Why do diesel trucks have 4 batteries?

That is true, I’ve been told, 40% of their normal capacity in cold weather.

My boss demonstrated the heat gun one day that our mini kubota excavator was out in the open cold wind. Several employees including me have tried to get it started but failed.

Battery charger wasn’t helping and the machine didn’t have a block heater.

It has a factory installed grid heater but it was insufficient.

My boss comes out with the heat gun in hand and pulls the air filter out of the housing.

Stuck the heat gun into the pipe (non turbo) and after a minute of running on high, the machine was running.

So it shows that warm or hot air really works. It actually works far better than starting fluid as it was delivering a continuous stream of warm air that is necessary to allow diesel to ignite by compression.

That was my first time actually doing that and it was a great success.

The engine actually spun faster as the fuel was starting to fire.

 

Not on my truck when it was completely empty (twice). Don't ask why this happened twice. I used a full can over the course of 30 minutes and still wouldn't prime. Road service did the same thing the other time.

Moral of the story is don't run a Volvo out of fuel.

 

Cheap easy solution I done forever is a trickle charger plugged inline with blocker heater. Never fail to start.