Engine Heater via Generator?

[Caymanedge]

Bringing a new DP from Fla to Oh next week. Pretty cold overnights with temps in the 20’s. No place to plug in so is it feasible to run the generator to power up the engine heater before starting?

[Caymanedge]

2014 Winnebago Journey 36M

[gabbyh]

yes ,but would need to run both for a least 1 hour to help

[Oldchinahand]

Interesting! I always wondered how long it takes to warm the engine. There isn't a gauge that I'm aware of to tell.

We've had three occasions where we switched on the engine heater while we were using the genset to power the Breville and pour a few amps into the batteries.

Since I'm a 5am reveille guy and SWMBO is an 8am departure girl, that means we usually charge batteries (and drink coffee) for about 3hrs.

Good to know!

Fair Winds and Following Seas

[be happy]

Make sure you add anti gelling additive to your fuel before getting into the cold climates.

[al1florida]

At 20 degrees I wouldn't worry about heating the engine to start it. The glow plugs should do the job. It may take a full minute or maybe 2 minutes with the ignition on for the "wait to start" light to turn off.

It was down to zero degrees that would be different.

[gabbyh]

if you rigs got any type of engine monitoring system you can access the engine temp thru that system ,by just turning key to run. mine has the MMDC monitor

[imnprsd]

Good question: My engine block heater cord is plugged into a wall socket located in my inverter compartment. (Top right corner.)

So to know if your generator will provide AC power to your engine block heater, and I have never check my setup, you should start your Genset and use a 120V appliance (light, drill whatever) to see if the plug is "hot". Likewise, you can use a multi-meter. Either way is good, but I sort of like plugging in my corded drill to confirm power fast and reliably.

Here's some additional cold weather hits and comments you may consider:

* Make sure you have 1/2+ tank of diesel the night before. You will need to run your generator and the more diesel in your tank the better.

* If it's in the 30's the night before, start your engine before you go to bed for 30 minutes and use your "smart wheel" to increase and hold the RPM.

* Run you dash heater on full.

* Put a fast charge on those house batteries... and let your chassis batteries charge off the alternator.

* Make a dash-windshield heat/cold shield out of reflective/bubble "stuff" you buy at Home depot.

* Make some shields to put over your living room windows to assist you day/night shades to kept the cold out. Even card board will help. Some even tape up newspaper to the windows. All this helps more than you think.

* Leave your a faucet dripping. (Not sure if this works myself. I read this somewhere.)

* No need put anti-freeze in the p-trap if you have cabin heat.

* If you have a washer/dryer, you might consider sucking anti-freeze into your water lines that supply the washer (not sure if this helps); but definitely read-up on how to spin the water out of the pump.

==> Maybe someone can school us both on this subject of how to properly winterize your washer if you are not going to use it in cold weather travels, because I don't know if filling the washer water lines will anti freeze makes any sense if you use your water pump for other water delivery systems.

==> Alternately, you can fully winterize your coach and then use bottle water until you get to warmer climate. And then keep water jugs by the toilet to flush.

I guess is all depend is you are trying to get through 1 night, 3 nights, or 5 or more days and nights will deep freezing weather like Texas just went through.

EVERYONE NEEDS A COLD WEATHER PLAN IN CASE OF TOTAL POWER LOSS!

* Got gloves and a hat?

* Chains? (Don't know what to tell you there. Maybe someone else can school us there?)

NOTE: Your ISC diesel engine does NOT have glow plugs. Instead Cummins uses an intake heater to heat the air instead. I don't know when this design started. Maybe back in the 70's? Who knows?

Never travel in cold weather with a weak battery! You need a strong battery not only to survive the cold weather affects on a battery (CA de-rate), but you also need a strong battery to bias the engine intake heating element... and then you need more CA to start your engine. (Note: Your intake heater may look different than the one below, but as you can see it's just like your electric room heater.)

IMPORTANT: DO NOT try "BOOST" start your engine with the generator running! This has to do with your Automatic Transfer Switch (ATS) and I will not go into more details about why. (...In fact, I don't even like to start my engine with the generator running, but I have my house and chassis batteries connected with a Keyline VSR for charging.)

Your Onan diesel generator DOES use glow plugs.

* And in both cases, when starting any engine, IMO you should leave you key-ON for longer than usual before you turn the key to start.

* I think I read somewhere your intake grid heater will turn off after 180seconds, but I am not sure about that. So use a full minute before you start your diesel in cold weather... and a little more than a minute in super cold weather.

If possible try to use your engine block heater for 30+ minutes in 25-40F weather, and 1 hour in 10-25F weather. Run your generator and use this time to charge your engine and house batteries too! After all, while you were sleeping you were using battery power to fun the fans and whatnot so you need to replenish your batteries if possible.