I have no experience with any of the latest doo dads on trucks built after 2002. I have a fleet of concrete mixers without glow plugs, the Duramx might have what you described and the truck it replaced was a 1994 Ford F350 with a 7.3 International diesel that ate glow plugs like candy corn.
Second worst diesel for a light truck was the 6.2 GM diesel, worst of course was the Olds 5.7 diesl conversion.
The Duramax in Alaska also goes through batteries pretty bad, I have replaced the dual batteries three times in the last 10 years.
I use an Optima dry cell battery for my 8100 Vortec. Works fine even at minus 40 in Alaska. Plugging in is mandatory for the diesel along with synthetic oil.
>>Plugging in is mandatory for the diesel along with synthetic oil.
Do you use the Shell Rotella T6? I know a bunch of guys who use that in high performance Euro car engines. Sure beats buying M1 0W40 Euro car formula, or the equivalent Castrol product. Wal-Mart carries the gallon jugs of the T6, not of the 0W40, at least around here.