i know it probably wouldnt happen, but could the PSD overheat from being plugged in for to long....say like a 24 hours, but its probably set for a certain temp only....right, and does anyone know what the temp is??? im guessing maybe 70 degrees? and just out of curiosity, whats the normal operating temp for the PSD???

 

Most trucks come with the 203 degree thermostat. That is about optimum for temp on the truck. Different trucks have different gauges and they are not real accurate nor do they give you a temp readout, at least mine does not. But there are some ways to gauge the temp, at least on mine based on the gauge saying "NORMAL". Like "R" is 200 degrees,"M" is 210 or so, but these are guesses. As for the plug in, is is setup to increase coolant temp 30 degrees over outside temp. At least that was what I read. Though it probably does more than that. But you should not overheat the truck at any outside temp plugging in, unless there is a malfunction.

 

yea, i have had no problems leaving mine pluged in for extended periods of time.... except my electrical bill....

 

does it really use that much electricity?

 

It uses 1000+ watts, so yeah it's like leaving your hair dryer running all night.

Duncan

 

my truck has been plugged in for three days straight now, i dont worry about it, i have a work truck that i use so i dont drive my psd durin the week, but i keep it plugged in anyways, it will probably be plugged in all week unless i drive it. it wont hurt anything to leave it plugged in.

 

A 1.5kw element can only provide so many BTU's. Factored against the heat loss to radiation, convection and conduction, you don't have to worry about overheating it.

 

I left mine plugged in for only three hours once and when I unplugged it, the plug and extension cord plug were both about to melt. Haven't plugged it in since then, anybody else experience that? Is it ok to plug back in? I was using a 50' 10 gage outdoor cord(shortest thing to reach)

 

$.06 kwh with a 1000w heater will be about 1.40 a day kinda pricey to leave pluged in all day every day just get a HD timer from home depot and set it for three hours before you want to light off

 

When you plug it in make sure the plug stays dry! I melted the head off an outdoor plug due to it getting wet while plugged into the truck. Plug it in and stuff the plug inside the grill if you can or somewhere to keep it dryand out of the elements.

 

Good comment Grinch, I always tuck my extension cord back into the grill to stay dry. On another note, last week I made a dumb _ss mistake that i thought would never happen to me. I was in a rush and pulled out of the driveway without unplugging first. Luckily there was no damage and the heater still works fine. From now on, I will follow the advice of someone else I read on here and loop the e cord around my driver side mirror.

 

been there, done that!

 

Anyone have a problem of the heater blowing the gfci outlet? I've been plugging mine in for about 2 weeks now and yesterday it blew the outlet. I reset it a couple times but as soon as I plug it back in it goes. I even tried a different circuit in the house but it was still gfi protected and blew. I ended up running the cord into the house to a regular circuit and it worked fine. After typing this I realize I may have had a wet connector when I did it because it had been dry here until Monday. Its nice to go out in the morning to a semi-warm truck.

 

I personally don't have a problem with the truck heater overloading the circuit. My house produces 200 amps of juice (previous owner ran a computer business out of the house). However, my brother has a problem similar to yours. He had so many Christmas lights up this year, that he couldn't even run the vaccum cleaner in the house without tripping the breaker! Do you have a lot of holiday lighting up or exterior illumination?

 

Now you guys got me thinkin ...(dangerous)... and now I have a dumb question:

I'm wondering if my '01 Excursion Limited w/ 7.3L has a factory block heater. Do they all or is this an option, or do you guys have aftermarket heaters? I haven't gone searching for a plug under the hood, and haven't fully read the vehicle owner's manual (Don't worry, read the 7.3 Diesel engine manual thoroughly).

Ed