It was -4 and -21 with wind chill this morning. I worked a 12 hour night shift and came out to start my truck, 2003 F350 crew cab, and it would not start. I let the glow plug light go out and started turning it over, it would hardly turn over, I tried 5-6 times more and the batteries wore down. I did not leave anything on to draw from the batteries. After waiting about an hour the tow truck came and tried to jump the truck. The guy had the tow truck hooked to one battery and a power pack to the other battery. The truck won't turn over any faster. To make it short, they towed the truck to a dealer. I stopped by the mechanic shop at the dealer and talked to the mechanic that was working on my truck and he says there was not a problem with gelling, that he could not figure out why the batteries would not turn the truck over. He said they got the truck started and let it run for 45 minutes and they were letting the truck sit outside to duplicate the problem that I had. What a morning!!!

 

That's cold! Here in Texas we saw 21 degrees. My '02 started right up. I've been running the Rotella T synthetic 5W-40 and noticed that it spins faster while cranking. I assume you did not have the block heater plugged in. Several of my friends had trouble starting their PSD's and Cummins without the block heaters being plugged in. Good luck. Hope it's not anything serious.

 

What did they do to get the truck started? Could be the batteries are getting weak and need changed. I've had trouble jumping vehicles with weak batteries when it takes alot of amps to crank them over. Put in a fresh battery (s) and no problem.

 

I have noticed a HUGE cold starting improvement since adding the Shell Rotella T Synthetic 5w-40. I didn't know there would be such a difference! Last night it was -4 here, and when I started it at 7 am this morning, it was 3 degrees--let the wait to start light go out, turned the key and it started IMMEDIATELY, not plugged in. I am truly amazed. I am not running antigel either, just regular Diesel Kleen in the grey jug from Wally World. I still have my stock 99 batteries as well. It didn't even start this quickly on a cold start in the middle of summer!