Winter storage advice

Well this plan is .......not wise.

You will be wearing out and depreciating TWO cars instead of one.
The Prius is now 17 years old.
If it still has it's original HV battery in place, that will be about a $2000 expense in the near future.

I suggest that it would be a MUCH better plan to invest in ONE better car......or just drive the Prius and see what happens.
Much simpler and probably much cheaper in the long run too. No need to rent a storage space or to worry about a second car.

 

I'd probably disconnect the 12v battery and have it on a battery tender (trade name) for the winter. When I lived in the north, I'd keep my motorcycle batteries in warm closet in the laundry room. My current Gen 2 sat for 18 months in west texas. I jump started it, the 12v was dead, and the HV battery came right back. The HV battery was replaced in '13 and has been bullet proof for the past year. The 12v came back for a while, but died pretty shortly after I got the car home.

If memory serves, you had a fairly new HV battery in the old Prius, did you switch it over to the rust free one? Did you keep it?

An alternative to parking it for the winter is to bring it out when the roads are clear and dry. Drive it for a bit, to get everything warm and the HV battery maintained. I grew up in W. Michigan in the 60's and 70's and know the damage salty road can do to cars.

 

Drive the car once every two weeks and keep it on a battery minder. This is much better than storing the car.

If you have to store it for 3 months:
1. Force charge the hybrid battery to at least 6 bars, 7-8 is probably ideal
2. Disconnect 12V battery, or better is to put the car on a battery minder
3. Change the oil prior to storage if it hasn't recently been changed. Complete upcoming fluid changes such as transmission, radiator, brake, etc. prior to storage.
4. Drive the car until gas is near empty, then fill with a couple of gallons of premium top-tier gas. On taking the car out of storage for first trip, fill up the gas tank. Gas loses octane rating over time, which is why it's better to start with high-octane, and the additives in top-tier fuel help reduce corrosion. You shouldn't need fuel stabilizer unless you are storing for more than 3 months.
5. Put the car on Jack stands to avoid flat-spotting. If you can't put the car on jack stands, I'd fill the tires up to about 40 psi to help maintain ideal tire shape and minimize it.

 

See 4th paragraph: https://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/prius-rally-hints.txt I can confirm this works for a 2nd gen, some Googling may be needed if this is different for a 1st gen.

Better is to actually drive the car. The cells on your hybrid battery will self-discharge at different rates and all of the fluids/bearings, suspension components benefit from actually moving the car. Driving the car is better if you can do it on dry days, otherwise starting the car is better than letting it sit.

 

If you're planning on doing this every winter, you probably should get a Prolong grid charger from Hybrid Automotive to give the HV a check up every once in a while, and to eventually balance the cells (the basic Prolong kit provides a discharge contraption the uses incandescent bulb.) Use matching wattage bulbs, unequal wattage bulbs can burn out or explode. And HV maintenance is best done in the cooler months.

With your spare battery pack you can maintain it too with a spare wiring harness, the battery open, and using a fan to blow heat away from the cells.

 

Wish there was an "unlike" to apply to this post. She just got a really nice 1st gen that she loves, is rust free, and has had recent maintenance, why would she want to risk driving in the slick and salty roads of northern NY? Winter beaters in the salt belt are a common solution with year around traction tires. An ancient Suburu would be ideal.

 

It simply is my opinion. You can "unlike" it all you want.

What other things in life do you "keep in the closet" so that you don't wear it out ??
Clothes......shoes......appliances......phones......TVs.......on and on.

In the end, of course, you should do what makes you feel good and you can afford, as long as it doesn't harm anyone else.

All too often, however, people understand what makes them feel good.......but have no good concept of what they can afford.......and it ends up making them feel BAD in the long run.

 

Clothes, shoe, sure--heck yeah. I have clothes and shoes that I would never wear to work in the yard or under a car. I have tools that I paid good money for that I would never loan, I keep them in special drawers, in their cases, and don't leave them out when not using them.

If I lived in winter areas, I'd naturally drive my old 4wd pickup instead the my Prius. My truck is so much tougher than the little car, and better, I think, on slick roads.

 

OK, you got me there.
I have some clothes in the closet that are old enough that they have come BACK into style.
A few twice.

 

Heck, in Tucson, warm clothes last forever. So do cars if you don't wreck 'em. I haven't had an even remotely new car since the early 90's. My 02 is the newest one I own, and for now is trouble free. The OP posted that her old Prius had become unsafe to drive because of rusty body cancer. So she found another that was from south of the snow line and fairly rust free. Same year, I think. She, like me, loves her Gen 1. And she has a (rusty) parts car for things like the brake booster pump, etc. Can't blame her for wanting to conserve her new-old Prius, and in upstate NY, an AWD winter car is a good choice.

I can understand wanting a much newer Prius, but for some of us, it's not financially in the cards. For the cost of your newish Prius, I can have a 96 Dodge Dakota 4wd and rust free and healthy, an 01 Porsche Boxster project car, and my lovely 02 Prius. And a lot of change in my pocket.

 

It's a shame they don't rust-proof these cars better. Hot-dip galvanize suspension components, rust-proof coating dips for the body, better bolt coatings.

I understand there's some coatings outlawed, but maybe the manufacturers are also just cheaping out?

 

Mendel, it's a shame that cars need better rust proofing. The methods of chemically melting snow and ice haven't changed in probably 100 years. Growing up in Michigan, I had a 63 Corvair in about '68 and it was a rusty mess, floorboards that were rusted through, a hood with holes in it, lugnuts that would snap off when changing tires, etc. Even in the rust belt, cars last longer than they used to.

Salting to clear the snow and ice is a safety issue. Better to sacrifice car bodies than to have people injured or killed on slippery roads.

 

Beth, you might want to put a bag of sand in the back of the RAV. And if you need new tires get all terrain tires instead of snows. Sand is for the weight on the back end. In a pinch, you can sand yourself out of ice, tho.

I have an extra cab, 96 Dodge Dakota w/V8, automatic,& 4wd. Shifts on the fly. Last set of tires, I upgraded to larger, all terrain knobbies. They sing! But the last time I went out of town (to El Paso, no less) there was a big winter storm. My truck really was invincible in the snow and the 4wd was better on the icy interstate. I feel pretty good that you got the RAV. Very good snow car, with good ground clearance.

 

It is actually better to NOT start it unless you can actually drive it for a while.

And there always will be some rust.....because iron oxidizes just with air, it just happens faster with more water and corrosive chemicals.