Trailering the car

[SethWillits]

I'm about ready to jump into throwing the car into a trailer and storing it off-site, but this brings up two questions I'm hoping some trailer folks in the same situation can answer:

 

1) What do you do to keep the battery from dying? The car has a power shutoff switch, so I can disconnect the battery from anything, but short of running the car often enough to charge the battery, what do you do so it's not DOA at the track?

 

2) How often do you fire up the car just to let it run? With it no longer being street legal and not being in the garage, I wouldn't be able to drive it around the block or even just fire it up and let it run. So, needing to make a trip to the storage facility, and open the trailer to fire the car up there, how often would you do so? Once a month?

[mbuskuhl]

Get a trickle charger and start it every month or so. Don't store it on race tires.

[bulletpruf]

I'm about ready to jump into throwing the car into a trailer and storing it off-site, but this brings up two questions I'm hoping some trailer folks in the same situation can answer:

 

1) What do you do to keep the battery from dying? The car has a power shutoff switch, so I can disconnect the battery from anything, but short of running the car often enough to charge the battery, what do you do so it's not DOA at the track?

 

2) How often do you fire up the car just to let it run? With it no longer being street legal and not being in the garage, I wouldn't be able to drive it around the block or even just fire it up and let it run. So, needing to make a trip to the storage facility, and open the trailer to fire the car up there, how often would you do so? Once a month?

 

A trickle charger would work if you have power. If you don't have power, and your battery is good, you should be able to start it up once a month with no problems. Once you get to the track and get it started there, you should be good to go.

 

You could also pull the battery out, bring it home and put it on a trickle charger and then bring it with you every time you need to start the car, but I don't think that's necessary.

 

If you have a full exhaust system with mufflers, I'd ensure you run it long enough to get the condensation out of the exhaust system. Otherwise, it will rust pretty quickly.

 

Also put some fuel stabilizer in the tank.

 

Scott

[T&A Racing]

If you live where it gets below freezing make sure to add antifreeze but remove it before the first event.

[Balroks]

If it's being stored for several months (more then 4) i'd do antifreeze anyway for the anti-rust properties. But in CA ya'll don't have much moisture do ya

[Cobra4B]

I would pull the battery and keep it at home on a trickle charger. No need to start the car if you store it properly. Coming from Corvette background I've read plenty of waxer treads on the Corvetteforum about OCD people stressing about the perfect way to store their cars The consensus is that it's better to store the car and let it sit vs. starting it once a week/month etc. Unless you take it out and get it 100% up to temp to burn any condensation out of the oil you're not doing anything helpful.

 

I would do the following (for storage over 4-5 months):

 

1. Put on crappy spare wheels/tires

 

2. Change the oil

 

3. Top off the gas tank and add stabil

 

4. Keep the battery at home on a charger

 

But where I live we don't get much downtime. Was just at Road Atlanta this past weekend and the first event of the 2012 Mid-Atlantic season at VIR is only about 2 months away!

[SethWillits]

If you have a full exhaust system with mufflers, I'd ensure you run it long enough to get the condensation out of the exhaust system. Otherwise, it will rust pretty quickly.

 

Yeah, found that out the hard way after the long engine rebuild. It spewed smoke for quite a while. Maybe that's why the cat decided to fall apart internally and block most of the airflow recently.

 

 

I would pull the battery and keep it at home on a trickle charger. No need to start the car if you store it properly.

 

I think that's going to be my plan for the battery...

 

 

Unless you take it out and get it 100% up to temp to burn any condensation out of the oil you're not doing anything helpful.

 

... and my plan for this is, hopefully I'll be running every event next year. I'll just have to wait 4 months until the first official one. I may not last that long. It's already been two years since I was on track? Good grief.