Winter Storage

Battery tender better than just disconnecting the battery if possible imo. Good wash, check fluids, check tire pressure, mothballs to keep the mice out 

Some change the oil before storage, some prefer to wait for Spring.

I assume you're storing the battery indoors in any event?

I throw Bounce dryer sheets around to discourage mice.  It worked in an RV I had years ago.  If concrete floor gets damp - its a good idea to raise tires off it.  

Hi!  I'm down near Worcester, Ma.  

I have found that mothballs are ineffective and then it takes a month or two to get the smell out.  "Bounce" dryer sheets placed here and there are supposed to work, by members of a local (Boston) PCA club, but I have no certainty on that.

Do try to get the wheels off the ground and the car on jackstands.  Some tire compounds have a memory and your tires might get a flat spot on the bottom.  Sometimes those will "drive out" in a few miles, sometimes not.

I leave my battery (an Odyssey 680) in the car but keep it on a battery minder all the time.  You can go nutty expensive for a trickle charger, or just get one of these at Walmart for $20 bucks: 

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Sch...ect-Charger/21642124

Typically, I wait until Spring for the oil change and I hardly ever start it during the winter unless outside temps are above 40ºF (I run 10W-40 oil).

I used to use Sta-Bil Gray in my gas, but have now switched to Star-Tron (available everywhere or at NAPA).  My motorcycle neighbor swears by Sta-Bil 360 ONLY (not the regular blue stuff) as it has something that reduces rusting in the tank.  Oh!  and completely fill the tank with treated fuel to prevent rusting in the air pocket.  Once you have treated the fuel in the tank, run the engine for ten minutes or so (or the trip home from the gas station) to run that treated fuel through the system and into the carbs - THAT's important!

That's about it.  Try to stay warm up there on Canada's front steps!

Gordon pretty much covered it except his geography is a bit off.  :-)  I'll meet you at  Becky's Diner next Spring and see how you did .  That's a darn nice Speedster you've got there, Scott. 

WOLFGANG posted:

I throw Bounce dryer sheets around to discourage mice.  It worked in an RV I had years ago.  If concrete floor gets damp - its a good idea to raise tires off it.  

I have heard of the Bounce dryer sheets but never sure if it's fact, urban legend .... or Bounce marketing 

+1 on adding your gas stabilizer/carb clearner (our motorcycle greatly prefers Seafoam), fill the tank with quality gas and drive home or let the car run to enable the Seafoam to reach the carbs.

I was kinda kidding about the moth balls .....

I actually did the mothballs one winter.  Took months to get the stink out and the mice built a frikin set of condominiums in my central tunnel!

Gordon Nichols posted:

I actually did the mothballs one winter.  Took months to get the stink out and the mice built a frikin set of condominiums in my central tunnel!

I has a running battle going with what I believe were muskrats or maybe fishers in my boathouse at the lake house. After trying everything, I hung some mothballs in a mesh bag on the wall....I came back and the animal had ripped the bag off the wall and crapped all over it in defiance 

I had a porcupine trying to eat my cabin from below and it only took one night of moth balls thrown under there for him to vacate. You're right though, we smelled moth balls in the cabin for weeks 

I use the Sta-Bil Marine 360 in every tank full all year long.  I've tried the Seafoam  and Star-Tron.  They all work but I buy the large Sat-Bil when it goes on sale at a marine store.

Battery Tender makes a kit for motorcycles and other recreational vehicles that don't get much use. It has a pig tail that you leave connected to the battery and you just unplug it and tuck the tail in next to the battery.  Very neat and easy.  I have 4 of them, boat, generator and 2 cars.  

Mouse proofing is a mystery of life.  I use drier sheets and peppermint oil and mouse traps and a ferret.  I don't know which thing is working the best , but the traps are empty and no problems yet. WTTM

Mouse proofing.   Empty 5 gallon bucket with a dowel across the top. slide a coke bottle over the dowel so it will spin. add peanut butter to the center of the coke bottle . put a few inches of water and anti freeze in the bucket. mouse will spin and fall into the bucket. DONE

Alan Merklin posted:

Mouse proofing.   Empty 5 gallon bucket with a dowel across the top. slide a coke bottle over the dowel so it will spin. add peanut butter to the center of the coke bottle . put a few inches of water and anti freeze in the bucket. mouse will spin and fall into the bucket. DONE

I've seen that catch dozens at a time in northern cabins left empty for long periods. Gross but effective.

mix some dry plaster of Paris into cornmeal, provide a nearby drinking source.  Pretty soon you'll have rocks!

Peppermint oil works, but needs to be refreshed every few weeks.

I prefer the old bucket trap.    Fill a bucket with about 4-5 inches of water.   get a stick long enough to make a ramp the mice can walk up.   Let the end hover over the middle of the bucket and dangle a bottle cap full of peanut butter about 5 inches from the stick using fishing line.

The only thing you have to do is fish out the dead rodents and replace the peanut butter once a month.

Set it up near your car.  They will never have time to nest.

edit:  lots of people use the bucket trap, LOL!

Do the bucket it's proven no mess, smell etc.

The bucket trap makes me sad for the mice. 

I've been lucky so far: none have yet bothered the car(s). I guess if they did I'd consider getting a bucket.

When those rodents, (not on the endangered species list) , chew a hole in your sail or your car canvas,  you get enraged and become a serial killer.  Compassion becomes the farthest thing from your mind.  I flip 'em out in the road and the crows eat them. 

