Truck losing power

Get to the nearest truck stop with the shop and stay there until temperatures go above freezing.
Seriously.
Unless you want a tow.
Your fuel is already gelled up.
Addictives won’t help.
Need new filters too.

 

where are you and what temperatures are you at outside combined wind?

Where and what time did you last fuel?

If you were truly gelled you will be sitting on the side of the interstate with either a dead truck or one that absolutely refuses to come off idle for anything.

 

He is probably doing that already.

 

Once you’re gelling you need to pull over somewhere safe. It’s only a matter of time until you’re sitting and you don’t want it to be on the shoulder of an iced over interstate.

Shine a flashlight into your tank. If you cannot see the bottom then you’re experiencing the early stages of gelling.

There’s dead trucks along I-29 in the Dakota’s right now that are iced over like they’ve been sitting since Wednesday. Once you freeze over, you won’t likeky do that again....it sucks!

 

I run into this a few times each winter. It ISN'T gelling fuel. The problem is water in your fuel that will freeze on contact with the primary fuel filter, the one that first receives fuel from the fuel tanks. It should be the one outside your frame rail.

Carry spare fuel filters, a GOOD filter wrench (not the cheap Roadpro brand that's made of aluminum and will bend and become useless the first time you try to spin off a filter), and a gallon blend of 70% diesel, 20% Antigel, and 10% Diesel 9-1-1.

Get on Youtube and search for videos on how to change a fuel filter. There are several. I duct tape a large garbage sack under the filter to catch diesel spillage.

If you open up the old filter you likely won't see the strawberry sherbert coating the paper filter that would indicate gelling. Instead you will see a blackened paper filter coated in ice. That's the water content of your fuel freezing on contact with a cold filter.

The last time I had "the symptoms" was about a month ago. Problems started at 40°F and got progressively worse as temperatures got down into the teens. The symptoms are loss of power, with progressive inability to get above X rpm. It gets progressively worse, to the point I can't get above 1300-1400 rpm's. You might have fault codes popping up like "Fuel Rail Pressure". The engine is starved for fuel, because it can't get past the ice barrier.

To prevent this from happening in the first place you should get an oil change and filter and lube every 10K miles in the winter. If you are a company driver and your company insists on spreading out oil changes to 35K miles or more, then get spare filters and the gallon blend and a good filter wrench. Make sure you get permission from the company to change filters as needed. Some companies subscribe to the Idiot Trucking Forum and actually will fire you if you do the right thing and change the primary filter.

If you are an owner operator you should learn this valuable skill. Every time I had symptoms of a clogged filter I stopped, changed filters, and power was immediately restored. The only time I had those symptoms and wasn't able to change the filter was because I drove for Swift. Company drivers weren't allowed to do something so risky and complicated as changing a filter. We ended up getting towed 300+ miles to a dealership and sitting in a motel for a week. That's because Swift extends their oil changes to well over 30K miles, a BAD idea in winter.

Adding a water separator is also a great idea, if you don't have one. More frequent oil changes is a GREAT idea.

 

Don't need to have water in fuel to gell. The paraffin in fuel turns to a wax at certain temps. And clogs up the paper in filter. The trick I do is run blended fuel with additives before you gell. I use howels. I also slip a wool sock over my filters and cover with a plastic bag. This serves as two things, the sock keeps the heat in your fuel from cooling when in filter and the plastic bag keeps the sock from getting wet. I have ran in -30 and never gelled doing this.

 

Put a sock in it...

... I think that's a quote from my dad.

Good advice.

 

Like this, don't look pretty but works. Make sure you snip a little hole in bottom of plastic bag so condensation can get out.

 

I'm going to give that a try. I have tried a sock with hand warmers inserted inside, but that didn't work.