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When you say easy do you also mean inexpensive also? Bare minimum would be a descent floor jack and then some quality jack stands. But if you can I recommend driving the car periodically on semi warm days just to keep all the seals lubricated and systems working properly. I never had a problem with tires flat spotting. Nothing that a few miles of driving on a warm day couldn't cure.
Yeah, it is a winter and not an Ice Age. I'd just park it and not worry so much. You will be best off, starting and (fully) warming the engine and taking her around the block a couple of times on nice days.
Keeping everything well "exercised" is better insurance than fooling with jacks, vapor barrier and fuel snake oil.
Having lived where you live for many years I would just get 4 pieces of used carpet to drive the tires up onto. Keeps the tires off of the cold damp floor of the garage. If the pieces are large enough... every month you could put the car in neutral and push it forward or back several inches and a different portion of the tire will "take the weight" for the next month.
When the C4 was my only vehicle I ran 4 snow tires on a separate set of wheels during the winter. As long as the snow wasn't deeper than 4" not much of a problem but here the winter is a bit different than CT.
I wouldn't leave a C4 hanging on jack stands for long periods of time. The chassis is designed to sit on the wheels. If you are worried about flat spotting the tires, there are devices for that.
Or, for the winter, buy someone's road rashed rims and get some wore out tires to put on. That is what I do with our travel trailer. Then I put the good tires in the barn where they are out of the UV.
Now that you mentioned it, I might just find some old tires to put on my old saw blades and use them to store the car. (Vette season is starting to come to an end in Ohio also. I think we got hit by a frost already, albeit a light one. The snap pea vines were trashed, looks like frost damage, and the shed shingles had what looked like some ice on the edges the other morning). Friday morning temps were in the upper 40's here when my wife left for work.
I read in either Vette magazine or Corvette Fever back in the late 90's that modern sports cars like the C4 and C5 suspensions (LOL I'm remembering some of the wording from the article) were designed to not "float"...meaning being left in the air. The article recommended to always store on ground without jack stands. Also while bias ply tires would flatspot and stay that way steel belts will flatten but will round out at 5 to 10 miles of driving...for storing they recommend to just inflating the tires to maximum pressure on tire wall to help stop the tires from getting flat spot where they were resting (Just remember to deflate to normal PSI before driving). Usually I just move my car back or forth 1/2 foot in the winter to keep the tires off the same spot for too long.
I leave mine on 4 stands all winter without issue. The only thing that could go sour like that is rubber suspension bushings left in torsion for long periods of time. I have poly bushes and don’t worry about it.
Many tires have nylon belts not steel. They can and do develop flat spots.
I leave mine on 4 stands all winter without issue. The only thing that could go sour like that is rubber suspension bushings left in torsion for long periods of time. I have poly bushes and don’t worry about it.
Many tires have nylon belts not steel. They can and do develop flat spots.
if you fully understand how a suspension works and what forces are put on the bushings you will realize that poly is a poor choice
if you fully understand how a suspension works and what forces are put on the bushings you will realize that poly is a poor choice
No need to go insulting people by saying they don’t fully understand how a suspension works. Many of us have poly bushes with great results. Good luck to you finding replacement rubber bushings. Say hi to the leprechaun at the end of the rainbow where you find them.
