Winter Blast on its way

In a situation like that; plug her in about 3 hours before you’re gonna fire up.
it will draw more juice coming from cold soak, than if you plugged it in warm a few hours before/ however, if its gonna be a few days or more, you aren’t gonna save anything leaving it on the plug the whole time.

 

Like the other guys mentioned, it shouldn't need much time. As an abundance of caution plug it in the day before you need to leave. Warning though, make sure you have real good connections and use a larger gauge extension cord. We often have problems with arcing in the connection and melting ends.

 

58 degrees here in Las Vegas

 

I'll be staying home and on my way to blasting into some Coors Delight.

 

It's good for the grocery and hardware business also.

 

When it’s cold here and we have to park outside we put a timer on the plug for about 4 hours before we’re expecting to be at work… They fire up every time… even bettr park er inside the heated shop… @cke says it causes more problems than just leaving it outside but I think he’s full of po po!!!

 

I’ve done some extensive research diving into this coming storm as I’ll be driving right smack through the middle of it at the very peak of it. This One does indeed have the potential to Be different. And this from someone who has driven in the ice and snow most of my life. Remember, it isn’t just you it’s the other idiots out on the road. Lol but this is why this one might be different. They’re predicting in certain areas 3 to 5 inches of ice buildup and I can tell you right now. Nobody’s driving on that and the interstates will be closed if they have 3 inches of ice. That is going to knock out major power grids all over the country. If that does indeed happen there isn’t a powerline out there that remains with 3 inches of ice built up.

The main dumping and the ice zapper gun will be gone in 36 hours. The problem is the temperatures are not returning to normal. They’re staying way down in the single digits in many areas of the country where it doesn’t usually happen for days after. Meaning the ice will linger. For days …it may melt a little during the Daytime and then start to refreeze at night hence a wet top on top of solid ice is the worst driving conditions imaginable. Couple that with massive power outages truckstops closed because they don’t have power.
(I would get a week of food supplies and make sure you’re topped off.)
And if that’s not enough, some of the worst parts of the country that are expected to get hit, don’t have the equipment to handle this. So the roads are going to do with the roads are going to do without any assistance until they naturally go back to normal.

if it hits just right and “worse case scenario” it could be middle of next week before major lanes reopen and weeks in many places with no power. It could be a legit mess.

I don’t know how bad it’s gonna get because I don’t see into the future, but I think this one might be legit.

 

It's a waste of electricity to leave it plugged in the whole time and probably shortens the lifespan of the heating element. Colder it gets, the longer it takes to heat soak the motor as warm as it can get it. I'd plug it in the night before if its an early AM departure or in the morning if you don't plan to leave till the afternoon. I'd plug my 7.3 Ford in and it would usually top out around 110-120F on the oil temp sensor depending on the ambient temp. 3-4 hours wasn't long enough to get the full effect.

 

Especially down below the 35th Parallel where they just don't know how to handle weather like that and aren't ever prepared for it, you definitely want to stay away from any of those population centers. Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, etc.