Keith Martin has been involved with the collector car hobby for more than 40 years, and is the founder and publisher of this magazine. Keith has also written for the New York Times, Automobile, AutoWeek, Road & Track and other publications, has been an emcee for numerous concours, and had his own show, “What’s My Car Worth,” shown on Velocity. He has received many honors, including the Lee Iacocca Award, the Edward Herrmann Award, was inducted into the Concorso Italiano Hall of Fame, and more. He has served on the board of directors of The LeMay Museum and Oregon Ballet Theater, and was formerly the chair of the board of the Meguiar’s Award. Learn more about Keith here.
It’s not the easiest time to think about your old cars. There are competing agendas that include The Nutcracker (my son Bradley is taking me on my birthday, it’s a family tradition) as well as shopping for parents, siblings, children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren. New to our living room table this year is a Star Wars advent calendar, with tiny toys destined to be under our bare feet all year long. Despite all this, I’m going to urge you to spend just a little time with your cars. You will be doing them a huge favor if you start them up, […]
It’s not the easiest time to think about your old cars. There are competing agendas that include The Nutcracker (my son Bradley is taking me on my birthday, it’s a family tradition) as well as shopping for parents, siblings, children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren.
New to our living room table this year is a Star Wars advent calendar, with tiny toys destined to be under our bare feet all year long.
Despite all this, I’m going to urge you to spend just a little time with your cars. You will be doing them a huge favor if you start them up, get them up to operating temperature, let the generator lights wink out as you drive them a couple of miles. Getting them moving is critical, as everything from hydraulic fluid to wheel cylinders to the oil in the crankcase likes temperature and agitation.
At the same time, check your maintenance situation with your batteries. I have an issue with the homeowners association at my condo, as they won’t allow trickle chargers to be plugged in, even for an hour.
“Fire risk!”
Even after I had the garage inspected and approved by the Fire Marshal’s Office, there are still a couple of people who are sure a one-amp charger will burn down our 24-story condo. When on the opposite side of the table from someone whose mantra is, “You’re going to burn the building down,” logic will never prevail.
Of course, these are the same people who bring scooters with exploding lithium-ion batteries into their 15th floor condos. But we can’t go there.
I have gone to installing blade-style cutoffs on all my cars. They seem to insure several months of battery life. Without them, the analog clocks in the Porsche 911S, V12 Jaguar E-type and Alfa Romeo S4 very slowly drain the batteries.
So if there is one thing on the gift list for your cars, get a blade-style battery cut-off installed. You’ll be glad you did.
Cars like heatAnd to be drivenBattery cutoff
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My jump pack is handier than any other arrangement and probably simpler than having a battery tender for each car, but I think cars with “modern” electronics probably reward battery tending. We all know the best answer is to DRIVE IT OFTEN.
Merry Christmas, Keith, and Merry Christmas fellow SCMers
TLD
All six of my classic car batteries are Optima batteries hidden inside a case that looks exactly factory correct. Even down to the red lettering on the side saying, “Ford Power Punch,” “Autolite,” or “Delco.” Once a month I put an Optima charger on them. The batteries will typically last me 6-7 years.
John Kindell
I use the knife switches too. Simple and easy.
Leslie Roberts
Keith, what do the owners of electric cars do? Charge them only at public chargers? Or does nobody at your condo have an EV?
Frank Barrett
Why a blade switch instead of the knob-type?
John Gillespie
My car has the battery in the trunk. To access it I must first remove a few items, the carpet and a cover, not particularly convenient. I solved this issue by installing an onboard battery maintainer. It is very compact and fits nicely in the battery compartment. A three prong plug connects it via a standard extension cord run from a wall outlet in my garage. Super simple.
Dave Hedderly-Smith
Thanks for giving me some extra chores for the holidays!
I use everything – trickle chargers, blade switches, those twist-down battery-post switches (sometimes a blade switch won’t fit), and just simple on/off battery switches (usually cleverly installed where a thief won’t see them). And if it doesn’t start, I use my trusty jump-start. The trickle chargers are preferred (usually with a cut-out switch) as discharging and recharging batteries is hard on their battery life. Most of my cars have permanent wires installed to hook up a Battery Tender-like trickle charger – they’re cheap on eBay and a trickle charger will recharge a dead battery in 24 hours.
10 years or so ago, I had a geology project in Alaska where we kept an ’87 Dodge diesel 4×4 pickup on site over the winter. My camp manager/mechanic advised me that if I’d simply disconnect the battery in the fall (the winter would reach 40 to 50 below), the truck should start the next June. It always did, with a battery that was quite a few years old.
Todd
I use the knob-style battery cut-off. It was originally designed as a diagnostic tool to allow battery parasitic drain testing. It is simple to install, compact and easy-to-use. I use it on all of my infrequently-used vehicles.
8 responses to “Keith’s Blog: Holiday Wishes for the Cars in the Barn”
My jump pack is handier than any other arrangement and probably simpler than having a battery tender for each car, but I think cars with “modern” electronics probably reward battery tending. We all know the best answer is to DRIVE IT OFTEN.
Merry Christmas, Keith, and Merry Christmas fellow SCMers
All six of my classic car batteries are Optima batteries hidden inside a case that looks exactly factory correct. Even down to the red lettering on the side saying, “Ford Power Punch,” “Autolite,” or “Delco.” Once a month I put an Optima charger on them. The batteries will typically last me 6-7 years.
I use the knife switches too. Simple and easy.
Keith, what do the owners of electric cars do? Charge them only at public chargers? Or does nobody at your condo have an EV?
Why a blade switch instead of the knob-type?
My car has the battery in the trunk. To access it I must first remove a few items, the carpet and a cover, not particularly convenient. I solved this issue by installing an onboard battery maintainer. It is very compact and fits nicely in the battery compartment. A three prong plug connects it via a standard extension cord run from a wall outlet in my garage. Super simple.
Thanks for giving me some extra chores for the holidays!
I use everything – trickle chargers, blade switches, those twist-down battery-post switches (sometimes a blade switch won’t fit), and just simple on/off battery switches (usually cleverly installed where a thief won’t see them). And if it doesn’t start, I use my trusty jump-start. The trickle chargers are preferred (usually with a cut-out switch) as discharging and recharging batteries is hard on their battery life. Most of my cars have permanent wires installed to hook up a Battery Tender-like trickle charger – they’re cheap on eBay and a trickle charger will recharge a dead battery in 24 hours.
10 years or so ago, I had a geology project in Alaska where we kept an ’87 Dodge diesel 4×4 pickup on site over the winter. My camp manager/mechanic advised me that if I’d simply disconnect the battery in the fall (the winter would reach 40 to 50 below), the truck should start the next June. It always did, with a battery that was quite a few years old.
I use the knob-style battery cut-off. It was originally designed as a diagnostic tool to allow battery parasitic drain testing. It is simple to install, compact and easy-to-use. I use it on all of my infrequently-used vehicles.