Is anyone out there (in COLD country) having issues with block heaters failing? This is an on-going issue with my Maxxforce 7 motors, we seem to always be changing them as they go bad. My Cummins do not have this issue.
Our buses stay plugged in from after the PM route until the next morning's route, and usually throughout the weekends. We have trained the drivers to unplug the block heater before starting bus. We have tried putting them on timers, but went back to leaving them plugged in all the time. (as it didn't seem to make a difference)
Our Maxx 7's and Maxx DT's have the same issues. I replaced a few two years ago with Zerostart and have had 2 of them fail already. Not sure what the answer is...
Two thirds of our fleet have timers for the block heaters, the rest do not. Like you said, that doesn't seem to make any difference in which ones fail. I do think it's interesting that most of the older buses in our fleet (oldest buses are 2001) still have the original block heaters and they work great. So far we haven't had any issues with the Cummins either.
I've gotten into the habit of ohming out the block heaters in the fall and a couple times during the winter. IC heaters should be right around 12 ohms and the Cummins usually run around 20 ohms.
We are not in the coldest climate by any means but we have the same issue having to replace block heater on the maxforce regularly not sure the problem?? only have a few buses we are having to plug in now as we have several propane buses that do not require them. I do have one Cummins 4 years old same block heater and some DT international's with original block heaters.
we have timers on all run from 4am to 1pm everyday (morning run and afternoon run) and it seems to make them last longer instead of being on 24hrs of the day if on all the time we change once a year( or more) on a timer 3 to 4 years usually
OEM trained in wiring and all engine platforms for over 20 years
block heater issues
Posted - 01/22/2019 : 8:08:12 PM
