Long term airport parking in winter...any concerns?

Yeah, back into the parking stall, hood out for a jump start, from another vehicle. With a jump pack that's not a problem though.

Regarding the battery being "ok" for say 3 weeks: it will and it won't. It may start, but don't kid yourself: 3 weeks phantom load with no running time takes a toll.

 

of course, one of the simplest jobs on a car. especially now that it's under the hood

and don't forget the good advice in post #2. you can shut off sks from your fob.

 

20mA for 3 weeks is 10 amp-hours, or 24 minutes of "reserve capacity" (the amount of time the battery will run a 25A load). At extremely low discharge rates the capacity of a battery is higher than at higher discharge rates.

In other words, it should be fine for 3 weeks, but maybe slightly low when you get back. The cold won't help. But the 12V battery doesn't need to start the engine, so that helps.

 

Yes, definitely.

And with some maintenance, and some measures to reduce long term parking loads and prevent accidental drain-downs, you can get more than just a few years per battery.

 

take gloves and a shovel!

learned that one the hard way after I flew off to Fremont for a board bring-up on a project I was working on and we got 3 1/2 feet of snow in Newark a week after I left (I was in Fremont for 2 weeks).

I *did* back it in, and the Newark parking people did a great job of shoveling around my car for me so when I got there there was almost no snow around the car, EXCEPT for 8 chunks of ice (in front and in back of every wheel!). And there I was without a shovel or gloves! Pretty much sucked for me for a bit but it could have been a lot worse.

so now when I travel in the winter I always make sure I have gloves and a shovel in the car (I tried for the parking garage but it was full, and the storm was originally forcast to be 2-3 inches, not 3 1/2 feet).