NV5600 Transmission Heater Pad for winter use

[RBridenbaugh]

I'm planning to take several winter road trips to various ski areas in the northern us and canadian rockies with my truck camper on my '05 3500 CTD dually .



Truck started really well all last winter when the temperatures were in the low teens. If it gets colder than that after not running the truck for several days at one place I plan to pull my Honda 2000 watt generator out from where it is stored inside the camper, fire it up and plug the truck's block heater, oil pan heater pad and battery heaters into it and run it for a couple hours to warm everything up before I head out down the hill to the next area. I'm already carrying the generator to re-charge my truck camper batteries.



Expect lowest temperatures to be in the -10 to -30 F range. Have synthetics every where but the transmission and steering pump. New filters installed and anti-gel will be in the fuel. Expect the transmission fluid in my NV5600 manual 6 spd will be very thick. I have enough generator capacity to run a transmission pad heater as well as the other pre-heaters and like the idea of have normal shifting. Anybody using this type of heater with this transmission? What wattage?



I've seen a post where they recommend a <70 watts transmission oil pan pad due to worries about burning the transmission fluid (didn't specify the transmission, but I have a hard time believing that 70 watts will warm the transmission oil that much given the thermal mass of the NV 5600 metal shell. I was thinking more in the 150W range.



I'll monitor temperatures of battery, oil, block and transmission and reduce the time if things are getting too warm, but I think that is unlikely.



Any thoughts?



-- Bob

 

[Sled Puller]

Why not just change to synthetics in the PS and transmission?

 

[WDaniels]

Don't bother with the transmission pad. If you have an auto, they are fine but for a manual, eh. If you want to warm up your transmission, after you've warmed up the engine with your oil pan heater and block heater, start the truck and put your transfer case in neutral, then put your shifter in forth or fifth and just let it idle. That will warm up the oil gently and not hurt any thing. Don't really need to do it for that warm of temps you are talking about. Also, dump the battery heater pads or blankets. They will do more to destroy your batteries than anything other than taking a hammer and putting a hole in the side of them.

WD