Mr Tibbs

Allright, I have a stupid question. Say that I have a power inverter under the hood and I hard wire it to be on constant. And then I have a block heater that I plug in to it every night. The question is in the morning will I be able to start my vehicle? I live in an apartment and am trying to think of a way to plug in a block heater at night without donating a power cord every night to the local kids. I know I'm going to get flamed for this so let's have it!

Scofco

You live in Utah, how cold does it get there?

I generally don't plug my truck in until at least -20c. It's not really needed until then.

jimbo74

power inverters suck power out of batteries.... i used a guys inverter that i went camping with to charge my camera battery, well, 2 hours later, i had to have my truck jumpstarted!

Mr Tibbs

Latley at night it gets into the low teens, but come January I know it's going to get cold, really cold. I'm just trying to think of a way to make my engine last me a long time. I try to let it warm up in the morning, but sometimes I don't have the time or patience. Just kind of doing some thinking out loud here. Is this just a stupid idea?

jimbo74

yes bad idea... jsut run an extension cord

jimbo74

install one of those remote start untits that does cycles.. like it will come on for like 10 minutes or something every 2 hours

MTL_4runner

A remote start that checks battery voltage is what I would suggest too (when it goes too low, the truck will run for 10 min to charge the battery). Also make sure to use a thinner weight oil for easier winter starts (mine starts fine in -40 without the cycling....and sadly I know by experience)

Mr Tibbs

I thought about this last night and I started to wonder, does anyone make a 12 volt block heater? Then I could hard wire the block heater to a switch in the cab and just flip the switch at night. Would that drain the battery? Somehow I think this would be to convient. Thanks for the thoughts guys!

Babypig

Yeah but you live on an Island in the middle of a river. In Canada. In the winter. BRRRRRRRR

3car

devices that produce heat tend to draw alot of current. you would need a fairly large inverter, and it would kill your battery VERY quickly.

you could possibly use the remote start with a voltage sensor, but most inverters have a low voltage shutdown also, so you would have to hope the inverter dosent shut off before the remote start hits its start up voltage to recharge the battery.

all in all, its a lowsy plan.

whats all this talk about freezing temperatures anyway, it's 68 degrees outside!

TACOMANATOR

I live in Colorado and I have never been worried. Just use a lower weight oil or a synthetic oil and make sure you have a good battery. Remote start is the way to go if you don't like warming up your vehicle while sitting/freezing in it. Not an option for us manual trans guys.

Scofco

You can have remote start on manual transmissions...

superjoe83

as long as you remember to leave it in neutral, otherwise it may not be where you parked it

3car

yes. and you can also forget to leave the truck in neutral, and accidently trigger the remote start and run someone over.

Mr Tibbs

Allright, I'll drop the idea. What weight oil should I go with? Anyone have any sugestions on a remote start to hook up with the factory keyless entry?

Flamedx4

NO!
(Since you didn't seem to get what everyone was telling you. )
No flame thoiugh - it was a perfectly logical question, but a block heater draws as much or more than cranking your engine, for comparison. So, you cannot run a block heater off your battery. Not with an inverter, not if you found a 12v block heater, not at all. You would need some HUGE batteries to do that. Typical block heaters draw between 300 and 1800 watts. Even if an inverter approached 100% efficiency (and the ones that cost $59.99 do NOT) you could only run the heater for a couple of hours before their would not be enough juice to start the engine. Run an extension cord.

They sure do make remote starters for manuals. The good ones include a switch for the shifter as well as the park brake making it very difficult to have the car run off on you. Further, the circuit senses what is happening to the voltage and the rpms when it cranks the engine and will stop cranking quickly if something is wrong (like the alternator not spooling up because the engine is turning slow while moving the truck...) They are pretty safe - in these litigious days they have to be. And you can get cool features like auto start and battery monitoring and auto windows and auto AC and pizza oven and electric wet bar... sorry, my mind wandered....

Flamedx4

We used a lot of 5w30 when I lived in British Columbia.
We installed a bunch of remote starters, but I can't remember any working with a factory security system. They had some cool features, like after it was started with the remote, if you didn't put the key in and turn it on within a certain time limit it shut off and relocked the doors, some even kept the doors locked after starting (a separate button for locks.) Some had anti theft features so if someone tried to drive it but the key hadn't been used the engine would stop. Different brands had different features. Automatic windows was a good one.

But I don't know what your factory alarm would think about the whole process. My guess is there would be some signal that ties in to the factory system to deactivate it.

aviator

idea #1 switch to 5w30 motor oil. it's thinner and flows better at cold temperatures. I run it year rounr with no troubles.
idea #2 hop on down to the home depot or whatever and get yourself a twist-lok cordcap one male and one female change the blockheater plug to the male twist lok and the female end of the extension cord to the female twistlok the extension cord will be almost useless to anybody else so they shoud'nt steal it and the thing will never fall apart either. just remember to unplug it every time because it won't pull apart as you drive away if you don't. cheers Aviator

jimbo74

several companies make interface adapters to convert vehicles with factory alarms to remote start as well... my friends lightning had that.. the parts were actually available at the dealer....

MTL_4runner

My point exactly.....mine starts fine in friggin -40 (BTW celsius = Farenheit at that temp) with just lighter oil (I just use 5w30).

In regards to the remote starter, I would just get an alarm with remote start, that way you won't have to screw with integrating them both and in fact you make make some money back if you sell the factory stuff on ebay. I like the viper 550 ESP I installed (it does not have the voltage monitoring, but it does have a timer mode which starts the truck every 3 hours for 10 min) but others have installed the commando (just do a search and you'll read all about it too) and seem to like it quite a bit. Check my signature to see how to actually install the viper....it's not that bad at all.

You might also consider a new battery (I use OEM Toyota but Optima make a great one too) and to check the alternator output (should be over 14V).