Winter Storage Tips?
 

1st question: I have a battery tender for my 98 boxter that I am going to keep in a car port. Can I hook it up without disconnecting the battery? Will it mess up the onboard computer?


2nd question: I have the car in one of those storage car ports in my yard. I don't have a garage. The storage port is good to keep the rain and weather off, but the grass floor is no good. I know that's a killer. They say gravel holds moisture. Any ideas on flooring to save the car frame?

1. I'm sure minds far sharper than mine will chime in... but... wouldn't you use the battery tender to keep the battery from draining and, if you disconnected the battery, the effort would be moot?

2. Unless your winter is 9 months long, you should be fine parking it on grass. Again... sharper minds may chime in.

Chers!

#1. I've hooked up my battery tender to the cigarette lighter every winter without disconnecting the battery and without issues.

I bought a LifeTime 21' by 11' garage shed for one of our Boxsters. The car sits on 2"x8" white pine planks that run the length of the shed. The floor is a platform built from 2"x4" pressure treated pine covered by 3/4" pressure treated plywood. The platform rests on 4" of crushed stone. About $4K for all the the materials and several days assembly.

Google LifeTime 21x11 garage shed.

What about summer performance tires sitting in the cold for several months? Won't they flat spot? And low profile, high performance tires are most susceptible to this. What do people do to prevent this, besides putting the car on jack stands for the winter?

A collection of winter storage tips are here.

Since your in NJ do you plan on doing some driving during the winter?
I will drive mine during the winter.
I put my battery tender on periodically. If it's been a 2-3 weeks since last drive (This goes for all year long) I will put my tender, directly connected to the battery, on for a few hours. It typically starts off in charge mode, then an hour so later goes to float. My battery is a couple years old.

I go have a garage but I store my motor home outside (with RV cover) on the grass through the winter. But the tires are up on 2" x 6" so it is up off the grass and so it doesn't sink in when the grass gets wet

Summer tires will flat when parked for extended time (any time of year) so when I plan on a drive, I roll out of the garage and have it sit at a different tire location for some time. Then just drive a moderate pace until they roll out

Yes the tires will flat spot, but when put back into service they will shake off the flat spots in about 5 min. of driving.

Jacking the car up and letting the suspension hang is not a good thing. Porsche released a TSB on this years ago, warning that doing so could lead to damaged struts from corrosion on the shafts.

1) Plug into the cig lighter.

2) Park on a thick mil painter's tarp from Home Depot. May help a little.

Easy. Pump up tires to about 55 psi.

My best winter storage tip is to move to Florida!

Haha. Great tip, my wife would agree. But if I could drive my Boxster year round I figure i'd have about 300,000 miles on it by now.

As long as you don't mind living inside a steam room for 6+ months per year.

Ask me how I know.

I've read that usually that will work, but sometimes the flat spot could be partially permanent, where it never returns 100% back to normal. Was I misinformed?

Air up the tires to 50 psi. and roll the P car a few inches every 4 to 5 months prevents flat spots

Totally unnecessary. We store several exotics for special customers, they are all put away freshly serviced and washed, tires at normal pressures, and sit all winter (sometimes for as much as 5 months for customers that spend the winter in warmer climes). They are not started, or moved, the entire time. In the spring, the tires recover in about 5 min driving. Permanent flat spotting is an "old wives"/internet myth......

If you get "permanent" flat spotting, it is because of crappy tires, not storage technique.

Rather than plugging a battery tender into the lighter socket, I open the frunk, attach the cables to the battery by running the wire through the windshield opening, then close the frunk. Place a towel underneath the wiring on the outside of the car to prevent abrasion. Then cover with a quality rain resistant cover. We had 2 inches of rain in NY today, and the rain beaded up and rolled of my California Car Cover.

Flat spotting is reality, can occur, and not an old wives tale.

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=42

Great Advice! Thank You

Great Tips folks I will try the advice listed.

In more than forty years of storing cars, I have NEVER encountered permanent flat spotting. Temporary, yes, permanent never. It is an old wives tale...………..unless you are running crap tires, as mentioned earlier.

Some moth balls or dryer sheets would be a good idea too since you're storing outside. Mice love the taste of wire insulation.

