What to do with tires when storing car for winter?

[Elf]

I will gladly buy you a beer Elf ... right or not and just for the halibut.... but have to know the details first.... Where is your uninsulated, unheated garage that never freezes.......

Since I had polar bear issues at home base I keep my car in Northern Maine which is often called the coldest place in the US .Often colder than the southern regions of Canada .
I will take undoctored photo of the garage floor surface plus the ground temp 6-12 inches under the floor slab .

 

[Rruuff Day]

Ahhhhh.... that explains it.... Not many people know this but Northern Maine sits on a huge subsurface volcanic plate-tectonic motion area. Heat from these plates conducts upward very slowly through your underlying bedrocks, so that this heat source within the earth is continuous through the cold winter months, and thus accommodates an equally consistent transfer and loss of heat through the surface, thus keeping your garage floor and the underlying soils from freezing.... ....

 

[Pep]

Ahhhhh.... that explains it.... Not many people know this but Northern Maine sits on a huge subsurface volcanic plate-tectonic motion area. Heat from these plates conducts upward very slowly through your underlying bedrocks, so that this heat source within the earth is continuous through the cold winter months, and thus accommodates an equally consistent transfer and loss of heat through the surface, thus keeping your garage floor and the underlying soils from freezing.... ....

You need to hand out shovels so we can dig our way out from under that load.

 

[Rruuff Day]

You need to hand out shovels so we can dig our way out from under that load.

That's CAEDT course training Randy.... (Cool Ad-lib Engineer Diversion Talk)...It's a skill that got me through my career.........

 

[YFCvii]

volcanic-gizmonic what ? - I'll oder up a truck load or two of that stuff to backfill my garage slab replacement if I get "heat" out of it?
... wonder if Radon has thermal properties that wont harm the Car (never mind the homeowner though)?
somebody is "soap boxing" this radon scare in Alberta now "in order to make a living" ...

As far as tires. I have not done much of anything special within my unheated garage (not too high on my bucket list to insulate and heat some day). I struggle to worry too much when I see Dealerships that keep Corvettes, ATS-V, CTS-V and Camaros with run flats outside.



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[Rruuff Day]

volcanic-gizmonic what ? - I'll oder up a truck load or two of that stuff to backfill my garage slab replacement if I get "heat" out of it?
... wonder if Radon has thermal properties that wont harm the Car (never mind the homeowner though)?
somebody is "soap boxing" this in Alberta now "in order to make a living" ...

I don't know about back filling your garage pad with it Spence but I've seen a number of post items you could grow a health crop of mushrooms in....

 

[Black 03 Z06]

Hey Spence if I told you once I told you a thousand times…just say something.

Congrats on a 1000.

 

[Keith Tedford]

I've been storing cars in the winter since 1972 with my COPO Chevelle with the old belted tires. They would flat spot from sitting but smoothed out pretty quickly once out driving in the spring. I've had no such problem with radial tires. I heat the garage in the fall and early spring when the cement floors sweat and the air is full of moisture to rust bare surfaces. A wax job and oil change last thing in the fall and all seems to stay well. I've put an awful lot of miles on my cars over the years doing nothing special with the tiress and have yet to have any major problems.

 

[Darren]

I'm in central Ontario, garage usually is around 0 in middle of winter.
Detached, insulated. I just upgraded the doors piping in gas line this week.
Will set temp at 8 to 10 degrees, do t see Amy issues forthcoming. I also have cement floor covered in a vinyl rubber mat. Stored hot rods and muscle cars for many years and no issues with (knock on wood) anything.

 

[ddgermann]

I'm in central Ontario, garage usually is around 0 in middle of winter.
Detached, insulated. I just upgraded the doors piping in gas line this week.
Will set temp at 8 to 10 degrees, do t see Amy issues forthcoming. I also have cement floor covered in a vinyl rubber mat. Stored hot rods and muscle cars for many years and no issues with (knock on wood) anything.

Sounds like a perfect set up Darren. The temperature is fine for the Michelin PSS and SC2 tires.

 

[Bixter44]

I've been storing cars in the winter since 1972 with my COPO Chevelle with the old belted tires. They would flat spot from sitting but smoothed out pretty quickly once out driving in the spring. I've had no such problem with radial tires. I heat the garage in the fall and early spring when the cement floors sweat and the air is full of moisture to rust bare surfaces. A wax job and oil change last thing in the fall and all seems to stay well. I've put an awful lot of miles on my cars over the years doing nothing special with the tiress and have yet to have any major problems.

Prairie winters have never bothered any of my cars during storage over the years. Tires are never an issue. Never did anything special with them. Nice to hear I am not the only one.

