The hot temperatures are coming to an end, and winter is just starting. If you have a diesel truck, it should serve you anytime, despite the seasonal change. For your truck to give you better and exemplary services during winter, there is no shortcut, but you must prepare it. Remember basic preparations such as checking the health of your battery, changing oil, adding anti-gel fuel additive to the tank, and many more. As soon as you finish reading this guide, you will know all the preparations you need to perform for your truck as the cold weather approaches.
Check Your Batteries
The lifespan of a standard battery is between two to five years. After using your truck during summer, when liquid evaporation and corrosion are common, the cold winter kills the battery that has been weakened during summer very fast. It is, therefore, necessary to check the health of your battery as soon as the season starts to change.
A multimeter is an essential gadget to check your battery’s health. To use it, ensure your engine is off and connect it to the leads of your battery. A healthy battery usually reads 12.6 voltage or more when the engine is running. But if the multimeter readings are below 10 volts, your battery is in a critical condition, and you should change it.
Change the Fuel Filters
Most freezing in diesel trucks occurs around the fuel filters. A very minimal amount of diesel remains in your filter when your diesel stays overnight. Installing a new fuel filter is not an assurance that you won’t have gelling issues, but doing this will give you a fresh start. Changing the fuel filter before winter saves you from doing the job during the cold weather. Also, you must keep an extra fuel filter in your truck.
Use Anti-Gel Fuel Additive in Winter
Even diesel fuel blended to work better during winter can reach its limits and start to gel up when it is freezing. There are always no standard temperatures that diesel fuel begins to gel due to the difference in the diesel quality and the degree of exposure of various trucks. For this reason, you must use a fuel additive during winter; the best is all season or the one designed for winter. Such additives prevent diesel from gelling up in the fuel tank.
Test the Condition of Your Block Heater
During extreme winter, block heaters are usually life savers. The bad news is that most diesel truck owners never realize that their block heater needs to be functional. It is easy to test if your block heater is functional.
You need to clean the prong plugs, use a multimeter set in ohms, and attach it to the plugs of the prongs. A working block heater will read between 9 to 25 ohms. When it is faulty, it will give readings below 9 ohms.
Conclusion
Winter weather usually freezes everything and might end up freezing your truck, so preparing your truck for winter is essential. It is also necessary to do tire changes in preparation for winter. Fix winter tires for better traction.