Any issues with leaving a car on jacks for a long period of time?

I have never heard about storing tires inside for the winter. Is that even necessary?

 

There is no problem with your plan, just place the jacks where the suspension is compressed as if its on the ground and it can sit there all winter.

 

Reminds me when we would jack up someone's car and place a block under the suspension,leaving one drive wheel a little off the ground.

 

seems to me that you would want to leave the suspension just hang or almost to the bottom if you're worried about it. Taking the weight off of the springs will increase their lifespan.

As cars age the springs get weaker taking the weight off for a couple months can only help.

And yes you're supposed to store your racing tires indoors and even put them in a plastic bag to keep atmosphere away. Personally I don't believe it. My friend went to Road Atlanta last weekend and his racing budget was low. I said I have some old tires lying around I don't want to use them because they're 4 years old. He said he'd love to have them for practice and save his good tires for the race. Well, he ran his best lap of the weekend on those 4 year old tires.

 

If you don't already have them you might want to pick up a couple pairs of jack stands. They are not to expensive. I would not leave the the car on jacks it could be an accident waiting to happen.

 

The best thing is just leave it on the ground with the wheels on.

Jacking for a long time is bad,..for a few reasons.

Primarilly it is bad for the bushings (depending on the type). Most cars have rubber bushings in the control arms. They don't have bearings in them,..they actually get twisted when the control arm is moved up or down,..and their "natural" state is in the middle. If you have ever done suspension bushings,..the directions would have said not to torque the bushing bolts until the car is back on the ground and at it's normal resting state.


Another reason is because the suspension hangs on the shocks when the car is jacked up. And not just hanging,...it's fighting the spring too. This isn;t usually an issue for the shocks or struts,..but it cancan be for strut top-hats if they have rubber or poly bushings in them. The bushngs in them are stretched when the car is jacked.

Depends on the suspension type. If you car uses bearings or heim jionts inthe control arms,..and shocks with metaql bearings in them,..then letting the suspension hang is fine. but most street cars have rubber bushings in them.

I have seen places use a small A frame with casters at the bottom that bolted up to the cars hubs. This way the car sits on its' suspension normally,..and the car can even be moved around a bit.

But modern tires don't have the same issues that the old bias-ply tires did. Rarely is there anything wrong with just parking the car.

 

We did that one to a guy and it got pretty ugly. When he climbed in his pickup after work he put it in drive and tried to pull away and could not figure why it was not rolling and revved it to the moon. Then, assuming it was in neutral, moved the shifter all around hitting reverse a time or two while the wheels were still spinning forward. bzzzzzzzzzzzz. It was funny for a minute, but we became fearful he would tear something up, or knock it off the blocks. The driver was thrilled of course, although our turning the radio, wipers and heater fan all on full power might have been a bit much and added to his confusion for a moment.