Not using van in winter months

[Graham]

Following on from Scapaflow's thread about charging the battery made me think about our Dimension we leave it for long periods on the front of the house during the winter. We have all good intentions of taking it out regularly to give it a run but we don't seem to get round to it.

I think last time I spoke to Ant he said this wasn't good for the van, can Ant or anyone else recommend the best policy, how often should we take for van out and for how long, is a drive of a couple of miles say every fortnight sufficient or should we go further and what kind of drive should it be, urban or motorway?

[Derek]

I try and take our Berlingo for a run at least every two weeks. Need to get the engine up to full temp so I think at least 20 miles round trip, and drive it hard on open road. A shopping trip to another town normally. When the snow was about I had to make do with running the engine for about five mins. Moved it to make sure the handbrake was free and settle the tyres on another bit of tread.

[peterholden]

We use our Outlook for picnicking etc and in fact it gets more use than our car

[Caz]

I try to give my van a run every week, although I left it a fortnight while the snow was down - rear wheel drive and no PAS or ABS, not good in snow. Then the battery was flat, mystery as new battery last summer - charged it up and discovered son had left an internal light on, the leisure battery is kaput, so it was drawing off the cab battery.

Must get a new leisure battery a s a p.

[ant]

If you're going to run a vehicle to keep the battery topped up you must run it until the cooling fans cut in, this can take anything from half an hour to two hours. If you don't firstly the battery will not get a net gain of charge and secondly you wont remove the condensation from the oil and you'll start to develop a sludge in the oil. Flat spots on commercial tyres are less of a problem if you're only leaving the van for a month or so, but rust will quickly develop on the disc brakes so a short trip ( couple of miles) once a month will help keep the disc clear of pitting rust.
It's better not to start the engine at all than run it for very short bursts on a regular basis. Best of all get out and use the van , how can you hope to wear it out if you dont use it!
Ant

[Graham]

Thanks Ant and everyone else, top advice as usual, I will endeavour to get out more often, roll on spring.