Other night I parked the truck and went to sleep. Was -19 degrees and a “feels like -31” on the weather app. Woke up at midnight to the low air alarm. Checked the truck and the air dryer hose broke. I ended up walking to a hotel and fixed it in the morning. I did put howes anti gel in the truck 200 miles prior.
However now the truck won’t start at all. Everything is frozen solid it feels like. Then the next day it was 2 degrees at the warmest.
How f’ed am I, and what can I do.
My truck is frozen; advice?
Discussion in 'Experienced Truckers' Advice' started by Kshaw0960, Feb 4, 2023.
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Hopefully you put enough antigel for that extreme cold.
Rideandrepair Thanks this. -
Tow it to a repair shop and let it thaw out inside
tscottme, Flat Earth Trucker, Ruthless and 8 others Thank this. -
This is one reason I don't turn the truck off when it gets below 0.
justcarhaulin, tscottme, Flat Earth Trucker and 9 others Thank this. -
Or you can rent a generator from Home Depot to plug in your block heater for a few hours and then start the truck if your batteries are not dead
tscottme, Flat Earth Trucker, Rideandrepair and 3 others Thank this. -
I've been in this situation once before and luckily the place I was at let me use their sink to get hot water. I had anti-gel in the tanks but the fuel lines and the fuel filter was frozen. So, I'd fill up about 12 gallon jugs at a time and walk them next door in a shopping cart and fill them up. I poured the hot water all over the fuel filter and fuel lines and got them unthawed enough to get it started.
If you don't have easy access to hot water I would have it towed and put indoors.Flat Earth Trucker, Rideandrepair and The Railsplitter Thank this. -
See if you can find a local shop who can come out and put a heater on it.
Even one of those little torpedo heaters with an 8' sock aimed at the bottom of the engine for 2 hours, plus a battery charger on there should get you going easy and probably cheaper/quicker than a tow to a shop to get thawed. The hood will capture the heat and warm up everything under the hood.
This was a daily deal for us back when I lived way up in the north. Even with a block heater plugged in for days it'd be about 50/50 if the truck would start. Heater on the pan for 2 hours, then aim the sock at the air cleaner intake so it'd suck warm air and away you go. We were using an indirect fired heater so it was warm and unburnt air being put down the intake. Might not be effective with a direct fired heater.cke, Rideandrepair, Cat sdp and 2 others Thank this. -
Look in you fuel tanks or pull the filter and see how cloudy your fuel is. If it is super cloudy or even half gelled already forget about it. You cab try the diesel 911 buy I've never had much luck. Any other additives won't mix when the fuel is cold. I've spent an entire day replacing filters and filling with additives trying to get a truck going with no luck.
Tow to a warm shopAccidental Trucker and Rideandrepair Thank this. -
Yeah truck doesn’t have a block heater. I’ll see what I can do. This town is small and even getting Uber is impossible.
Rideandrepair Thanks this. -
Do as @AModelCat suggested. Fired up a lot of trucks that way in less than 30 minutes
cke, Rideandrepair, beastr123 and 1 other person Thank this.
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