On Sun, 16 Mar 2008 17:18:12 -0600, Louis Ohland
wrote:

They also make a battery heating pad for the battery to sit on. I used a
battery blanket with a heating element and a block heater down in the
Wisconsin Banana Belt (just north of Illinois).

I thought that gasoline fueled block heaters were common in Alaska.

Michael A. Terrell wrote:
We used a battery blanket, lower radiator heater and dipstick heater
to be able to start engines at Ft. Greely.

Piggybacks are common now for starting more remote stuff (equipment
too far from the grid to plug in, that only needs to be run
occaisionally). You drive in with your truck, snow-cat, or dozer and
connect hoses with quick-connects like hydraulic hoses between engines
and warm the cold one up with the warm one.

On my brother's old highway tractor we had a propane RV water heater
and a circulating pump that would bring the engine up to operating
temp in less than an hour. Was a good bunk heater too - he could shut
the engine down when he stopped for the night and keep the bunk warm
as well as being assured the engine would restart.
We put it in when he lived up on the farm and often had to leave the
truck at the end of the lane when he was home for a few days in the
winter. Fire up the "boiler" an hour before it was time to pull out,
and there was no problem starting, and the cab was defrosted to boot.

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