I can't get near a plug-in either at the apt or work. I looked at getting a small generator to throw in the bed and use it to drive the block heater but they are a bit pricey for small ones that I probably won't use for anything else.

How about a power inverter about 1000 to 1500 watts. I have a brand new deep cycle battery just sitting here on charge and will probably have another pair from the truck come spring. You could just hook the inverter up and let it run the battery down to the cut off voltage about 10v . It would probably run a couple hours I think which would at least get the chill off the diesel. So far I've started down to -17 with a 24 hour soak.

I saw inverters for around $100 on ebay.

whatta ya think??

bentwings

 

I think that the first thing for cold starting is batteries , keep em warm and charged ,when they get to -20 f they loose 80% of there capacity-800 cranking amp battery now has 160 amps, it will bearlly turn it over and if you are limited for plug in use your inverter to power battery blackets they soak up less watts , your deep cycles last longer , next get one of the solar pannels in the window to keep the batterys charged[starting] then when the truck is running charge everything , battery isolater. watch the numbers and do the math watts in watts out , you can make it work.

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94 2500 4x4 A.T. SLT

 

I can't see a battery's juice lasting long enough to do much good but haven't done the math. Plus all the hassle of hauling batteries around and charging them, your time must be worth something.
I'd break down and get an Espar.

 

The block heater is about 750 watts. To pull that kind of power out of a battery (whether thru an inverter or not) is going to take over 60 amps, and it takes about two hours for the heater to do much good if it's cold enough that you need the block heater in the first place.

I'm guessing you'd have a dead battery long before the engine heated up.