parking your personal vehicle at home terminal

Majority of companies yes you can leave your car. Two companies I have worked for had RV parking

 

Many drivers have no choice. Quite a few of us live miles from our terminals.

 

I leave my personal vehicle parked in Fargo. Recently learned mice have called it a hotel on some nights. Be advised.

I'm trying a "natural" repellent but I'm not very optimistic.

 

Depends on:

1.) the company
2.) how long you stay out
3.) how far from "home" your terminal is

For instance, when I was OTR with USA (HQ in Arkansas, "home" terminal in Roanoke VA) I put my car in storage. Took the truck past my house for home time. Took a Greyhound home when I quit.

My current place I'm home almost every night, but if I'm out for more than a week I have my wife drive me to work so that my car sitting doesn't attract attention. (Although in the past I left it during a blizzard, it got buried under 2' & plowed in. I left it under the snow for 6 weeks. Needed a new battery when I finally thawed out)

 

I wouldn't leave anything nice ata terminal ! Unless it's parked in a building , the weather will beat the snot out of it along with bone heads in snowplows ...years ago in my hill bros. Days came home to find my nice pick up beat to death by hail ..my car stays in the garage at home these days and I pay a retired driver friend to be my chauffeur to and from the terminal.

 

As an FYI. Got back to terminal in Fargo few weeks ago and my 3 year old battery had the end wall busted out of it. I had not driven it since about last October. It was a lot of hassle to remove the ground terminal from the battery as is recommended for long term storage to prevent drain from all the various electronics that drain a battery, so I'd just leave it connected as normal and expect to jump start it. Probably not a good idea in hind sight, especially in climate that can expect sub-zero F temps ...

Guy at Interstate Battery said a lead acid battery will freeze and bust if they ever become fully discharged and the temp gets cold enough for long enough.

So, I got to wondering about solar trickle charges. Called a battery store in Fargo and they had a solar powered trickle charger. I bought one and put on the new battery, inside the windshield and plugged into live lighter socket as per instructions. Will report back in a few months to see if I can start the vehicle without jump-starting as usual.

 

Did you set up somebody to clean the windshield for you? Otherwise the sun is going to have a hard time getting to that panel.


Ed

 

Perhaps not "natural" but I used dryer sheets in my RV when it was stored for the winter. Worked pretty good. Only trapped 3 mice in there in about 5 months time, and no damage to soft items. This was in a barn where mice ran rampant.

Dryer sheets are not natural per se, but we do use them on our clothes and then put our clothes on our bodies so....


Ed

 

They have an indicator to show what it's doing. Even down in the floorboard it would pick up sufficient stray light to output at least a little current. I pointed the vehicle to the south and put it in the inside windshield. Any snow will melt at some point and it will resume charging. A little dust accumulation is not going to impede enough light to hurt it's output no more day-to-day charge replacement then is needed.