 

[Rruuff Day]

I keep my shop at 6 degrees C unless I'm tinkering in there.... Both the car and all my musical instruments never have a problem. I do also run two humidifiers though... the radiant heat is a bugger for drying out the air.... great for cars.... not so much for stringed wood instruments....

 

[Riley P]

Agreed Derek. Insulated and attached three sides and ceiling, it will never freeze..Especially if you run a bit of pipe and tee into a heat duct or two ...lol .. Last post I saw of Riley's garage was without insulation and not sure if it had more than one attached side. I assumed when he said the temp was already down to 34 F this year that it is still uninsulated. My previous house with a detached uninsulated garage only averaged about 10 degrees warmer than the outside air temp.... Of course pulling a diesel truck in every night with 14 litres of hot oil and 27 litres of hot antifreeze in it, and then plugging the block heater in probably accounts for a little too.... still use to be damn cold in there come morning.... lol.....

Garage is only attached to one side. Nothing above and not insulated in the roof either. Once the garage is insulated on all sides, I would expect it to remain much warmer than the outside ambient.

Once heated, the question is, what temperature to set it at for a vehicle used over winter? Below freezing? Just above freezing? Hot enough to melt snow and dry the slab?

 

[ddgermann]

Garage is only attached to one side. Nothing above and not insulated in the roof either. Once the garage is insulated on all sides, I would expect it to remain much warmer than the outside ambient.

Once heated, the question is, what temperature to set it at for a vehicle used over winter? Below freezing? Just above freezing? Hot enough to melt snow and dry the slab?

5 Celsius should be lots. The heating will only run on the really cold days. The trick I think is a heated floor with a fan moving the air around. Then we need not ever worry about the tire temperature during storage.
I had a nice detached garage years ago with floor heating. The skid steer sat in there all winter at 5 Celsius and was warm and dry every time I needed to use it to dig myself out of the yard. No Corvette back then... but it was a perfect garage for storing one.

 

[Rruuff Day]

Garage is only attached to one side. Nothing above and not insulated in the roof either. Once the garage is insulated on all sides, I would expect it to remain much warmer than the outside ambient.

Once heated, the question is, what temperature to set it at for a vehicle used over winter? Below freezing? Just above freezing? Hot enough to melt snow and dry the slab?

Yup. 5 degrees is about perfect Riley. If you are parking a winter use car, you will need a dehumidifier as well. You will be shocked at the humidity level in there with the melting snow if you don't. Hopefully you have a floor drain you can run the dehumidifier hose into... otherwise you will be emptying the tank at least daily....

 

[Pep]

I set mine to +5C as well. There are items I store in the garage I don't want to freeze like paint as an example.

 

[Darren]

A thought are you guys storing your cars with your daily drivers and having heat on at Any temp. If so that is a formula to activate the salt for corrosion on your drivers and salt in the air.
I would not do that and never have. If possible.
Took many years for the Wife to understand and agree. Now she cleans our cars off every morning. Ahh I just woke up I clean the cars off.

 

[Bixter44]

A thought are you guys storing your cars with your daily drivers and having heat on at Any temp. If so that is a formula to activate the salt for corrosion on your drivers and salt in the air.
I would not do that and never have. If possible.
Took many years for the Wife to understand and agree. Now she cleans our cars off every morning. Ahh I just woke up I clean the cars off.

Yup. I worry about temperature and salt all winter on our daily drivers. I keep them a long time and salt can spoil that plan. Our winters are getting too mild here in MB and we have a lot more slushy days just to help keep me awake at night listening to salt eat metal. Spending more time in car washes. Years ago a buddy of mine installed floor heat in his shop. That winter we watched his big 2 door Jimmy go from cool to crap in 4 months.

 

[ddgermann]

Kind of makes me feel ok having the H1 and Z06 sitting in the dark unheated garage all winter.......

 

[Bixter44]

Kind of makes me feel ok having the H1 and Z06 sitting in the dark unheated garage all winter.......

I have been storing a summer vehicle that way for 31 years. Been working fine. Mice is the only issue here on the prairies. The shop isn't completely mouse free. Never had any get in a vehicle. Caught them before they could I guess. Using a couple of bars of Irish Spring Soap in the Vette. Mice don't like the smell. Some swear by it. They never had mice trouble. First year for the Vette, have to try something. But had a guy tell a friend in Bismarck that he had a mouse take a dump on the bar of soap so he doesn't use them anymore. I don't like the smell of Fresh Cab in my car. OK for the motorhome. Some like dryer sheets but they need replaced every month. I'll will be checking the Vette once in a while.