One Battery

[TCluff]

I WAS GOING TO REMOVE ONE BATTERY AND JUST RUN THE DRIVER SIDE BATTERY AND GET RID OF THE INTAKE HEATER AS IN COMPLETELY REMOVE IT FROM THE INTAKE ETC,,, ANY DILIKES OF THIS IDEA WOULD BE APPRECIATED, I HAVE BEEN RUNNING OFF OF ONE BATTERY FOR ABOUT TWO WEEKS NOW AND EVERYTHING IS WORKING FINE EXCEPT A LITTLE WHITE SMOKE ON A COLD MORNING, THE GRID HEATER HAS BEEN UNHOOKED SINCE NOVEMBER AND IT STILL STARTED ON 10 BELOW MORNINGS, ALTHOUGH ON THOSE REALLY COLD MORNINGS IT SOUNDED LIKE A MIDGET WAS POUNDING ON THE BLOCK WITH A SLEDGE HAMMER, IS THIS A BAD IDEA FOR THE CUMMINS,,,, I AM A CATERPILLAR MECHANIC AND ALMOST ALL EQUIPMENT I WORK ON DOES'NT EVEN HAVE STARTING AID AND THEY RUN ALMOST PERFECT 24-7-365 ..... ANY COMMENTS WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED THANKS...

 

[rbattelle]

Sounds to me like you've already done your own testing. If it's been working fine this long, why not leave it that way? You won't hurt anything by not having the heaters on cold mornings.



-Ryan

 

[WStephens]

When my 99 had one bad battery it did not start well at all even on fairly cool mornings, I had to use my battery charger to get it to start.



In the late 70s I operated Cat 930 dozers and 834 loaders the 930 had glow plugs and the 834 had an either canister for starting and sometimes they still did not start at -45.

some one shut down the 930 and they spent 2 weeks every day on day shift trying to get it started and we had to let it idel the rest of the winter and they lost the turbo that winter.