How cold is too cold / what's your idling policy?

I run locally, but our company policy is plug in the block heater at anything below 20 degrees for night. That’s usually where we start putting fuel additive in the tank to keep diesel from gelling. I’ve started one at 0 that was sitting in the yard and it was a really hard crank.

 

is it your truck? i would idle.

 

When I knew I had good fuel I would shut mine down as long as the air temp wasn’t supposed to get below zero. I would also check the hourly forecast because a lot of the time if I was getting up at 3 or 4 it would still be a few degrees warmer than what was forecasted for 6 or 7 when the sun was coming up. I didn’t have any issue with the Espar keeping the cab warm. If I was home I would plug the truck in the night before I planned to leave.

 

The Espar heater, the coldest ive been in and not ran my truck was 4 degrees in Arizona a long time ago..... But now, if it gets below 15 degrees I will run the truck.... which isn't very often that im in those type temperatures.

 

It depends, if i have standard #2 with howes 0 is my cutoff. If i have biodiesel #2 cutoff is about 20. If im running #1 or a #1 blend im not worried down to about -20 or so. I also have a built in diesel fired tank and block heater so i can just set those to turn on around 2-4 hours before i wake up so my block and coolant are nice and toasty.

 

Ah, Me-no- money, Wis. you say? We go through this every year, step up the idle to 1000, out go the lights and don't worry about it. Anything below 40 degrees, I idled the truck, even my own.The boss will pixx and moan, as the truck is getting 0 mpg, but that's hard cheese, they don't try and sleep in a cold room. Come April, they'll forget all about it. Besides, it doesn't hurt the motor to run, it runs all day anyway, and with the cost of a service call and the ensuing delay, I think the boss would rather spend a couple bucks on fuel, have the driver rested.

 

If everything is in good shape, batteries, fuel, starter etc, we don’t worry until is below zero, and then not much unless it’s well below.

 

Usually 0ish, I’ll usually start and idle the truck for a little bit about an hour before I actually go to sleep so it doesn’t cold soak below 10ish

My bunk heater is acting up again so I’m just bumping the idle now and sleeping, only in the truck a night or two a week anyway

 

The 2022 Western Star 5700XE with DD15 I ran for about 4 years would be just fine down to about -5 degrees. Anything less than that I would idle the truck. I also would try to fuel with #1 diesel if possible if operating below zero. Never had an issue doing that.