My memory is not all that clear on this but I think it's worth a little more research if you want to know the real deal on it.

 

You should have seen the look on my dealers face when I special ordered my truck and insisted on the block heater, he kept insisting I was wasting my money.
I told him I wanted it for 2 reasons, one was because of my 7.3's history of glow plug relays going bad every winter and the second one is my in-laws live in upstate NY and I never know when the wife will say "honey, lets hook up the fifth wheel and go see my mom". So far I have managed to talk her out of it every time she mentions it after Sept.1. (but some day she will remember I spent that extra money on the block heater )

I don't think I have ever seen my glow plug light for any length of time here even when it hit 18F last winter.

 

If I remember, I think I'll order the parts and have one added when I'm due for a coolant change in two years just for the heck of it.
Although the farmers almanac discusses another cold winter for the east again.

 

So...the block heater has a timer? Sorry for the "dumb question" but I live in South Ms. never really thought about the need for one, but anything that will make life easier on the truck and possibly increase longevity, I'm there! Besides that, we had a few fairly cold days this past Feb. (not the kind of cold ya'll are used to). My dealer ought to get a kick out of me ordering one! They figure I'm a few bricks shy of a load anyway!