With the advent of the cold weather setting in...It won't be too long before my car will be sitting for extended periods of time, hence my concern over flat spots setting in on my tires. KPV posted the link on TireCradles and I am looking to hear from others who may have experience using them...They seem to be quite pricey, albeit, much less that the cost of new tires, but I would like to hear if other's have used them and to see if they were satisified with the claims tirecradle.com makes...In short, do they work???

Are there any other methods to avoid long term storage flat spots short of putting up the car on jack stands. Any input or idea's would be appreciated. Thanks...

 

I don't use tire cradles. I am going to put the car on jack stands this year, especially with the low profile 19's. Even though the car is on the lift, they will still work. This is very easy to do with four stands and a jack.
I also regularly use the Porsche battery maintaniner. What a great little device. I encourage all to buy one. The only other concern is the fuel. The tank will be topped up and I will start the car to circulate the oil regularly but is there a fuel stabilizer or some other product that should be added to the gas?

 

all I have to say is man it's gotta suck to have to put a car away for the winter :P

 

, we should really be nicer to them winter boys ...I used to live in NY and I fell their pain, I used to ache for my dad to take his cars out...got very sick of riding in trucks all winter
Evan

 

Let's see, snow, sleet, rain, slush, freezing temperatures and, oh yeah, SALT. Not fun.
Evan, you may recall, I bought the car in February and drove it home. On my way down to Florida to pick up the car, there was a snow storm up here. I can't say I was overly excited knowing the first day the car was back in NJ (It was originally bought in NJ) it would see snow.
It did.
I should get a contract to do some plowing. The spoiler is low enough for that!!

 

I have used tire cradles for the past two years without overinflating my tires and have not developed flat spots. My car sat last winter for at least two months. I also used Stabil fuel stabilizer in a full tank of gas. I have a Yuasa battery maintainer which is great. It is not a trickle charger and won't overcharge the battery.

I have heard that it is not good to start the motor and just let it idle. Is this true??

 

The plus side of filling the tank is that condensation will be minimized. The down side is that the gas companies already add additives that are formulated to the season. So, you probably should use up the gas you put in at the beginning of a season before that season ends (before the additives are changed). I doubt not doing so will cause any real problems, but performance may suffer until the out of season gas has been used up. Don't know about off the shelf additives, unless water/condensation is a problem. It seems to me they shouldn't be necessary if the car is already tuned, runnung properly, and has no issues.
Fred

 

Usually I am psyched for winter(avid skier), however, after aquiring the GT3 less than two month's ago, this winter $ hit kind of sux... "Like sands through the hour glass", so our my days left driving the GT3 for 2003... I think I am going to suck it up and buy those cradles. Seem's like highway robbery to charge $350 for some shaped rubber...

However, there are periods through the winter when the roads are devoid of snow and ice and this is when I will take the car out for some exercise so jack standing is out. In regard to the gas situation, I picked up STP Fuel Stabilizer and plan to use it with a full tank of Sunoco Ultra, my favorite gas unless I hear it's bad for the motor/fuel lines. I will check with my dealer prior to using it.

Speaking of Sunoco...I have been using Ultra 94...Today I was filling up and apparently Sunoco is not offering 94 anymore and they are calling it now Ultra 93. Has anyone noticed this??? By the way the pump made note to this fact by saying" Lower Octane, Same Quality"...What's that about?? Kind of bummed out that I can't run 94 anymore....

Thanks for all your replies!!!

 

If you're parking it for a long time, get some Stabil from a
Kragen or hardware store. It's a gasoline stabilizer, so your
gas doesn't separate into volatiles and thicker gummy stuff.
Go to the station with a near-empty tank, add enough stabil
and then fill it up. Drive it long enough to mix well and get
it all in the fuel lines, and top it off and park it.
Joe

 

Tire Cradles do work, but you can save some money and make your own very easily by using some "comfort" flooring mats -- located under each tire like this ....

 

I have the cradles. They are great. Do it.

BTW, Generally putting a car on jack stands for a long time is not good for the shocks.

 

Jack for the love of Italy would you please not teast us and post pictures of comfort floor mats when a giallo 360 would suffice

 

Cradles it is!!! Nothing is to good for my P-Car

I did find one alternative to the comfort mats Jack uses...

Cow Mats: Mooo!!!!

They keep the cows from getting flat spots...

They come in 3/4" thickness, may pick them up for my cayenne, since it is rather cow like compared to my carrera....

http://cfmmats.com/Cow_Mats.htm

 

I found another source for tire cradles - will call to check on pricing: http://www.covercar.it/html_ing/ing_accessori.htm

 

FWIW... I just use some patches of carpet. The car has sat for about a month before and I did not notice any flat spots.


And while we do not have cold winters here in FL, we do have miserable summers. High heat, extreme humidity, and daily thunderstorms takes away from the fun of driving. Summer is usually my time to put the car away with winter being the time to take her out.