winter storage

[jerry 4]

what do youguys do to store your equipment for winter? Im talking lawn mowers and weed eaters. do you treat the gas with stabil? some people say keep the tank full to prevent condensation and rust. others say drain the gas and run the carb dry. would that cause the gaskets to dry out?
 

[Gary from Muleshoe]

I change the oil and filters to get it ready for next season and park it. I treat my gas with stabil every time I fill the can.
 

[d beatty]

On my garden tractors I clean tractor and deck, service and repair whats needed. I coat the underside of deck with a film of motor oil.I don't add anything to gas in fall because I run Sea Foam all year long. In the weedeater I use Opti-2 oil which has a fuel stabilizer in it. I do clean it up and run it dry and hang it up in basement.
 

[MrJDMan80]

Most all good name brand 2stroke oil mixes have a stabilizer in them. If you are talking about a non mix engine, I prefer to run them dry of gas. If you do want to add stabil or something like that, there are a couple very important things to remember.
1- stabil does not mix with gas on its own. Add the stabilizer to gas in your gas can, then shake, shake, shake. when your arm gets tired, swtich arms and shake some more.
2- More IS NOT better. in fact adding more stabilizer to your gas than what is recomended on the label does more harm than adding none at all. Stabilizers are corosive. I've seen them eat holes in metal gas tanks, and more likely, carb bowls.
3- Adding stabilizer directly to a machines gas tank is a BAD idea. Remember, shake, shake shake.
My suggestion is this- mix a 5 gal can of gas with the proper amount of stabilizer. SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE REPEAT! Them pour some of that gas into the existing gas in your equipment. Run the equipment fo 10 to 15 mins to allow mixture to reach carb, then put it away.
But here is the best key of all.
IF you dont run your equipment dry of gas, them plan on starting it up and letting ig run for 15mins a couple of times during the winter.
This is a big issue at my shop here in MI, so I get a little excited about the topic
Tim
 

[d beatty]

Tim the running in winter is a very good point. I start mine every two weeks and run them a half hour to get them hot.I also put battery maintainers on them.
 

[wisbaker]

If it's got a plastic tank run it dry, fog it pull the battery and let 'er sit. Steel tank run it dry fog it and refill the tank with Stabil treated ethanol free fuel. When I was at the golf course we got a new superintendent about half way through my tenure. The old guy had me start everything once a week. The new guy let me "pickle" them. I really think I had fewer problems when we pickled vs running them once a week not to mention the 2-4 hours a week in labor savings.