How do you prepare for the cold without idling.Genset , electric blanket etc.

+1 . no more than 50 gram.

 

@Snailexpress do you have something special for cold weather in your truck?

 

Airtronic or webasto heater is enough. If you want Yuma summer in your cab you can make small tank and use kerosene instead of diesel. If you afraid of battery's charge you can install extra car battery and run power from that battery... Another issue is working on truck in cold weather. Buy a cold storage guy's wearing.

 

Webasto engine and bunk heater I use down to -30 degrees, below that I leave the truck running. Had three mornings in a row last winter under -40, and no that's not counting the wind chill.
Sleeping bag good to -15.
Before I got the Webasto's I used a 12 volt heated mattress pad. They worked really well.
Lots of layers of clothing. Insulated blue jeans plus insulated overalls, four different jackets including a really good parka. Three different hats, two styles of face masks, gloves plus double layered mittens. Been outside for two hours at -34 with 40 mph winds, I was comfortable.

 

This. Below 0°F (-17.8°C), you run a lot of risks with the truck not starting in the morning, and not just from dead batteries.

If you aren't running nearly straight #1 diesel (kerosene) or some sort of anti-gel (Power Service or Howe's Diesel Treat), your tanks and fuel filter will likely be a big bowl of jello.

And with the biodisel, the gel point rises considerably (How Different Oils Influence The Gel Point Of Biodiesel - Utah Biodiesel Supply Blog). I knew a couple people that filled in Alexandria, MN last year during that cold snap with the B20 at the Pilot and they gelled instantly (I think it was between -15°C and -20°C). The wreckers in the area had a field day.

Also, if you plan on traveling in the horrific cold (below -40°), make sure that the motor either has a return to the tanks (Caterpillar motors take more fuel than they use, automatically heating it as it passes through the fuel system) or auxiliary tank heaters because all the anti-gel in the world won't stop gelling from taking place. The temperature of the fuel needs to be physically raised.

But it's the one nice thing about Canada in the winter, our fuel comes pre-blended with anti-gel from the distributor, as it's required by law here (or so I was told). Still can get some garbage fuel though.

 

How do u keep the batteries from dieing off in that cold weather? I woke up once with dead batteries with the bunk heater running all night and it was only around 10 to 15 degrees farenheit and that was enough to say never again lol

 

And at those extreme colds learn how to set idle very high. I remember a night in SD where winds reached -55 locally to my dash and I was running 1500 idle set while fueling. I had to take breaks every ten minutes to warm up inside while the fuel ran. Probably lost about 40 gallons that hour. But we got the fuel done. It was crazy. Those tanks did have return lines and were toasty so thats score one. The worst part of that particular fuel incident was a 50's era pump. My kingdom for high speed pair to dump 300 gallons into the tanks in a few minutes.

 

Idle then high idle........ winter front always.

 

I have a few trucks left that are setup for harsh winters.

Every truck has an article fox fuel heaters in the tanks, in line with the fuel.

Those trucks also have Espar water and air heaters with battery warmers setup with both electric and fluid heating boxes.

Never ever have issues with these trucks.

My little diesel pickup also is setup with some of that, Arctic fox tank heater with line heaters, Espar water heater and battery tray warmers.