Talk about Winter, Rising, your vehicles here, I’ll get you a cold start. Bad boy was shut down for about a week it’s about 30 outside. Here we go. What would I do or how do I winterize my vehicles? I better give her a minute to warm up.

First things: first, people overlook this thing. This uh part of the deal fairly, often as far as uh proper flu. I know I myself to a certain extent, wasn’t really uh careful about that until I got me in trouble last year, one of my trucks – I don’t know why the operator decided to shut it down. That’S a quick connect for uh jumpers. I had a minute I had to install connection the semi trucks, man all cro down the winter everything’s good till it’s not, and then you just need to get them going, so you got to jump start them.

So one of the things I overlooked fairly often was putting in the proper fluid. It was a big issue with the fifg. Last year we did not prepare properly for the fluid change. We ran 10:30 in the motors and one of my operators shut down the truck in negative 24 Montana, and I couldn’t start that thing for the life of me. I had a jumper to each battery.

I don’t want to go so what I end up doing is uh introducing some heat to it. You know warming up the oil warming up the coolant a little bit had some heat coming in from underneath the engine bay. You know an hour later. It finally started picking up speed and turning over so biggest thing is oil guys do not overlook your oil next thing is uh windshield washing fluid. It’S funny how a lot of people forget cuz, I’m running a fleet um, I just run winter fluid all year round.
I had a couple drivers wanting bug washing fluid. Instead of you know defrosting, so they they would go out and buy their own and I would reimburse them, but overall I just buy it by the barrel. Um washer fluid they’re good to like -20. I think that’s the average washer fluid’s good, for so with that being said, uh that’s another one. I vaguely spoke about it earli in this video about batteries, batteries they’re a lot easier to tell in the pickup trucks than the semis.

You know, besides the obvious uh evidence of batteries being moist and boiling, or you know, being smelly or deformed. That’S extreme case uh, you don’t really. We don’t do batteries a whole lot in the pickups but um. If, if you feel like they’re starting to crank week well, once the temperature drops you’re, definitely going to be hurting, iamm temperatures 31 um typically, I start this truck and let it idle for a while. But for the sake of the video, I don’t want to stand around and be outside, so just slowly taking it now the batteries and the pickups last couple years.

That’S what we get out of we’ve tried everything. The only battery that actually lasts for a while is the AGM batteries more slowly transitioning to them. They are spendy, but we see four to six years out of AGM, which is very surprising. Let’S uh emphasize on the fluid. What’S the big deal with the motor oil, I had 1030 in there it was semisynthetic and at- 24.

It did not want to do it didn’t want to function well, it was pretty thick. What have? I went to typically uh the easy one to get it’s the T6 it’s readily available. I used to run Shapers and guess what I I’m running now amoil my buddy owns a amoil place over here, not too far from me just supporting his business. Also, the pricing.
You know he helps me out. I help help him out and um yeah just help him out by buying high volume, and I have transitioned to am no. No, no, it’s not better. It’S not worse than schafers, I always say schafers and AMS oil. In my two pck when it comes to gas engines, I favor the AMS oil when it comes to diesel.

I favor schafers, but schafers has lost their mind with their pricing, so my buddy can hook me up. Let’S get back to trucking. So all my fleet is running 540 M Oil right now. The price was right and I mean positive, meaning, you know. Positive 31 is not necessarily a cold cold start, but it’s cold enough.

You know to start patrolling or start coming through how that oil is doing in the colder um colder temps. Look like the the heater really kicked in. It seems to me that that 540 oil – that’s quite the difference on the cold start. You don’t have to sit there and, and and oh does it really help it? Is it not even at 30 fah.

I could already feel and hear a difference specifically in my fifg or my 19s and up they seem to really like the the fluid. I guess just the the way the hydraulic lifters are made is just they do so much better with those this power stroke um. We need to talk about this power stroke. This power stroke is 540 now as well. I used to run 10:30 and up until a couple weeks ago, um the performance on it is is different, but that’s a video for another time.
The cold cranking oil is one of your biggest things. You can do to uh prepare your vehicle. Another thing is diesel additives, my rule of thumb, up until the thing things teens, I don’t bother with them like right now, at 30 fah ambient temperature. I wouldn’t be worried about it, because fuel around here is winterized yachty, yachty um and I feel comfortable up to zero if we’re got zero or less, and I have nothing in the diesel I’m starting to get scared. So but my rule of thumb is once you start getting the 20s.

