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Apr 26th, 2026 | | AD Chevy Trucks  Over 6,000 pictures Brad Allen has an awesome collection of Chevrolet factory pictures that he has set up from film strips. Check them out!
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| | | | Joined: Sep 2011 Posts: 205 Shop Shark | | Shop Shark Joined: Sep 2011 Posts: 205 | I have six cars in an unheated garage, all enclosed and not heated..Up here in Idaho, it gets down to 10 above, should I remove batts to a slightly warm garage..and battery tend them, or loosen the neg cables and be done with it? | | | | | Joined: Jan 2010 Posts: 55 Wrench Fetcher | | Wrench Fetcher Joined: Jan 2010 Posts: 55 | why not put keep them in the vehicles and put a tender on them? | | | | | Joined: Nov 2006 Posts: 2,544 Shop Shark | | Shop Shark Joined: Nov 2006 Posts: 2,544 | We take the batteries out of our stuff in the winter and bring them into the shop. I have a battery tender that I put on for a week and then move it to another battery. In the spring I check them with a load tester to make sure the battery has a full charge in and then install it. Been doing this for years with good success. | | | | | Joined: Sep 2001 Posts: 29,269 Bubba - Curmudgeon | | Bubba - Curmudgeon Joined: Sep 2001 Posts: 29,269 |
I have just left my 6v Optima batteries in the vehicles the past three years. No problems starting in the Spring (it sometimes gets to 20 below here).
However, using a battery tender in the truck, or on the battery in a heated or unheated garage, or bringing the battery into a warm room cannot hurt and might even help the battery life.
| | | | | Joined: Mar 2002 Posts: 9,115 'Bolter | | 'Bolter Joined: Mar 2002 Posts: 9,115 | I open the disconnect on my battery and hook up a battery tender that uses the "float" technology. Temperatures of -25 F are not unusual where we live. I don't run my truck in the cold weather so it sits that way until spring. | | | | | Joined: Feb 2004 Posts: 29,809 Kettle Custodian (pot stirrer) | | Kettle Custodian (pot stirrer) Joined: Feb 2004 Posts: 29,809 | A battery will slowly self-discharge unless the engine is started periodically and run for a few minutes, or some sort of trickle charger is used to maintain it. Discharged batteries can freeze, but it's almost impossible to freeze a fully-charged one. The best possible situation would be to store them in an area that does not go below freezing, and use a trickle charger or a battery maintainer to keep them charged.
Even if it does not freeze, a discharged battery that stays that way for several weeks will develop hard crystals of lead sulfate on the plates, and it will be extremely difficult to recharge. Keeping a battery fully charged at all times is the best way to assure it has a long, useful lifespan. Rule #2 is keep it bolted down- - - -bouncing around destroys a battery in a hurry.
Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln
Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt!
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway
Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
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