[Advogado]

Originally Posted by Penguin

A battery tender is designed to maintain your battery. If you lose power the tender will also lose power but when power is restores the tender will continue to keep your battery at peak levels. Again the Battery Tender is DESIGNED to leave connected to your battery. Batteries go dead on newer vehicles when not in use because many of the systems need to stay powered up. When you drive your car for normal intervals, the battery stays charged. When you don't drive your car the systems slowly drain the battery thus the need to keep the battery charged. You do what you feel comfortable with but keeping your battery charged safely ( which the tender does ) Will save you time and money when it comes time to drive your stored vehicle.

In addition to inflated tires, gas stabilizer, and a battery tender. I recommend rat traps, baited with pecans (ants will find and eat the traditional peanut butter). I would also put out a couple of trays of rat poison as backup. This is because, unless your garage is virtually airtight, little critters (mice, rats, or chipmunks) can find a way in and totally destroy your wiring harness.

[FoPAA]

Originally Posted by Bogie Shooter

How to Store a Car: 15 Steps (with Pictures) - wikiHow

Very useful, thank you.

[mac9]

When we built here in2006, we brought a 96 honda accord with us. At that time we were snowflakes...6 weeks here, 2months back north, back here for 6 weeks, etc. Did it for 2 years. Left the accord here the whole time and never did anything special. Started up every time!

[jpflier]

Do not disconnect the battery. The ob computer will not like it & you will have problems. Of course, classic cars have no ob computers, so no big deal, but newer cars should not have batteries disconnected. Connect a trickle charger to the battery. Will not overcharge, chargers slow down and will not overcharge. As the battery discharges over time, the trickle charger will maintain the charge, and the life of the battery.

[CFrance]

As you can see, there are a variety of opinions here. I see sort of a connection... the people who had no problems leaving a car with battery either connected or disconnected are the ones with older cars--2006 and older. I think they have fewer electronics. We would go with the battery tender if we had to do it again with our 2011 model.

Also, when we left our cars in our garage up north for the winter, we always put mouse bait about in the garage, so the poster above makes a good point.

[Advogado]

Originally Posted by jpflier

Do not disconnect the battery. The ob computer will not like it & you will have problems. Of course, classic cars have no ob computers, so no big deal, but newer cars should not have batteries disconnected. Connect a trickle charger to the battery. Will not overcharge, chargers slow down and will not overcharge. As the battery discharges over time, the trickle charger will maintain the charge, and the life of the battery.

It is my understanding that you want a battery tender, not a trickle charger.

[chuckinca]

We leave a car in the garage in Fla for 4 months and one in Calif for 8 months - disconnect the batteries and put Stabil in the gas tank. Charge the battery overnight when we return and usually we are on the road. The tires are a little bumpy for a few miles but they recover quickly.

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