Hi all,

I'm Mark, I've been living in Edmonton, Alberta for the past 2.5 years. I'm originally from Brighton, England. I've just bought my first ever truck, a 2006 Ram 3500, and I love it. Great for the winters here! But, I'm finding a few problems here and there, and this forum has been a huge help so far identifying these issues!

Keep up the good work all, and hopefully I'll be able to help someone else out one day with something I've fixed.

Cheers

 

Glad to have you on board Mark! I don't mean to alarm you but I hear there are some crazy Canadians on this site. Better be careful! By the way, quite a few from this side of the border also that might bear considerable watching....

Jump in any time with questions or answers. Maybe even a funny laugh or two...

Ed

 

Hello, welcome to DTR and "welcome to earth", it's certainly different here in Edmonchuck compared to across the pond, Ive been here 40 years but originally from Yorkshire. A couple of things with the diesel truck.. use a winter front and plug it in unless you have heated parking, don't fill your tank too full in the fall unless you plan to use the fuel, it's probably summer diesel and when it does first get real cold ask when filling if it's winter diesel. Synthetic oils work wonders in our cold temps especially if you are North of here in the oil patch.

 

Thanks for the welcome and tips guys!

I actually learned the hard way about using synthetic oils and plugging in. My first winter here - it was approaching -40 with the windchill, I went out to start my car and ended up burning the starter motor out due to the oil having turned to molasses. Won't be making that mistake again!

I have a plug in, and I'm debating the winter front over a piece of cardboard. I've heard arguments for and against both. I'm not using the truck for work, just a commuter at the moment, but my journey isn't long enough for it to really warm up a great deal. So I'm not sure.

Anyways, I'm fairly mechanically minded, I've spent the past 10 years or so doing DIY projects on all my cars, so hopefully I'll be able to apply that knowledge.

Good to hear from a fellow Brit (or ex-Brit!) too!

 

Welcome to the land that time forgot. Living down on the coast its alot warmer, retired now but i have lived and worked in the north for years driving truck in -60 with wind chills to -90. Always prepare pack a extra coat, socks,hat,blanket, water, dry snack, jumper cables,shovel,flash lite, tow rope, you never now when something will happen, You could be a 1000 feet from the road and now will find you. Winter can be nice but most of the time it can bite you in the ***. Even a fuel 3gal can of kerosine it will thin out your diesel if it gets to cold and your fuel jells!

 

The cardboard idea works to a point but don't install it right next to the AC condenser, when it's warm enough or you are in heated parking the AC compressor will run in ALL modes except OFF and VENT, meaning that in the defrost mode the AC compressor will run and if not enough air flow through the condenser it will create very high head pressures that will either blow off freon of blow hoses.