The teens start start having a little bit of anti- gum. It’S not going to burn a hole in your pocket. It’Ll give you a peace of mind and it comes from a story um. This was December um 10:30 rocking in my rocking chair at home Sunday night ready to go to bed. My phone gets lit up while there’s a there’s a medical emergency in uh in Wyoming, just outside of larmy Wyoming, I grabed my duffel bag, my gym bag.

I packed some clothing and I hit the road I was so blown away by the situation. I didn’t think about antiel in my diesel. I left town, probably about this kind of temperature, low 30s mid-30s and I was hauling tail to Wyoming only to get caught in a blizz and starting to hear my engine clatter and clack clack clack clack and you understand, I mean know strong winds. It was freezing out there, it was a blizzard, you know, the the temperatures were much lower out there than they were in town, and I had no time to spare it was. It was literally life and death situation.

I would have been screwed, that’s my feeling for this um. I always run fuel additives in my equipment. You know, I just didn’t think about it. I did not think it through get through it just got caught in the moment. So what do I do different now?
I do a spare a spare one or two treatments in the trucks like this truck has exactly two two two doses, so I has three bottles of the Chevron product in the toolbox in the back. So if whatever reason I need the shop – and I did not add antiel and I get caught on the road – I have the product in there and off we go so it was negative teens in Wyoming. When I started here in my engine clatter I mean I went from positive 30 to negative. I want to say 15 135 in the high winds you Le my mega cap started clattering away, yeah you’re you’re not going to make it alive out of that thing. Middle of nowhere there’s people off the road if anything, you’ll be singing Kumbaya together and freezing to death.

So I never mess with that again you’re a trucker out there. You guys know exactly what I’m talking about. Yes, my truck was running. I was driving nonstop. I was just in my my pickup truck to rescue a driver out there in Wyoming um.

Just those things got, you know Shutters on the front and then my engine started clattering. I think it’s primarily because the wind was hitting at a diagonal, so it was getting it from the side. It wasn’t like a straight on wind. It was coming from the side and I think that’s where my problem arose. Um so yeah anti-gel is no no joke.

When you start getting it to the negatives, all the fuel is supposed to be treated to zero, and you know I can’t tell you: we’ve had issues, but one of my drivers froze a semi TR just easy into the negatives. I think it was like five or six and he shut it off for the night. I don’t know what it was think once again: um trucker for for 6 years. I just just don’t know how he missed that piece of information he shut it off. The night went in the bunk turned on his heater and well.
He woke up in the morning that engine won’t start. That was quite the build to thigh out that truck and just been on Montana um. What you guys need to realize is those high winds side. Winds – those winds add to that equation, just because it’s netive five outside the high, when it it freezes over, why do Bridges freeze over a lot quicker than the roads? So I can’t stress enough, as far as that, some people will go as far as changing converting extracting fluid from the diffs and putting highend oil specifically because it’s winter and it’s not even it’s not even due for the service.

I don’t do that. I never found a reason for it, probably because the fluid I use is semi or fully synthetic from day one and we rack on those mile miles so quick. We never had an issue of that, but the the sneaky one is definitely the fuel Jing up on you on the interstate put putting around town is not that big of an issue so that it seems um I mean I’ve. Had I had my truck in the negatives around town and no anti jaw and I never never bothered it was kind of pushing my luck to see if I can get anything odd out of it right. No, nothing!

I am understand it doesn’t all of a sudden shut down on you. Well, I’ve heard Detroits do like big red big rig fright liners that’s the best way. Besides the obvious, you know, have good windshield wipers have good tires, that’s the obvious, but the sneaky ones that get people to to put it from most to least uh what you need to be attentive to uh. I would put motor oil diesel additive antiel. That’S when you get into the Zer or Subzero absolutely must when you get into the teams, I advise you to put it in there kind of prepare for the the occasion.

Um washer fluid um see the thing with washer fluid. If you idle your truck long enough, he’ll buy it out and uh. Typically, you get back in business, but it won’t take much it freeze up again, so I wouldn’t spend too much um. I would to be too ignorant to that fact, because it could actually crack damage uh things as well. So don’t forget that.|
Let me know in the comment section: if you guys want me to show you progressively colder starts just to just so you guys know what to expect out of it. I’Ll do a video here shortly about the oil. I was surprise what that oil did to this truck it just F tied to it. Just wasn’t expecting an effect that it did. It just becomes more snappier, it becomes more reactive but anyways.

As always hello bless you may you all, have a Mighty find day. Ch