Best Heater

Egon · Jul 1, 2008

Nothing wrong with adding a battery heater. It makes the battery happy and productive.

Gerifalte · Jul 3, 2008

mffarmall said:
It's not even July, but I wanted to ask what is the best heater that is simple to mount and use for the winter?

Hello MfFarmall,

Where are you at in Colorado? I live in Colorado's front range and as you know it can get pretty cold here in winter. After having lot's of problems trying to start my JM284 in the cold winter, I installed a Kat's lower radiator hose heater (Model 14600) and it works like a charm! I bought mine at Autozone for about $16 and it's probably one of the best mods I have added to the tractor. The radiator hoses in my tractor were crap, so if I was you, I would also replace the original hoses while you are at it.

Let me know if you need any instructions on how to install it.

Cheers,

G

Amez · Jul 10, 2008

I use a wolverine and it works , but I thought of putting an inline in as well. Its only around $20 and around 200A. Why not have warm oil and coolant and faster heat time? Come to think of it , why not a battery heater too?

Creekman · Jul 15, 2008

greg_g said:
Uh-huh. Except I'm not the one who ASKED for the opinions. I was a year off with that snow anecdote though - sorry about that. According to my photo album, it was December 23rd, 2004 - an extremely atypical one-day snowfall for this part of Kentucky. The photos were taken the next day, after the sun had melted about half of it away. Prior to that, I used my KM454 to clear all the driveways in the neighborhood. I regularly went through 3 foot drifts, a few up to four feet. Might not be much to you folks in cold country. But it should serve to demonstrate that snow did not prove to be an issue with the brand of (correctly installed) pan heater I use.

But I shouldn't have to defend my own choices and experiences. The whole point here is to share with the fella from Colorado. I am not maligning your preference for water heaters, and I've already deferred to Ronald about standard MFD heaters. So why do you three persist in hammering my preference for oil heaters?

//greg//

This discussion seems to have turned into a debate about your own preference about oil pan heaters versus lower radiator hose induction heaters. It doesn't really matter how much snow you had or how much snow you moved for yourself or your neighbors. These heater mechanisms only help to get a tractor started, so what is your complaint?
If you feel "hammered", try to respect other posters opinions before you try to shove your "Opinions" down their throats!