I like crows. They don't eat sails.

Thank you everyone! I never gave the rodent issue any thought nor have I seen mice or evidence  mice in the garage, but will defiantly look into this. 

Thanks!

SCM posted:

Thank you everyone! I never gave the rodent issue any thought nor have I seen mice or evidence  mice in the garage, but will defiantly look into this. 

Thanks!

Park it and they will come!

Odd. I've had mice establish outposts in two Mercedes, but never in the Speedster. Fortunately no gnawing of electrical wires.

I set old fashioned traps and eliminated the infestations.

No regrets.

Down in South Carolina, we didn't have any mouse trouble - I had more trouble with lizards - little green buggers, like geckos, and then these big gray/brown dudes, Skinks, I think, up to 15" - 16" long.  Those guys just hung out in the garage, not in the car, but were disconcerting when I saw them scurrying off.  Or, they would come over to "visit" when I was under the car on a creeper.  Just curious, but BIG.

And, of course, there were the bugs - Lots of bugs.  They have cockroaches up to a couple of inches long but they don't want tourists to think they have cockroaches, so they call them "Palmetto Bugs" (which is actually the "American Cockroach").  

BS.......They're STILL cockroaches.  Really BIG cockroaches.

 The Jack Russells would play with them.

I laughed recently when all the Iguanas started falling out of trees in South Florida due to cold.  Apparently when temps hit 50 degrees being cold blooded they get sluggish and at 40 or so just go to sleep.  Apparently they were everywhere on the ground.  No "taste like chicken specials" at the Kentucky Colonel's though.  I doubt the cold slowed down spread of boa constrictors and mosquitoes breeding.

Gordon Nichols posted:

Down in South Carolina . . .they have cockroaches up to a couple of inches long but they don't want tourists to think they have cockroaches, so they call them "Palmetto Bugs" (which is actually the "American Cockroach").  

BS.......They're STILL cockroaches.  Really BIG cockroaches.

Ha, big is an under statement!! 

I will never forget the 1st time we saw one of these while renting a beach house near Charleston, SC.  While sitting at the dinner table one evening one of them went running up and across the wall beside me.  It scared the #%&#@% hell out of us.

Yeah, and the worst part is that they fly.  Friggin' things need navigation lights on 'em!

Just need some carbs to balance out the protein .... crunch, squish, squirt....tastes like chicken....

Lived in Orlando for 5 years. I hated those giant flying roaches.

Sorry about the thread drift, but may I interrupt this discussion of mice and palmetto bugs with a diversion about winter storing a Speedster?

I've had one of those old school battery 'trickle' chargers for years and recently hauled it out again.

My battery has been cranking just fine, but, at almost five years old, it's probably nearing end of life. If I don't start the car for two weeks or so in the winter, I like to top up the charge.

This time, the ammeter on the charger was acting a little wonky, not telling me too much about charge rate, so I started thinking about one of those new-fangled 'smart' chargers that delivers a programmed charge and also runs tests as it does so to tell you how well your battery is taking and holding a charge.

Some research led me to this one, and praise Amazon, two days later, there it was in my garage.

Long story slightly less long, it seems to do all that it claims, and gives you a much better idea of just how healthy your battery is than those old school antique chargers. It's also said to be able to bring back some batteries from the near-dead, thanks to a special cycle that reverses plate sulphation. And, being smart, it can be left hooked up for months at a time, testing the battery periodically, shutting itself off when not needed, and back on again when the battery voltage dips.

It was 65 bucks, which is more than 20 bucks, but hey, it lights up with three different colored LED's, and THAT's got to be worth something, right?

Cool tools: big boy toys. 

 I bought a Car Capsule for storing our Speedster. They came out with a pretty cool battery charger a month or so ago. It's not only a smart charger for the battery, but it also hooks up to the fan that keeps the capsule inflated.

 If you have a power outage, the charger automatically flips over from AC to DC power to power the fan. If will run off the car battery until the battery's voltage drops to 12.2 volts, at which time it will shut off to keep from damaging the battery.

 I have a couple of deep cycle batteries off of my boat that I may parallel with the Speedster battery so as to not only keep all three batteries topped up, but to lengthen the time the fan will be able to run in a prolonged power outage. 

Very slick.

Sacti thanks for this.

That is cool I have a Car capsule but never got to use it after insulating the garage as I keep doing stuff on the car. The new feature would be real cool for temporary power outage.

I am going to heat my garage all year round soon so I might sell it

i run the CTEK 4.3 as well I am in the process of installing the eyelets on the battery to be able to plug and un plug at will.

I usually work on my car over the winter so the capsule thing is a no-go. I do have a few battery tenders, one each for the BMW R100, Spyder, and zero-turn mower. These are called float chargers because they don't trickle, they charge, monitor, then float waiting for the voltage to drop a sufficient level to re-charge again. A constant trickle is actually not good for your battery.

You don't have to spend $65. I bought one at Walmart for $25, and another at Harbor Freight for $15. I also got one at Lowe's for $20. Be aware that different brands may have different polarity on the little pigtail, so if you need multiples, I'd recommend the same brand.

I do have the one for the Spyder hanging from the ceiling and the pigtail going under the dash to the fusebox area. I can move the car 6 feet or so either way without unplugging.