Storing Your Vehicle Outdoors

Published on 2021-06-14
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Must-Have Items When Storing Your Vehicle Outdoors

Water Valley Storage takes great care to protect and preserve your vehicle while you have it stored away. However, there are some things that can help ensure your vehicle remains in top-notch shape when you arrive to take it away. Here are some items we’ve decided are the best to consider when planning the storage of your vehicle. This list is by no means comprehensive, so if you have any questions, feel free to contact us here about how best to store your car or truck. 


Covers

First on our list is a must-have for any outdoor storage of any vehicle: a quality cover. These covers help save the vehicle's exterior from weather damage. The sun, rain, snow, hail, and even wind can take a toll on your vehicle over time. These covers add an extra layer of protection to ensure that your car or truck looks just as it did when you parked it in the first place. Price-wise you are looking at as low as around $30 to up to around $250. They vary in size and material types, so be sure to shop around and find the best fit and material for your car or truck. 


Trickle Charger

Next on our list is something that can really save you in the long run when it comes to your car or truck’s battery: a trickle charger. You may be asking yourself, why not just disconnect the battery? Well, while that does work in preserving your battery, it WILL reset all your vehicle’s presets. That means clock, radio, Bluetooth configurations, and anything that has a preset in your car or truck will be wiped. Connecting a trickle charger will keep the battery preserved while preserving your vehicle’s presets and settings at the same time. It’s a win-win! 


Tire Blocks or Jacks

This next one is a trick that not many think of: tire blocks and/or jacks. Parking your car or truck doesn’t mean there is no strain on it anymore. The parking brake itself is held in strain throughout the entire duration of storage. This will put significant wear on it. In order to preserve it, you can use tire blocks to keep your vehicle right where you left it without straining your brakes. You can go a step further than that even by jacking the car up. It may sound strange, but jacking your car up is a valuable strategy, in that it preserves the parking brake like the blocks would AND saves the tires from having to carry the weight of the vehicle throughout the storage time. HOWEVER, jacking the car up takes skill in placing the jacks in the correct place to carry the weight of the vehicle without damaging the undercarriage. Make sure to research your vehicle and place the jacks correctly. Visit this link for some tips!

Mouse Traps

Our final item is another one that many people fail to think of when parking their car or truck long-term, especially in outdoor storage space: mouse traps/poison. Believe it or not, rodents LOVE tight cozy places to crawl up into and build their nests. Nothing is better for those little guys than a vacant car that’s been there for a while. Placing traps and/or poison will help keep those critters away from your vehicle's undercarriage. It really is important to keep them out, as they can clog up air vents, chew up wiring, and even find themselves in the cab itself. There’s not much worse than coming back to your car or truck and opening the cab to find the sight and smell of a rodent paradise. 


And that’s it! Those are our first choices to consider when looking for that extra bit of protection for your vehicle while it’s stored here at Water Valley Storage. Again, this list is not comprehensive, so feel free to contact us here for more tips and tricks and information about our storage options.