I've finally added a small PV to trickle charge the battery during the 1-3 week periods of not using the car.
After buying it, during the week I was waiting for delivery, the weather was nice and sunny. Ever since I installed it's been overcast and rainy
In fact, it's so dark with the heavy clouds and short day (sunrise 7:30am, sunset 3:30pm) that even at noon any automatic dark sensors turn the lights on.
Yesterday I finally switched to winter tires. Topping off each tire's pressure with 2-3 pumps every 2 weeks is nothing compared to the workout I get after each visit in the tire shop. I took the rear skirts off before going to the shop and decided that the car is
much uglier without them
Of course, I had a few minutes of explaining what the mounting tabs in the wheelwells are for, what the Kammback does, etc. Here's a picture of the inside of one of the skirts, just for those wondering what's going on in there.
Other than lots of dirt, there where small dimples and scratches from flying rocks and sandblasting, but no signs of the wheel or tire rubbing against the bracket. That's good
When I came back from the shop I noticed that the summer tires may be wearing down in the middle, but when checking the tread depth I got around 5mm both in the middle and closer to the sides, so maybe it's just the tread pattern. Another funny thing is that three tires look at least their age, but the rear left tire looks like it has had just one season on it. The tread depth is similar to the others (barely deeper), it just looks much newer. I'd understand if two tires looked better than the other two, either front-rear or left-right, but 3+1 is weird. My theory is that previously one of the tires from the front got mounted in the back, so the one 'newer' tire has spent all its time in the rear, while the other three have been both in front and rear. But then one of the tires should look more 'used' than the rest. I dunno. Just 1-2 more seasons and I hope to finally get LRR's.