So after having my truck for a little over a month I got a contract date with a cruise line that starts on the 1st of august and will go to april of next year.

I will be tooling around western Europe and my truck will stored at my parents house. How can I properly store the truck to ensure when I get back to it it will fire up and be driveable.

I know the basics, stabil in the tanks, Battery tender on the battery. but after that im kinda lost.

Any suggestions on how to keep it up to shape? Tires are not important this time around they are gunna get replace when I get home.

the truck is a 92 f250 460 5speed 4x4

thanks

 

Sounds like you have the basic stuff covered. Other than jack it up & put it on Jack Stands & cover the tires that is about all I would do. As for the StaBil I would add plentyto both tanks & run your truck with it in the tank so that it gets into the fuel rails & injectors etc.
I have left vehicles set for months with just adding StaBil & taking the battery out or disconnecting it.
One thing I do also is I run a half a quart of Lucas, Power Punch, or Morrey's oil stabilizer, when I change my oil. by doing that it coats all the bearing & gear surfaces so after sitting the film of stabilizer protects wear surfaces when I start the vehicle. Have fun cruising the seas, sounds like a neat deal to me. Have fun & see you when you return.
Craig

 

I'd probably disconnect the battery entirely instead of a charger. Make sure your tank is completely filled up; a full tank plus stabilizer should keep it happy. Some people say you should put it up on blocks, it certainly wouldn't hurt anything.

Besides that, I'd probably change the oil when you return regardless of the miles, but that should be it. 8 months isn't that long of a time really.

 

you could bring it to my house and I would drive it a couple times a week...problem solved!!

 

I stored vehicles about every way imaginable when I was in the Navy, from paid storage to parking it in my LPO's back yard.

The best way since you are going to leave it at your parents' house, would be to have them drive it, and get it up to operating temperature, a couple of times a month.

With todays water attracting fuel that doesn't burn well new, excuse me, environmentally friendly ethanol blend; I'm not sure I would leave a full tank to go bad.

Robert

 

I think you have the best idea.
But I will say I have left this modern crap gas for up to a year with StaBil in it & it was fine. But I add more than called for. StaBil is cheap compared to gas. IE: large bottle of StaBil $12, 5 gallons of gas $16 here in Arizona. There is enough StaBil in a large bottle to generously treat many 5 gallon cans.

Craig

 

I have read somewhere that the red sta bil doesnt work so well on the ethanol fuel. They make a green version now.

 

I use the RED still & haven't had an trouble yet. I have been using it for years now 10+ with no issues.
Heck once I mixed some 2 cycle gas for my weed eater & just the mixture of the 2 cycle oil & gas lasted for 3+ years & still worked fine in my Homelite weed eater. So I don't know.
They probably want you to use the green so the alcohol doesn't evaporate. Alcohol just evaporates leaving the gas.
Just my thinking.

Craig

 

Another vote for driving it a couple times a month. Seals harden and it's especially bad on rubber parts like your belt and tires (though you don't care about that). I'd change the oil with something really cheap, used oil is acidic and could cause corrosion. Change it back to your normal stuff when you get back.

 

Nothing beats using a vehicle vs sitting. A lot of issues I have with my Ford F150 is do to little use & a lot of sitting. I went through that also with our Honda when my mom first gave it to my wife. It had sat way more than it had been driven in the two years before we got it. After getting all the stuff fixed it has run 75,000 miles with mainly just maintenance.
Craig

 

when I have been gone for long periods of time in the past, I've always given my vehicles to people I trust to keep them in use. short of a catastrophic accident or massive neglect, there is NOTHING worse for a vehicle than sitting.

 

I got a tip from an old timer when I went to put my Fairlane into winter storage in a barn about 10 years ago. Put a bar of Irish Spring soap on a plate and place it on the floor to keep rodents out. I never once had a rat or mouse invade my car and they were around. I'm not sure why it works, but that was a big problem in the past for me, and the soap cured it.

 

In Minnesota driving it in the winter is way worse than letting it sit. A few months of inactivity isn't that big of a deal compared to road salt. So I've stored vehicles quite a bit.

The second worst thing (after road salt) is starting it and running it for a short time every couple of weeks. If you start it, you need to really get it up to operating temperature. I know, everyone that suggested running it periodically did say to get it warmed up, so I'm not saying they're wrong. Just that it's hard to make yourself sit there and let it idle long enough to really get everything warmed up. But if you don't you'll end up with water condensing in your oil and your exhaust system, both of which will cause more problems than running it will solve. That, along withthe fact that it's dangerous to run a vehicle in a closed area (carbon monoxide), lead me to not bother with starting stored vehicles, especially if they aren't being stored all that long (like 6 months over a winter, and 8 months isn't that much longer).

Changing the oil (as mentioned) is important. But if you put good oil in when you do you don't really need to change it again when you take it out of storage.

Sta-Bil in the gas is a good idea. I've always used the red stuff and have never had any issues, but then again I've skipped it entirely quite a few times and never had issues with that either. However gasoline evaporates faster at higher temperatures, so winter storage in Minnesota is probably easier on fuel than summer storage in Arizona for instance. If you do use Sta-Bil (and I'd suggest it), as already said, mix it with the fuel and then run the engine long enough to get ith pulled through the entire fuel system. Also I've generally heard that a full tank of gas degrades slower than a partly full tank, so I usually try to leave the tank full, but as noted, that does mean you are risking a larger quality of gas to get rid of and replace if it does go bad.

Disconnecting the battery is a good idea, but with my Bronco I've quit doing that. I have an Optima and I haven't been getting any corrosion on the terminals and it still has plenty of charge to start the engine in the spring, so I don't bother. But I'd definitely disconnect the battery rather than put it on a charger.

Getting it up off the tires isn't a bad idea (I know, you said you're replacing the tires soon, but in general...). But I've never bothered except with my Model A which had really crappy tires. Newer tires seem to hold up fine.

Storing out of the sun is a really good idea. I'm not sure I'd cover it with a tarp though, too likely to beat up the paint if there's wind. Somewhere in the shade would be better than a tarp, but watch out for sap and/or branches falling out of trees. In a garage is best if you can swing it, but in a Minnesota winter it might not be great to have the stored vehicle share a garage with a daily driver that's going to be dripping salty water on the garage floor, especially if the garage is heated. I do store my Bronco next to my wife's car, but that's not ideal.

A big caution on this next suggestion. I've never stored "modern" vehicles and I don't know how this might affect sensors or catalytic converters. But "fogging" an engine can help prevent rust in the cylinder bores. You can get fogging oil in an aerosol can at boat dealers, but I've used 2 cycle motor oil (usually marine) mixed 50/50 with gas. Spray it in the air intake with the engine running until you get smoke out of the exhaust, then shut it down right away, before it has a chance to start clearing itself. But again, I don't know whether this will wreck your O2, MAF or whatever else sensors or whether it will clog up your cat.

Edit: Oh, and mice. I hadn't heard the Irish Spring trick. That sounds promising. I have heard moth ***** suggested. Putting poison like D-Con in will keep mice from being in it long, but it tends to attract mice and they make a mess right around the box of D-Con. So Irish Spring or moth ***** in the vehicle and D-Con in the garage might be the best bet. But look the vehicle over (including under the hood, in the air intake, in the exhaust...) when you take it out of storage. Of course driving it doesn't prevent mouse damage either, but at least if you are looking at the vehicle frequently you have a chance of catching it before it gets too far.