No problem at all. My son in law did a tour in Iraq, my brother in law did one (almost two but upper management changed their minds after letting them sit at Dover AFB for 3 days), and several brothers (friends of my son) respectively did two tours in Iraq and his younger brother did two; one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. Salute.
Only thing I add is that keeping these cars up and ready for your buddies too just get in and drive when they get back is going to take some of yout time, this will not be a park and forget type thing.
I will accept not driving them, but you will have to spend some time cleaning and just checking that nothing crazy like something leaking or falling on them happened, you will have to go by wherever they are stored and check them out, I would keep a log of your visits and what you found,even if it is a “nothing to report” type entry in the log. You are taking on a responsibility, it would be real nice if these guys could just get in and drive when they get back.
Hmmm… Looking out the window, it looks like there’s about 30’ of lawn to cross, then four spaces to get out from under the trees (to avoid falling poo and branches.) I guess I could lock the charger in the car and run the cable out the door and under the hood. What do you think of those dashboard solar chargers?
Conveniently, my office window looks out over the annex parking lot. The bank is right across from that so if I’m not watching, the cameras that cover the ATM and the front door also happen to point toward the parking lot, so there will be eyes on 24/7.
Keith, Roger that. That’s part of the stack of paperwork we have to provide. We can drop most of the insurance; collision, comp, PI, etc. But we have do have whatever insurance applies to stored vehicles. That’s usually something like renter’s insurance for a few dollars a month.
Also, here at Vilseck there’s a policy that the longest you can park a car unattended is 30 days. That’s to prevent knuckleheads just abandoning their cars in place when they leave. The MP’s mark the wheels of idle vehicles with chalk
The trickle chargers I use are small enough to reside inside the engine compartment. I thread the extension cord through the top of the hood near the windshield, and everything else is sheltered from the weather under the hood. Something like this would fit neatly under the hood http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/battery-tender-junior/46406
I suppose a dashboard solar charger might be a good idea, but I have never used them. They sound like they might be perfect for your situation.
I’ve been holding my peace on this, but let me chime in now that I’ve read the whole thread and think I understand the situation better. I would add the Stabil, as others have suggested. I would set up a rotation of driving one car each week for a few miles. It would be best if you could drive it for more than 15 minutes. A half hour should be enough, even if it’s just circling the base a few times. With up to about 6 cars that would be once every 6 weeks for each car, and that should be enough to keep the batteries charged up. I would not worry about a trickle charger. If the battery is good it will hold up for 4 to 6 weeks unused, if it doesn’t hold up that long it was going to need replacement soon anyway. I’d have a good set of jump cables for the case where one of them won’t start up real quick or the battery just doesn’t quite have enough oomph.
I’d recommend a fresh oil change both before and after the 1 year semi-storage.