First time putting a car away for winter, what is needed?

[glene]

yes, every charger I own is a smart charger. However, you have more faith in electrical devices than I do. With no current load on the battery, and a fully charged batt, , I don’t need 110 V hooked up to the car 24/7. To each his own.

I do agree that there’s no reason to put the battery through cold and hot cycles like winter and summer, and taking the battery out and keeping it inside, occasionally charging it , is really healthy for the battery.

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[djmoore69]

^This is the most important. Unless you can get the engine oil up to full operating temp(180°+), you risk building up condensation in the engine. And unless the streets are completely free of all road salts, I would not take it out at all. Road salt underneath these cars will not be easy to clean off because they sit so low.
Along with all the other recommendations like battery tender, increased tire pressure if sitting a long time, you might want to put some Stabil gas stabilizer in the gas tank if it'll sit for a month or more. I also put my car on Flatstopper ramps to help prevent flat spots. Keep the car in gear, and the parking brake off to prevent the parking brake from rusting onto the rotors. See my post here: https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/th...-your-gt350-today.39940/page-759#post-3893717

This is really helpful advice, but I'm wondering what you recommend for someone whose car will sit in a garage for a couple of months (Jan-Mar) but needs to move it in and out of the garage a couple of times a week in order to use the space in the garage. This scenario seems to be dangerous according to your advice. Would it need to be driven for 20-30 minutes every time it's moved out of the garage? Any suggestions on ways to minimize damage in this case?

 

[I Bleed Ford Blue]

Buy a 4 post lift and just lift it up so you can use the space underneath.

 

[galaxy]

@glene Faith? The question isn’t faith on my (our) end, but why soo much doubt on your end? Have you observed or have knowledge about some great rash of lost cars and homes to tender fires? Gotta say, I know of exactly zero. And there’s a ton of us that use them religiously with nare a problem. I mean, your last post made me wanna go kick my dog and see if that’ll cheer me up after that! Hahhahaha.

 

[CorvZ061]

Someone did mention moth balls. My son's car was parked in our garage for less than a week and I found a mouse nest in the engine and some knawing of wires to one of the injectors, which I had to cut and solder. We live in a regular neighborhood - but with golf course and some surrounding open land we have critters here and there.

Moth balls don’t really do much. I’ve pulled cars out of storage that were stored with them and without them, still get mice in them.

 

[Postal Bob]

This is really helpful advice, but I'm wondering what you recommend for someone whose car will sit in a garage for a couple of months (Jan-Mar) but needs to move it in and out of the garage a couple of times a week in order to use the space in the garage. This scenario seems to be dangerous according to your advice. Would it need to be driven for 20-30 minutes every time it's moved out of the garage? Any suggestions on ways to minimize damage in this case?

I would put the car on wheel dollies like this: https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/threads/what-did-you-do-to-your-gt350-today.39940/page-756
Plus, if you have soft Summer only tires on the car, you dont want to be moving them when temps are near freezing.
As for driving long enough to warm the car up to temps; I took my car out last week when it was 45° outside. It took almost 30 minutes of driving before the oil temp got up to 180°. And I couldn't get it up much higher than that. The whole idea is that you want the engine to be hot enough inside to evaporate any built up condensation in the engine. Along with getting the exhaust hot enough to evaporate water in the exhaust pipes. Ever see a car on a cold day while idling, and see water coming out of the exhaust? That's the built up condensation from constant short trips where the exhaust system never gets that hot.
These are the reasons that starting and idling your car while in Winter storage is bad for it.

 

[Inthehighdesert]

Last I checked mine wasnt putting 110 volts to the battery.

@glene Faith? The question isn’t faith on my (our) end, but why soo much doubt on your end? Have you observed or have knowledge about some great rash of lost cars and homes to tender fires? Gotta say, I know of exactly zero. And there’s a ton of us that use them religiously with nare a problem. I mean, your last post made me wanna go kick my dog and see if that’ll cheer me up after that! Hahhahaha.

 

[Skye]

It's not a cure, but if varmints are a concern, remove any food sources from the area. Many keep additional dry goods stored in their garage and don't realize it's a magnet for any number of critters. Boxes with clothes or soft, insulating items is another attraction. For deterrents, peppermint is a scent I regularly read of that mice don't like. Maybe mix things up and change between a few annoying scents throughout the season.

Regarding the discussion on chargers versus tenders, I make a distinction between the two. IMO, a charger is providing a constant force to a battery; it has limited intelligence. A tender, conditioner or smart charger: no; it senses when the battery it topped-up and backs off, occasionally checking in to see how the it's is doing. The majority of he latter devices are designed to exercise and condition a battery in a specified way.

We all have multiple devices in our homes with power constantly being applied, many of which cannot be truly turned off unless unplugged.

Buy well-known, quality items, read the user manual and operate them as intended. Don't do a "Griswold". I don'y buy or operate used electrical devices or electronics.

If new to using a tender with your vehicle, connect it and monitor it for the first several hours or days, before storage. Mine has a series of lights to tell me what stage it's in. If at any momement it senses something is wrong, it stops, disconnects and alarms. While the first four stages on mine typically occur in the first hour or two, the rest take close to another week.

If a tender isn't of interest, disconnect the battery and keep in a stable, well-ventilated place.

In the end, don't do something you're not comfortable with or not happy about. It's no fun having something gnawing at you all the time. We buy and care for our cars as a source of enjoyment.

 

[jcttraveler]

Maybe don't pack it away. I live in NoVA. Winters here have been pretty mild. I drive my convertible daily throughout the year, but I have all-season tires. They say there might be some snow this year, in which case you might want to stay off the roads while they're salting and brining.

 

[Nfs1000f]

Here’s my two cents.

I have a 2017 GT350 with a manufacture date of July 2016. I still have the original battery in my car. The car gets stored for five months in the winter. I hook up a regular battery charger set to the 2 amp setting and that is connected to a timer that turns on one hour per day.

Come spring I do this before I start the car.

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