Long term storage of my truck.

Use Stabil in a full tank of fresh non ethanol gas and it will be good for a full year ! Gas looses octane rating over time so I use Premium top tier non ethanol . A year later it should still have an octane level of Regular grade fuel ? I usually had about 100 gallons stored between boats , bikes ,cars truck etc . for the winters over the last 30 years . Never had a problem ! Battery tender on batts also .
You should be fine for the three months but I like to start and warm each car, bike and truck up once a month and move it a car length or 2 to lube the gears and bearings etc. Usually took less than a six pack to get it all done

 

Hope this was meant as a joke. Gas most definitely wont last 5 years. It will separate and turn to shit. You're lucky if it lasts 5 months without stabilizer.

 

The issue isn't the gas. It's not going to turn to paint thinner. It's the ethonol they shove in there that's the issue. Ethonol adsorbs water like crazy and richer E blends can become useless in as little as two weeks.
Using a pure gas (if available in your area) will give storage of years.
Fully filling the tank will help reduce condensation.

 

Go to www.pure-gas.org to find ethanol-free gas.

 

Do not periodically start a vehicle that is "in storage" (as described above). That's a horrible idea that does more harm than good.

 

I have owned my car since 1998 and store it away every winter, i start it about once a month and make sure it gets up to operating temps, even the owners manual recommends doing so, the key is letting it run long enough to get up to temp.

 

Disconnect battery. Place on jack stands. Dont need to worry about fuel stabilizer. Fuel can stay in your tank for about 3-5 months. Stabilizer allows 6-8 months. No sense on wasting money for 2-5 months.

The problem with just starting it and not actually driving it is you arent letting all of the moving parts, well move. Axles, brakes, etc. all need to go through a few rotations.

 

PLUS 5^^^^ on what he said... The Put up on blocks for 2 months.. MEH... But the battery tender IS the main thing here... it will not let your battery sulfate and loose years of it's life.. the maintainer will keep all pre-sets and your battery just like the day you left it..!!

The Fill-up gas and add stabiliser.... YES all the way... I put the ole ladie's car in the garage for the winter... that is how I do it. I used to jack it up on blocks... no more....Just add stabiliser to a full tank...run for a bit... park it.. battery tender on... go away...!! No sweat...

 

This. It's only 2 months, not 2 years. And yea, don't take any mechanical advise from the neighbor. He may make good BBQ and keep the yard nice, but I bet he still changes oil at 3k.

You can over inflate the tires by several lbs as a jack stand alternative if you wish. Again, it's only 2 months. Unloading the suspension is not required, and over inflation will reduce the likelihood of any flat spotting.

If you are in a rodent prone area, I'd do some of the things mentioned in other posts. I mean some garages don't have issues, some do.

 

Tires with nylon cord will get flat spots when parked but they round out after a couple of miles. I used to have tires with nylon cord on a trailer and every time I used it I could feel the flat spots for a couple of miles, but no permanent damage. Later I had other tires on the trailer that did not do that.

 

I just left my 16 sitting in a garage from mid August to this past Sunday (8 week). I had a quarter tank of fuel that I added some Stabil to, and I drove about 10 miles to pull that treated fuel into the lines, that was it.

When I started in up yesterday, it cranked and fired fine. I could smell the moisture cooking off the oil after a few minutes when i got up to temp (normal). The radio was on a static station and the clock was wrong, but all the radio presets were still correct.

After about 10 miles, the flat spots on the tires were gone, it never drove strange otherwise.

This is a modern vehicle with radial tires, in my opinion, dont over think this. Ethanol in the gas messes up my jetski and boat engines over the course of a MI summer, otherwise I would have done nothing.

 

Yes, what I listed is a bit into overkill for two months, but sometimes a two month time away can turn into something longer. Since OP offered no specifics (that I saw) I erred on the side of caution.

 

A 10oz bottle of Sta-Bil, enough for up to 25 gallons, is $7.50 -- cheap enough that there's no reason not to use it even for just two months. Sure you can likely be fine without it, but if a two month assignment becomes four months or longer? Be nice to focus on the other chaos and not worry about the truck.

Jackstands... it's been twenty years since I wintered vehicles. I moved my frozen behind down south. it's likely tire technology has improved a bit since then.

Still, regarding rodents... If storing where there's a chance of an issue, with jack stands you could fashion something akin to a squirrel baffle. Again, likely overkill for two months, but still worth discussing in case someone were facing a longer deployment or something.

 

separate into what ? you need to learn about how gas doesn't go bad
when it sits inside a truck with a sealed fuel system with all that pressure
and evap crap holding it all in

it'll go bad if some can evaporate

but in our truck little to none evaporates over time...gas and it's blend stays blended

in some old gas can it could go bad, not in your truck


it'll go bad in carburetors, small engines...etc but not in tight systems where
it cannot evaporate off the higher volatile components and leave the sludgies
and also not absorb water from the air.

 

Phase separation can and will happen in a vehicle gas tank. I have taken a three day course on gasoline phase separation due to my job. I have seen ethanol gas eat up a metal gas can, destroy boat fuel lines, and even in a severe case break down the glue holding the fuel filter cartridge in the housing on an inline fuel filter. Ethanol gas is only good for about 30 to 45 days sitting idle with no treatment.

 

well OK when you can tell me that the Tacoma is actually a boat with metal tank and fuel filter cartridge, and fuel lines affected by e10, maybe. until then my advice
on this is rock solid if you have no defects in the vehicle fuel or evap system. tacoma can handle e10 sitting in the tank as it says in the manual, the system does not let vapors escape
at normal temps (110- -30) so...it can sit for quite a few years and not have a problem. holy friggin shit I have vehicles that sit for many months with e10 in them
and they have zero problems running and zero maintenance issues.

 

When I store my antique truck for the winter I run the fuel tank down to about 1/4 tank and give it a heavy dose of stabilizer before I drive over to where I store it. Once I get there I spray fogging oil into the carb until it starts smoking at the tailpipes. Then I unhook the battery. Then I unscrew the spark plugs and spray some sta-bil fogging oil into each cylinder and reinstall the plugs. Then I put blocks under the axle so the tires don't flat-spot over the winter, and tuck some cardboard under them so they don't crack from resting on the concrete floor.
Then in the spring when I get it out of storage the first thing I do is go to the gas station and brim the tank with fresh gas.

Where you're only going to be gone for a couple of months, you should be fine with just adding some stabilizer to the tank and unhooking the battery, honestly. But you can fret over it and fog the cylinders and set it up on blocks if you really want to. I just don't think you need to bother.

 

Glad it's worked out for you so far but respectfully I disagree. Gas will not last for years sitting untreated in a fuel tank.

 

http://www.fuel-testers.com/expiration_of_ethanol_gas.html