Question about stored vehicles

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I've heard of people parking their stored vehicles on pieces of wood or other materials. Something about separating the tire and concrete. Can anyone explain this? Is it for real? Preserve the tires?
 
It doesn't seem like that would do much, why would wood be a better surface than concrete? Much better to block up the car so the tires aren't touching the ground at all so they can't get a flat spot or collapse if (when) the air leaks out.

After years of storage you'll need new tires in any case. Maybe remove them and use on a different car.
 
There are a lot of storage myths out there. This is one of them.

Some myths are actually harmful (Lift up you car and put it up on jacks stands to "take weight off the suspension").
Some are simply useless. Parking on wood wont hurt anything, other than wasting a piece of wood.
 
Exactly! You can always hear some real whoppers from the Internet.

A good friend of mine ruined parts on a beautiful 85 RX-7 by improperly jacking it up and allowing the pieces to sack down.
 
Well I heard this years ago and have known a lot of people do it. I'm just storing my Harley in my unheated but insulated garage for the winter. Something about the moisture/dampness of the concrete is not good for tires?
Must be an old wives tale.
 
This is the 40th winter that I am storing the Firebied(currently 45,000 miles) in my signature. The car is only on its 3rd set of tires and these current tires were installed in 2013 & have little wear thus far with only about 5k-6k miles on them. I've never had issues with tires parking in my garage(concrete floor).

Originally in 1980, this Bird came with OE, UNIROYL Steel Belted Radial (JUNK)
Then(can't remember what year) I put on Good/Year Eagle GT (a little better JUNK)
In 2013, I put on Firehawk INDY 500 (NICE tires)
 
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Never heard of parking on wood. I've always parked the MG on the garage floor, and the tires on it are 16 years old now. Still in good shape, and never a problem. I've pumped the tires up to the 44 PSI maximum instead of the recommended 26 and 30 for storing over the winter, but I can't tell that it makes any difference; the tires don't seem to get flat spots if I leave them at the recommended pressures. It sat for 18 years before I got it and the tires were way flat, but they were also dry rotted from age.
 
Do not put the car on jack stands with the suspension hanging. It will wreck the rubber bushings in the suspension. They aren't meant to be in that state.

I store a car every winter and actually use a separate set of crappy steel wheels and tires to store it. My good wheels/tires get taken off, cleaned and stored inside.
 
The problem with winter storage on concrete has nothing to do with tires. But moisture will waft up though the concrete and can cause some corrosion on the metal underbody bits. To avoid this, simply park on a large sheet of heavy-duty plastic film.

And agree with others: do not raise wheels off floor.
 
I have found parking my motorcycle on either a piece of carpet or wood when on a concrete floor helps with moisture issues. I did this due to finding my bike one day completely wet from moisture coming directly up from the concrete in a storage unit. After putting the bike on a thick piece of carpet also on top of a sheet of plywood and this has never happened to me again.
 
Unpainted concrete does allow moisture through it, which is not good for tires or chassy, . Like wise a battery should be stored on an insulator. These are not old stories.
 
Originally Posted by Eddie
Unpainted concrete does allow moisture through it, which is not good for tires or chassy, . Like wise a battery should be stored on an insulator. These are not old stories.

Agree
 
Originally Posted by kschachn
Yes it is an old story and hasn't applied to batteries for many, many years. No more ion transport through plastic cases.



Yes, plastic is the key here...
 
And don't forget about flatspotting tires.

Resting a car's weight on the tires for a long period of time will flatspot them - and leave the weight on long enough and the flatspots will be permanent!

There are 3 solutions:

1) Jack the car up in the air. As has been pointed out, this might damage the suspension bushings.

2) Move the vehicle periodically ( - say monthly.) A foot forward will do.

3) Overinflate the tires. Vehicle manufacturers will inflate the tires to as high as 60 psi to prevent flatspotting. Just don't forget to reduce the pressure before returning the car to service.
 
Originally Posted by CapriRacer

3) Overinflate the tires. Vehicle manufacturers will inflate the tires to as high as 60 psi to prevent flatspotting. Just don't forget to reduce the pressure before returning the car to service.


Best solution! Also the car can be driven/ rolled out if the garage catches fire.

I also like the idea of the junk tires/ rims so long as the car can be lifted without wearing out the pinch welds, lug studs, etc.
 
I've stored my previous Firebird and my current Camaro for the winter on concrete floors for months at a time without being started/driven/etc. and never had an issue with the tires. I overinflate them 5-10 PSI to try to help a bit. When I bought my Camaro a little over a year ago, it had tires on it from 2000-2001! Goodyear Eagle F1 performance tires. Hard and dry rotted, but no issues with flat spotting and it was stored by the previous owner for even longer periods of time without being driven but maybe a couple times a year. I replaced them shortly thereafter with some General GMAX all-seasons and had no issues with storing those, either. The Firebird I used to have had taller tires and again, no issues with those. BF Goodrich Traction T/A on that car on 16" wheels and I currently have lower profile tires on 18" wheels on the Camaro. These are pretty heavy cars, too.
 
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