Storing a 1st gen tundra for winter

Hi folks
I wanted to get some opinions on weather storing my tundra for the 5-6 winter months season is a good idea or not. It’s a 2003, has a newish paint job and just had the frame descaled and undercoated with NH oil. I wanted to preserve the way it looks outside and underneath as long as possible and that’s why I’m thinking about this. I know I have plenty of time left to decide but I wanted to hear tips and opinions on how I should go about doing this. I read comments on another forum to try and let it run every couple weeks while others have said just fill the tank, disconnect the battery and forget it for 6 months. Others have said it’s completely a bad idea, vehicles need to be driven. I have never stored a vehicle for this long before and would love to hear how I should go about doing this.

 

I've had situations where I've had to let a vehicle sit for 4 to 5 months. Definitely disconnect the battery. Don't fill the tank before letting it sit, gas gets old (3 to 6 month shelf life). I would let the truck be almost empty and then let it sit, and when you start it back up then drive to the gas station and put fresh new gas in your tank.

Obviously, with your new paint job, you probably want to store your truck in a garage.

 

If you're a believer in that stuff, buy some Stabil or fuel treatment if you're in an area with ethanol in your gasoline, or make your last fill-up ethanol-free.

 

Your biggest concerns will be power, fuel, and more than anything else, rodents.

Power is easy enough, remove the negative battery cable. Fuel is easy enough, get the tank down to 1/4 of non-ethanol gas specifically (hunt, you can find some) and apply overwinter additive that's safe for rubber and seals, give it time to mix, then idle for 10 mins to get it worked into the system.

Rodents ... that's the bitch right there. I see you have the Limited package, and it looks like an AC Limited from your avatar. I want to say all the Limited package trucks were V8, which means you're susceptible to rodents nesting under the intake manifold. On the plus side, you don't have SAIP under the intake because that year wasn't VVTi. On the downside, the starter and knock sensors are still under there and rodents would damage them, AND you need to replace your manifold gaskets if you pop the intake off. I'd make an effort to plug it up if you intend to leave the truck in a barn, outdoors, or otherwise.

Likewise, rodents love nesting on top of the gas tank because it's nice and flat with cover, and plenty of wire casings to chew on, and in air ducts, specifically, the air intake box (which exits to the fender, behind the passenger headlight and has plenty of fluffy nesting material in the filter), and they can also get in through the fresh air intake inside the cowl, just above the blower motor.

Just remember to unplug the gap before starting up. And expect the truck to run a little rough when you re-start because it'll be re-learning after being off-battery for more than 10min.

 

What if I filled it with ethanol free gas and made the commitment to start it and let it run for like 10 minutes, maybe once every 3-4 weeks. Is there any advantage to doing that?

 

What about run it weekly or when the winter weather allows, are there any clear days? I really don't know if your winter is snow and salt for continuous months. I've always lived in the west. No snow or salt.

 

I live in New England. The salt belt. If there were no salt in the winter and just snow I probably wouldn’t store it.

 

Some will jack the truck up and put it on jackstands to keep the tires from flat-spotting. As you said, vehicles like to be run, and driven. Keeps everything lubed up.

 

Could you at least drive it down the block without getting it salty or no? Starting it is good, but moving it a little seems better.

 

Running it for 10 minutes every few weeks is terrible for the engine. The oil never gets up to temperature to boil off the moisture that builds up at cold start.
In cold climates the reason for filling the tank with fuel is to remove ambient air from the tank. Ambient air contains moisture which can condense on the inside of the tank, either causing rust or being absorbed by ethanol fuel. (Ethanol is hydroscopic -- meaning it absorbs water). Best case scenario is to fill the tank with treated ethanol-free fuel. The second best scenario is to fill the tank with treated ethanol fuel.

And as to the duration it will be stored: depending on where you are, it shouldn't be that long. I live in Southern Maine, and we never get snow in November, and the first half of December is even getting questionable. On the other end, an early March storm is pretty common, but by mid-March you're pretty clear. So mid-December to mid-March is only 3 months.

My recommendation: when the first snow is in the forecast, take the truck out for a good 30 minute drive, then stop at a gas station, add stabilizer, fill the tank, drive home and park it. Remove the battery, put it in the basement, and try to remember to put it on a charger once a month. I've been doing this for decades with motorcycles.

 

Park it and don't start it. Find a gas station that sells a bunch of ethanol free gas and try to fill up soon after the station gets their tanks filled. EFG has a shelf life too and if you're buying old EFG that's been in the station tank for a few months you're no further ahead.

Wash and wax, do a fresh oil change, pump the tires to max pressure listed on the sidewall, rodent proof with peppermint oil, yank the battery and clean it before storing it in a warm, dry place. Trickle charge monthly and look forward to spring.

I store a car by doing the above for 7 months every year when I go south.

 

how do you rodent proof it with peppermint oil? Instructions please.

 

I used to do this with trucks when I lived in the NE, with mixed results. I had rodent-free storage, so didn't encounter that issue, but in the spring I always seemed to have a list of things to fix. From memory, some included exhaust replacement, brake replacement, and fuel line replacement. This was before ethanol mix. I'm now in the SE, and store a class-c RV for months at a time (outdoors, under rodent-threat). I've had good luck with stabilized fuel, 3/4+ tank, and regular running. My advice is to stabilize your fuel, add a trickle charger, and aim to drive that truck at highway speed once per month. You've already treated the frame, so you should be pretty safe if you grab an opportune day (dry, when the salt isn't spraying everywhere). Then hose off the underside when you can, and try to store it cold (rather than a heated garage).

 

Drill a hole in a pill bottle cap. I know 1/8 works but if you can open the hood more often than 7 months, try 1/4" hole. This allows a steady odor of peppermint oil evaporation from the pill bottle. I only filled mine 1/4 full and did multiple bottles throughout the underhood, under car, floormat and trunk. The more under the hood the better. Place the oil filled pill bottles in various places by wedging against a hose, zipp tying to something place it somewhere it isn't going to fall over and spill. I took a small plywood scrap about 4x6" and with a holesaw drilled a bottle sized hole to give the bottle stability and placed it where my battery was.

 

Whether peppermint oil is truly effective or not is a contested thing, but you can buy pellets and other crap online that purport to work, and some folks swear by those. That said, there are ample products on the market to dissuade rodents, from the classic mothballs, to various herbal sprays and packets. My folks are boxed on all sides by hundreds of acres of rotating feed corn/peanut crops in AL, and I can ask what Dad used when he found rodents had gotten into his 2.5 gen.

Great time to plug this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvS_D4_lF5U​

 

Oh, CR has some tips for this issue also. With a video to cover more.

https://www.consumerreports.org/car...to-protect-your-car-from-rodents-a5816950285/
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Their article is interesting because it covers a lot about how to disinterest them from the area around the vehicle so they shouldn't be near it, finding refuge in the first place.