High ambient temp/winch/grill cover

Does anyone with a grill cover/winch combo on front think that their truck is not getting enough air flow to the radiator when the ambient temps are in the mid 90's+ with just the opening of the rolled up grill cover? I'm thinking that the grill cover should be completely removed for those situations especially if working the truck.
Any experience or thoughts?

I never use my cover above 60 deg. But most of my trucks running is in the woods or running air tools. So the fan has to keep it cool. The T-stat has always done a pretty good job of keeping the temp at a safe level. But this far south it never gets cold enough to need it anyway.

This subject keeps popping up and since I have been monitoring the temp pretty carefully (with additional thermocouple probe) over the years, I must say that the radiator cover has a place at ANY ambient temperature, depending on how the truck is used.
During my trip to Georgia and Florida a month ago, I kept the custom radiator cover in, even at ambients around 95°F. On the highway, the engine temp stayed at about 180-185 most of the time.
My custom radiator cover is equivalent to the canvas cover with the flap open.
I did remove the cover for the climb up the mountain coming back to keep the temp below 200° with a gross combined vehicle weight of 29,000 lb.

For short runs or stationary operations, I always use the cover (images elsewhere on this forum).

For your own satisfaction, install a second accurate, easy to read temperature probe/meter (I use a DVM w/thermocouple adapter) and find out for yourself.
Straight up and down on my dash gauge is 176°F, which means that for "normal" operation, the T-stat hasn't even begun to open.

I have posted this before and to you guys that are bothered by the repetition, I apologize.

PS. For highway driving with long downhill runs, I have seen the temp drop 40° in a few minutes without the radiator cover. Using it helps keep the temp much more constant. The ideal solution is a radiator shutter with a controlled fan....

I've only had my grille cover on for about a month, but haven't noticed a significant difference. Before I installed the cover, in cool weather (70s) and moderate rural driving the temp never gets above 160; after a 10-15 mile run at 50-55 mph it would get as high as 170. Since installing the cover, with temps in the 80s, it usually runs around 170; the highest I have ever seen, again after a 10-15 mile run at 50-55 mph on a 90 degree day it got up to 185.

Interestingly, all Arctic Covers are NOT created equal, the opening on mine only extends down to about the bottom of the headlights. I have seen pictures of others where the opening was a good 6" lower, down to below the bottom of the blackout light.

I doubt a winch will make much difference, the top of the winch shouldn't extend into the grille cover opening much, if at all, and if anything will work as an air dam, forcing air up over the winch and into the grille cover opening.

The reason I asked was that on a run the other day on a road that I have traveled with the Deuce before,uphill for a while, it seemed as though it warmed faster and then took longer to cool back down after reaching the top of the hill.The grill cover has about 215 sq. in. of opening, the bridge plate blocks about 25 sq. in of that. The back plate of the winch forces the cover close enough to the radiator so that it leaves very little room for good air flow. I guess in the next day or so(supposed to be 95 plus), I will remove the cover a try the run again. Seems as though full air flow would even out the peaks and valleys of the temp. swings.

Bjorn, is the thermocouple adapter you refer to a fitting that you installed in a tee configuration where the regular temp sensor installs or is it an optional set up from your DVM manufacturer? Auto parts store item? Also, the DVM has to have some sort of temperature reading ability/scale I presume, which mine doesn't, but i can rectify that easily enough.
Thanks,
BC

Multimeter details.

Thank you.
BC