When I took delivery of my '05 Ram I had them enable the fast idle (very nice feature). When the service tech showed me how it worked he made the comment that "you'll use this alot because these things don't make heat in the cold." The first morning when I needed the heater I remembered his comment, and quicly learned he was right.

I love my truck, but I gotta say I don't like having to drive nearly 7 miles before I begin to feel any heat. When the outside temps dip below 10 degrees its common for me to run it on fast idle for 15 minutes (minimum), and still not have heat for the first 10 minutes of my drive.

Coolant level is correct. The engine will reach normal operating temp, but it just takes a while. Is this normal?

Any suggestions to help build heat into the engine during the winter?
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wardvwracer's Sig:

David Ward
2005 Dodge Ram 3500 Big Horn Edition
5.9L Cummins, 4x4 Dually

Block the radiator with cardboard, and it probably wouldn't hurt to change out the thermostat. Be sure you get one from Cummins. -

wildbill's Sig:

I Drive An 06 Dodge Ram 2500

Powered By a 5.9 Cummins

It Has Some Parts But Could Use More

96,000 Miles

Big Sky Bombers Social Group

plug it in -

diesel pap's Sig:

www.mightydiesel.com - Make Your Diesel MIGHTY !

Ideling in the cold isnt good - plug it in for 3 hours, and use a winter front like Wildbill suggested. You can also remove your fan for winter. That helps a lot.

Start the truck and let it idle for 30 seconds or so and then drive it. Start slow and keep it under 2k rpm. It will warm up. Its the nature of the beast.

An ESPAR heater is some of the best money you can spend on your truck:


http://www.espar.com/html/products/coolantheaters.html -

Dr. Evil's Sig:

98 12V quad cab 4X4 AND 2001 24V quad cab 4X4

Actually, don't remove the fan. The ECM controls the fan speed on the 3rd gens, you'll throw codes, sending the truck into limp mode. -

that just the nature of the truck even letting mine high idle for 30mins before i got into it while i lived in AK it was still cold. what we did up there to take care of that is put a space heater inside the cab just make sure it is one that is surge protected and will shut off if it overheats or tips over so you dont get a fire -

pngmotoman's Sig:

................................................[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
2006 Dodge Cummins, spray in liner, auto start, 5" straight pipes, leveling kit, Superchips, AFE stage 2, Air dog, 35x12.5R17 cooper stt (no rubbing)
2005 kawi brute force 650 Stock yah right

I did the cardboard thing and plugged mine in when I lived in wyoming, it worked a little, but to me when its -20 its gonna be cold no matter what you do... -

gpandlf's Sig:

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Move to Texas! -

Diesel-N-Dust's Sig:

There is nothing wrong with me, I'm not trying to see things your way.
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Idle in N if you have not modded the VB......it won't circulate fluid in P. -

torqctd's Sig:

04 CTD, LB,Laramie,QC,3.73,48RE.

Try to avoid idle- it produces a lot of condensation inside the engine, soot and neglectible heat.
An hour of idle runs you two or three gallons of fuel.
An engine heater needs less than a quarter of a gallon per hour and the truck is really hot inside the cab and the engine is warmed up to operating temperatures. That's cool.( no not cool- it's really warm!)


Have a look here:

Enhance your quality of life - Welcome to Espar

or there

http://www.webasto.us/home/en/homepage.html -

If you fired it up 15 mins early for 5 days a week, 4 weeks a month, 6 months a year at $3.50 a gallon (what fuel is here) that would be $190 extra fuel burned a year over an Espar.

So... it would take about 10 years to equal the cost of the Espar... Not exactly a winning agruement there.

Having warm coolant is nice though... just not $2000 nice IMO.

I just wear warm clothes. It's been staying around -10* the past few days here and my cab gets maybe 50-55* during my 40 mile drive to work. -

Hey, nate you don't have an A/C then? Because it's not worth it?

Ok, what about avoiding wear and coldstarts. Think of it like a saftey device. You don't have to wear that thick layers of clothes And your windows are free of ice and snow. I can hear my neighour getting out half an hour earlier, trying to get rid of ice and snow. He is always p....d when I start the heater with my remote.( He knows that I have one)
I love to read the news in the morning instead and to have a comfy take off with a cup of coffee. My girl loves it too- she is always freezing.

Only a person not having a heater can talk about it in that way.
You do have a cell phone, don't you? Could you live without it? Sure you can, but it is more comfortable to have one, right?

you will find a calculator here:

http://www.espar.com/html/service/ca...alculator.html -

Deezel Stink3r's Sig:

1999 Jeep Cherokee 2.5 TD VM Diesel engine, Bosio Fratelli Injectors, Manual Forge MUNOS boost controller, oil cooler fan operated at 212°, standby coolant pump with electronic controlled temperature and delay, oil temperature & boost gauge by VDO, ARB rear locker, Optima red top

I didn't say those heaters aren't nice, but it's not worth $1500-2000 on an old truck like mine.

I fire my truck up 5-10 mins before leaving. Go out, fire the truck up, bring the dog outback to do his thing, put him back in the house, clean the windows if I need to and then leave.

When it gets -10* or colder I plug the truck in for a couple hrs before I plan on leaving for work... So I guess that is ~$0.25 per day that I plug it in. -

I plug it in regularly when the temps fall below 20. I don't run the engine with the block pluged in as I've been told that's asking for trouble with the block heaters.

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Thanks guys for the responses. I should have been clearer....

1. I plug it in over night.
2. I unplug, start it up, and set the fast idle to be 1200-1400 rpms.
3. Sometimes I turn the defrost on high if I have ice

This is pretty much my normal winter routine. With the defrost on sometimes it will cut the chill in the cab, but its still plenty cold inside.

Also, sometimes I'm in my truck parked during the winter for extended periods of time (eating lunch for example) and I'll simply crank up the fast idle to 1200 rpms. If its 0 or below the engine temp will actually lower back to cold rather than remain in its normal operating temp range.

I know that idling the engine for periods of time isn't good, but the fast idle should be OK. Plus the computer will automatically raise the idle over 1000 rpms if I don't set the fast idle, which I'm sure is designed for protection of the engine.

I was going to try a radiator cover, but there seems to be a bunch of space between the grill and radiatory front, which to me would allow lots of cold air to get around a grill cover. I may see if I can fab up a cover that fits up against the radiator.
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