Natural Car Storage

The penultimate problem with remote homesteading in today's world is reliance on the automobile network. Paradoxically, I find the structure of Internal Combustion Engine-based network of travel to be an amazingly enjoyable experience within the mindset of 20th Century Civilization, if all of the negative aspects can be compartmentalized. I see the changes being implemented and proposed recently to this transportation network to be about disguising the problems with the system rather than undoing the negative changes it has wrought, perpetuating the core ugliness by implementing a superficial glamour (and of course a certain level of profit).

So for the time being, I am doing my best to preserve the better elements of the old as long as possible. My smallish, manual 2006 pickup turned over 300k last year. I still favour my motorcycle(s) for warm weather and small cargo loads, but maintenance for them pulls my resources away from homesteading. I also bought an older manual European sedan to eat up miles in rough weather when the truck bed or towing capacity is not needed.

Despite deceasing usage of the truck (I make sure to do short trips every few weeks to keep the battery and fluids active), problems are accumulating. At the last oil change with the truck up on a hoist, I went to inspect the rear because of odd feedback I'd been feeling, to notice fluid seeming to drip from the brakeline. The mechanic joined me to point out that the axle seal was leaking oil, and the brake rotor had a massive chunk seemingly rusted out of it.

The recently replaced muffler (about 2 years old) had fallen off entirely over winter, and the pipe from the manifold in front of it fell off a few weeks ago. This is the third brake line leak in as many years. While it is old and high mileage, the engine itself runs without a hitch and the clutch is solid. The mechanic says the frame will last another 5 years before I even need to start worrying about integrity from rust there. So it seems to me that the last five years of parking on a non-paved surface is intensely speeding up the rusting process with these smaller parts suddenly all failing.

I've heard it is bad to regularly park on grassy areas and such, as plants and good soil create a microclimate that retains moisture in the area. Are there resources out there that give alternatives to a cement slab?

I'd guess some good, thick gravel would be the next best surface. How do other, natural and small scale improvements to a storage area rank? Removing topsoil/dirt in a patch and leaving it all sand would be easy for my location and reduce moisture retention in the area, but pure sand is not ideal for traction. Cement blocks/bricks laid in the sand would address that, but now we are talking spending money to bring in less Permies-style materials. At least it would be easy to remove and reuse the blocks once the need is gone, unlike a cement slab.

Any other Permies-able ways to improve a situation like this? The storage spot is on an old logging road through the property, bulldozed and packed down for who knows how many decades. Some soil has built up on top of the glacial till sand through a succession of years of grasses and more 'weedy' plants moving in.

If you have some old lumber or wooden slabs you could build a corduroy or plank slab

Hmm, well I have access to an abundance of pallets in various conditions. I could position them so the stringers lined up with the tire widths to hopefully support the weight, or tear some old ones apart and pile up boards (with extra time to make sure all nails are removed ;-). Or put down some boards to smother any plant activity, then put the pallets on that for air flow?

That last one would end up with a platform around 6 or 7 inches off the ground, a little awkward for a few reasons.

So this path forks at either building a bit of super structure around a platform for a good deal of work with pallet wood, or perhaps just digging out all the soil/dirt and placing pallets on top of the sand underneath. The latter seems like less work but perhaps not addressing enough of the moisture under the vehicle but but less chance for an awkward failure of the structure.

Or stopping before the fork is reached and plopping down a bunch of deconstructed pallets on the soil to create a very basic "plank" surface (doing less for the moisture)...?

One solution comes to mind, but it can't be reliably called sustainable.

Used fabric ..... I think vinyl?........from billboards could be used if no other option appeals to you.  It is free, in my one experience working with it.  Yes, it might introduce vinyl into your soil.  Yes, it could provide mosquito habitat if not carefully placed.  
Use these pegs to secure it perhaps

I have to say I don't see any advantage to bringing in billboard fabric. It would be an added expense to import a petrochemical material. The labour to import and apply it would be similar to removing the topsoil in my estimation. As a result I would have an artificial material needing sculpting to prevent moisture accumulation, compared to sand which would provide natural drainage. While sand alone would be problematic for traction, billboard fabric would require an additional superstructure itself as driving on it directly would inevitably ruin the barrier.

Depending on your driving/parking skills, you only need a gravel/concrete/wood strip wide enough to support the wheels and some margin, while the area between them can be left as sand.
I am not a fan of wood sitting on ground, nor would I like to park or drive a car on things with nails.

For concrete you will need gravel anyway so I would just try gravel in the area where the wheel tracks are and add some more as it compacts and sinks in.
The ground does not sound stable enough to be able to only cast two thin strips for the wheels without it cracking.

Do you park the truck under cover or outside?
Rust prevention can be readily applied to the underside of a vehicle.
My 1976 Chevrolet C30 sits under a carport sometimes but has spent most f its life outside.
We dont have salt applied to the roads here, would that be a factor?

John C Daley wrote:Do you park the truck under cover or outside?
Rust prevention can be readily applied to the underside of a vehicle.
My 1976 Chevrolet C30 sits under a carport sometimes but has spent most f its life outside.
We dont have salt applied to the roads here, would that be a factor?

I don't have anywhere to park a car or truck under cover. I have a 10x15' car port 'tent' with a plywood/pallet floor, but it holds all of my machine tools and barely has enough space to pull in a motorcycle for maintenance.

Road salt is a major problem for us around here, but the pickup showed multiple problems last fall and I drove the AWD Audi sedan almost all winter instead of the pickup. the rust problems on the truck this spring were accelerated from the past year so it seemed to me to be more about storage conditions.

That does raise a related issue in coping with the road salt though. When I was shopping for cars the winter before last, someone in a nearby town selling a Suburu that I ended up passing on did have a huge pole barn with numerous vehicles, and they were applying some sort of undercoat to cars and trucks in there. I asked what they would charge to bring in my own vehicle to do a coating on, but the owner said he was just doing it for himself and neighbors for the time being. I meant to call back later in the year but didn't keep track of the number...

Looking a little into this, it seems there is a thick, long lasting wax that is applied to newer vehicles that have no rust on them. And there are oil coatings that penetrate and neutralize existing corrosion and providing shorter term protection from additional decay. Are there other methods?

Have these products been around long enough to have been evaluated in environmental terms, does any of the chemical 'gick' get released into the environment after application as the vehicle is driven or stored? Is it hazardous to come in contact with while doing maintenance on the vehicle?

Also, I've wondered about how much winter car washes help with road salt. I'm usually thinking that if I get the car/truck washed to rinse off the salts, as soon as I drive home from the wash it will accumulate another coat. It seems one would have to coordinate with local DOT officials to see when and where the salt is actually being applied to know when it is worth paying for a wash, but in Wisconsin you basically have to talk to State, County, and Town officials to know about all the roads, and I doubt the last two would even have anyone to communicate with the public about that around here.

My father always says to use vehicles once a week or else they are doomed to have issues.