Winter Storage Questions

wow, what kind of truck?


i've never heard of that happening before. i lived in NH one year and i had 4 cars all parked in either an unheated garage or just outside. i remember there was one week or two where we had temps often down to -15 F.

 

Michael,
Pure anti-freeze is almost as bad as pure water! It's counter-intuitive, but the freezing point of a mixture is significantly better than either alone(see graph below)! Most anti-freeze containers just show the freezing point for mixes up to 60% ethylene glycol. The container graphs or tables misslead people to erroneously assume that the freezing point either continues to drop, or stays at the low point for higher concentrations.

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Why not get one of those tools that tells you what temp your anti-freeze will do?

They're like $3 at Wally world, right?

 

I wrote this many moons ago, and it continues to be the advice I always give.

>Then, always, and I mean always, use a battery tender. The "Battery Tender" by Deltran, and sometimes marketed under other names, is intended exactly for this purpose -- to maintain the battery. I've used one on my motorcycles for several years, and my cars as well with no problems. More info can be found here: http://www.batterytender.com/ If you're going to park it for more than a day or two, just plug in the charger and voila.

It comes with two methods of attachment to your battery -- regular alligator clamps (like on jumper cables), or a connector where the ends terminate in metal o-rings (like a washer). Each method connects to the charger through a little plug-together connector. The o-ring connectors, intended for semi-permanent mounting, slip right through the bolts used to attach your terminals to your battery. Then simply tie down the length of the wire, until you have only the other connector poking out into the trunk. Thus, when you're in the garage, pop the lid, snap the two connectors together, and voila!

For my 355, I wired it up to the jump terminals out back, next to the engine, and connect it to the charger right there.

Another "clean" method of attaching a battery tender is to go to Radio Shack and buy a cigarette lighter adapter with a 9 foot cord attached. Then wire this into the "hard wire" connector kit, by removing the o-ring connectors and splicing in the cigarette adapter instead [note, you may be able to buy one directly from shops that carry Deltran products now]. No having to pop the hood anymore, just remove cigarette lighter and plug in, provided that the cigarette lighter is POWERED when the key is off (don't recall if that is so on the 328).

Alternatively, one can get a charger that attaches, piggyback style, to the battery (the most popular is manu. by Schumacher, and sometimes marketed as a "factory" charger, e.g. Ferrari); the 120v plug is located inside the car; you just have to connect an extension cord when needed.

Why do I consider the Deltran method better? Well, I'm presuming that the Schumacher is also a computer controlled charger like the Deltran. The primary advantage, in my mind, is that you don't have the charger sitting in the car -- only the wiring. Thus, (a) it's lighter, (b) you can use one charger for more than one vehicle if you alternate, (c) the wire coming out of the trunk is thinner and you can in fact close the lid with the wire dangling out, if you wanted to do so, you can put the cover over the car, (d) I guess if the car gets stolen, you didn't lose the charger as well, (e) if the circuit breaker (or whatever) inside the Schumacher fails, it melts INSIDE the car, right next to your battery; I'd prefer to have the thing melt down outside my car, not in it!!, and (f), the Deltran is only $30 or $40 on Amazon, versus the $700 the dealer wants for the Schumacher.

Vty,

--Dennis