Morning everyone,

I have a 2004 F350 XLT 6.0 that I bought in June of this year with 77k miles for towing my camper, now up to about 81k miles- its studded, EGR is deleted, and has an coolant filter, and is up to date on all maintenance, so it runs very nicely. After a summer of towing with a diesel i'm not sure I ever want to tow with anything but a diesel again. But, now that camping season is about done for the year, and the truck isn't my daily driver, i'm wondering what would be the best strategy to keep it in good working order for the winter. My plan is to drive it at least twice a week on a roughly 30 mile loop. Is that enough to keep everything working well? Unfortunately, with Covid, I don't really have very far to go anymore, haven't been to the office since March (not complaining), and the only "long trip" I take regularly is to drop my daughter off at my sister in laws for daycare. Connecticut winters don't get overly cold, with the occasional cold snap, so I don't think I need to start treating the fuel just yet.

Other than regular driving, treating the fuel when it gets colder, is there anything else i should do to keep everything in good shape for the winter?

 

I wouldn't do anything with it IMO. Park it and wait until spring. It won't hurt anything to sit for a winter.

 

If you decide to let it sit, I would disconnect the batteries and then charge them before you put them back in.

 

if you like: jack up the wheels a bit to take the weight off the tires, check the antifreeze in the coolant and charge the batteries every 4 weeks.
I jack up the complete truck 2" on the frame because I have a heavy camper body.

 

In addition to the above I would do a thorough cleaning on the inside. All those roadtrip goodies that fall between the seats can attract rodents. Left unattended the mice can have the run of the place.

 

This is the absolute worse thing you could do. Slap a battery tender/maintainer on it and there's not much else to bother with. Don't drive it unless you need it, and when you do drive it, drive it long enough that everything gets up to temp and stays there for as long as possible. like over 1 hour at least.

 

While I think it is fine to let it sit, I also think it is fine to drive it, as long as you are getting it up to temp - any of the monitoring options will give you the info you need, and 30 miles should be plenty to both get it hot and burn off any nasties - unless it gets really cold where he is... Again, go by the live data and get the oil Hot. My $.02

I've parked mine over 6 months and just on a battery tender and it hasn't seemed to care (it was in my un-heated shop)...

 

Definitely to soon to use any anti gel here in CT.

are you worried about salt/rust? If not, I’d take it for a drive every few weekends just to keep it moving.

if not, I wouldn’t have an issue parking it in the garage for the winter, only thing I’d do is put a battery tender on it.

 

well said!

 

After sitting I would charge the batteries and plug the block heater in. This will help immensely on long duration starts. 6.0 stuff. Fml.

 

I maintain, that starting or driving a vehicle "just to keep it in shape" is pretty much always worse for it than just letting it sit for periods of up to 6 months. Keeping the battery on a maintainer, or charging it occasionally, is all you should need to do. And yeah, when you need to use it, go ahead, use it, and if possible, drive it for an hour or more to give it a chance to burn off the moisture in the oil.

 

One big exception is when a vehicles is allowed to sit idle (unused) outside for periods long enough for squirrels and rats to take up residence ..........