DAVE - Years ago in winter on the way to my preferred local source for CC, IH, & Powerstroke engine parts there was this old farm house, guy had a MACK 10-wheeler dump truck that must not have had a block heater. He'd slide old two lit Weber charcoal grills without the legs under the truck to warm it up and lean big cardboard sheets up against the truck to keep the wind away. Must have worked because some days it would be gone with just tracks in the snow.
The winters I drove I'd bring my semi-tractor home and leave it parked in the street in back of our lot. It had an air starter so it spun fairly fast in cold weather but only for a couple seconds. I'd flip the hood, check the oil, water, and give the dry type air cleaner a quick spray of ether starting fluid, drop & latch the hood, say a short prayer, and hit the starter button. I only ever had to recharge the 100 gallon starter air tank with my tiny 3/4 HP air compressor two, maybe three times so it started pretty well. Really cold nights I'd throw a large piece of cardboard over the radiator and let it idle about 800 RPM. The 903 Cummins was well known to have the pistons contract, then "wet-stack" and slobber really bad all the while it was puffing nasty gray/white smoke out the stack when idling in cold weather. Some times it'd take 5-6 miles of running for it to clear up and run right.