Flat spots can be permanent it doesn't matter the cost, type, of car you drive whether its 1 year or 140 years.

https://consumertire.com/blog/view/flat-spots-let-s-clear-up-some-myths-about-that

In the dozen years I've owned my '01 Box I've garaged it annually from late Nov/early Dec until late Mar/early Apr. No intermittent rolling the car, and no long term flat spotting issues. Ever.

I definitely have experienced flat spotting. Permanent? Well depends how long you want to spend ironing them out. The fronts are particularly sensitive after sitting a couple of couple weeks at regular tire pressures. Vibration can be felt through the wheel for quite some time after. What is this doing to your tires and steering linkage? Don't know, but I don't like it. Low profile 18>20s are particularly susceptible. What is the effect after 6 months sitting in one spot?

I still pump up to 50 psi all round for storage as was once recommended by Porsche. Not sure if that fell out of favour yet or this detracts from tire life. Way back, I also started rolling the car (or jacking) up on foam insulation pads (cut from sheets available at home depot and the like) such that it deforms rather than the tire. Later on I found out that this idea had come to others and been commercialized....

The 50 psi tire deforms the dense foam insulation and a moderate tire cradle effect is created. Something like carpet would not work. Every spring things are crystal smooth.

Overkill? Perhaps, but any vibrations coming up the through wheel is/are real feedback and my tires (street) tend to last until worn down to the bars. I am just really picky about front tire and steering feel and wish I could get more in this car. Perhaps this came from my motorcycle time....where spurious front wheel vibration is no bueno...

From the article you quoted, “ In some severe cases, the flat-spotting is permanent.”

Sounds to me like “the cost, type of car you drive whether its 1 year of 140 years” does matter according to the author of the article..............

Things change shape when you exceed the stress point of no return. Standing for months does not make the rubber bend past its point of no return. So if you say it developed a flat spot, what has happened? Has the rubber 'flowed' into this new shape ? If that is the case, then the flowing must have been caused by gravity of just the bending of rubber. If that was the case, I doubt that cars would get 1000 km per tire before being bent out of shape. Heaven help you of you hit a curb, it will put a permanent dent in the rubber ?

Can anyone produce some factual information on what may happen ?

I’m sure I cause far more flat spotting at autocross than sitting in my garage...and they are still fine.

https://consumertire.com/blog/view/flat-spots-let-s-clear-up-some-myths-about-that

Marsheng,
You should reply to the link in the posting as it clears up some myths about flat spots. T

I should have included the article, but it is anecdotal. Has the rubber "flowed" into this new shape ? Has it been bent past its yield point ? What has actually physically happened to the rubber. Can it flow like glass does over 50 years ?

The only time I have seen flat spotting is when the car has stood for many years and the rubber has perished and the tire is no longer usable.

I am being a bit provoking here so we think outside the square, but I'm happy to be educated with the physical parameters of what actually happens.

Well..sticking with the "outside the square" mentality, rubber IS an amorphous solid and therefore would (in theory) "flow" like glass....however modern tires are not primarily rubber (contains several other polymers) therefore I suppose the question then would be...would the total composition of a modern tire still be considered an amorphous solid, and if so, what properties does the new compound represent as compared to natural rubber?

My knee-jerk answer (based on no information whatsoever, lol) is that a modern tire would degrade in structure well before any actual transference of mass (ie permanent flat spot) would occur due to the compounded material and advancements in materials science...and additionally the competition between tire manufactures to create the "best" compounds.

As always, looking forward to being proven wrong. ;)

You look forward to proof that permanent flat spots are reality???
You must drive your car year round! :rolleyes:

Guys, I live in a seasonal environment, and have never owned fewer than 2 cars at a time in my life.... so parking a car for an extended period is just routine for me. That's been the case for my 30 + years of driving.

To date, I've NEVER experienced any "permanent" (nor even long-term) flat spots in my tires.

This is obviously not empirical data, but it represents a lot of f.h.e.

I guess I'm saying that someone would need to show me that flat-spotting is real.

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I agree, if any flowing occurred, tires would not last 50000 km or more than a few months.

I have a bike dyno and if I leave a bike tied tightly (with race slicks) to the frame over night , the next day the tire does have a flat spot. This takes just a few minutes to work out with no permanent damage.

Tires do contain oil which may be adding to the question on what happens.

See here https://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/hybrid-electric/a7593/the-science-behind-yokohamas-orange-oil-tires-8146348/

Either way, you may have sticky short life tires that may flat spot or long lasting car tire that last for years.