Why You Should Remove a Car’s Tires Before Long-Term Storage
Many car owners put their vehicles into long-term storage for various reasons. When storing a car long-term, there’s always the question of what to do with the tires. Below, we explain why you should remove a car’s tires before long-term storage to preserve their quality and ensure your vehicle has solid rubber to drive on later.
Benefits of Long-Term Storage for Your Car
First, why should drivers consider putting a car into long-term storage in the first place? For one, storage ensures excessive mileage, collisions, and wear and tear won’t lower a classic or otherwise valuable and fragile car’s value. Plus, putting a vehicle into storage will protect it from the onslaught of snow, ice, road salt, and sand, which can all damage your vehicle inside and out. You can still clean your car while it’s in storage and check that it’s running properly, but long-term storage offers peace of mind and assurance it won’t lose any value.
Protect Your Car’s Tires by Removing Them
When putting your car into long-term storage, you should remove the tires beforehand to ensure the tires don’t wear down. If the car will be stationary in storage for weeks, months, or even years, you should take the wheels and tires off and put the car on jack stands. Otherwise, your tires will undoubtedly get flat spots or even degrade to the point where they lose most of their tire pressure. You don’t want to bring your car out of storage with a leaky or flat tire, so removing them from the vehicle altogether is best.
What To Know About Storing Your Car’s Tires
Once you’ve taken the tires off your car in storage, what do you do with them? Too often, car owners will toss them to the side and think nothing of them until it’s time to put them back on, but improper storage can lead to dry rot and other problems with your tires. A crucial tip to properly store tires to maintain their quality is to ensure they remain in a cool and dry place—otherwise, humidity will degrade the tire rubber fast.
Taking Your Car and Tires Out of Storage
When you’re ready to take the car and tires out of storage, you’ll want to do a thorough inspection of every component to ensure that it’s still in capable condition. For the tires, check for any signs of cracking or dry rot—if these issues are present, replace the tires before you take the car out of storage.
Those are the basic reasons behind putting your car on jack stands when it goes into long-term storage. Unless you plan on taking the car out every couple of weeks to drive it, it’s better to remove the tires completely.