Ideas for Leaving Ukes in Cars

I know it’s been discussed exhaustively never ever never ever ever never to leave your uke in a car. I’m wondering though if there’s something you can use to at least make it less dangerous for short periods of time (couple hours) in only somewhat warm weather (80F / 26C).

I was wondering maybe those big thermal bags that claim to keep drinks cold for “up to three hours.” Or maybe even a thermal tennis racquet bag.

I know you can always just get a beater uke and just forget about it, but it would be nice to be able to be able to take along one of your more prized ukes every now and then without worrying too much about it.

If it's 80 F outside, how hot will it get in the car in two hours? Yes, I've seen those big insulated gabs, and they should work to a degree. Throw a cooler blue-ice-pack in, and you'll be fine!

My basic rule is I don't leave my solid wood ukes anywhere I wouldn't leave my dog (or any living critter).

I carry it - or leave it at home.

Honestly that's why i love Flukes/Fleas so much... Durable, but they sound amazing compared to your typical "beater", and are more than loud enough for your typical park jams. I still wouldn't leave it in the car though. I'll be packing mine through Thailand next week - 95% humidity, 95F, thunderstorms and all.

If I had to, I might try that bag trick... here's a way to test without risking anything if you have time:

Park in the sun

Grab two cheap thermometers and drop one in the car for a few hours (thermo 1)... then drop the other (thermo 2) in your insulated bag with some blue ice thingies. Leave the uke out of the experiment - you don't need it.

Check thermo 1 to get your baseline heat in the car. Read the bag thermo (thermo 2) from time to time to see how it goes. Compare the two readings to room temp (72F-ish). This method should also let you know how much time it will buy you - that is if you keep measuring the inner bag temp over time until it's close to car temp.

Watch the bag for moisture and condensation... FAR more dangerous to the uke than heat.

You probably will want to use ziplocks around the blue ice things to keep condensation out of the bag - but check carefully for water forming anywhere as that will kill the usefulness of the cooling system entirely.

Man ... the 2010 Prius with solar powered cabin cooling is really starting to sound good right about now haha.

My Flea and Fluke don't seem to mind spending some time in the car, and I'm down in hot, steamy Florida.

I just have to retune them when I bring them in, and sometimes I need to tighten the friction tuners with a screwdriver. No biggie.

Where I live, 26C is part of a heatwave. To think some people call that warm makes me afraid to travel.

J-Machine said:

Where I live, 26C is part of a heatwave. To think some people call that warm makes me afraid to travel.

Click to expand...

Wow... that's about 79F - not too far from room temperature. That's a very comfy heat-wave.

We just had a couple of record-breaking hot ones here - 44.4C (112F). Now that's hot.