Bizarre cold starting issue

[05wingrider]

This has happened twice now (2 years apart), both at the same campground with pretty much the same weather. Spent the night at Ely, Nevada (elevation about 6300 feet), and the temps dropped down below 40 degrees. Went to depart the next morning and the preheat would cycle on for about 2 seconds and turn off - and I tried multiple times of cycling the key to see if it would turn on. Not!

Cranked the engine and had a horrible start - bad enough that it shut back down within a few seconds of operation. Let it sit for a few, tried the key cycle again for the preheat - no go - it just wouldn't turn on/engage. Finally get the engine to start (runs like crap, black smoke, the whole deal). It ran that way for probably 20 or so seconds and then finally smoothed out and went into high idle, then a short time later went back to regular idle.

The next morning it wasn't as high of altitude, and the preheat turned on and stayed on for a few minutes, so I did the 3x key routine and had a perfect startup with no issues. Now here's where it's odd - I had stayed at the same campground in Ely a week prior, but it only got down to the mid 40's, and the preheat on that round cycled just like it's supposed to! It's only when it drops down below 40 and at the high altitude that this happens. I went out to the RV this morning when it was around 40 and the preheat turned on for the regular cycle like it's done umpteen times before with no issues at all.

It works like it should every other time that I've driven the rig with zero issues at all - only when I stay at that high altitude and it gets cold - then it won't do the preheat cycle.

Has anyone experienced this, and if so, what did you do? I've got the logic tree from a Cat mechanic, but since it works perfectly fine here at home, it's kind of hard to recreate the problem!

[TDJohn]

How long were you at that campground? If you arrived the night before, there might have been enough residual heat in the coolant that did allow the system to engage the heat cycle...