Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Keeping Quality Binoculars in Hot Truck?

Not on the dashboard, but in the glove compartment or console. Will this cause damage to high-dollar binoculars on a hot summer day? What if they are stored that way all summer? Thanks.

I've kept mine in the truck for many years -- no ill effects. I do not leave them sitting in the sun however.

Not High Dollar per se but i had a set od Zeiss Diafuns in 8x30 for 4 years with zero problems....Decided I was going to start keeping them in my truck for scouting Hogs and Turkeys in fields....Less than a year later the seals blew on one tube....Now....was it coincidence? I dunno but my Swaros stay in my safe and my Yosemites are my truck glass.

My truck binoculars aren't high dollar either. Just a 10x 21mm Nikon Medallion compact that I picked up on sale at Dick's Sporting Goods a few years ago cause I didn't want to leave real expensive stuff in there. The Nikons live in their soft case tucked into the storage space in the drivers door panel of my Toyota Tacoma. Winter, summer, all year long and so far there's been no problem. I even have a small Tasco 18-36x 50mm spotting scope in a hard case in the storage bin under the back seat. Got it for about 40 bucks from Natchez Shooters Supply back in '07 and use it a few times a year. No problems there either. It's not a bad scope for the price and I ain't gonna leave my Leupold in the truck all year just for informal, occasional use.

I have, for a number years, kept a pair of binoculars in my truck. Usually under the fold down console or on the front seat. The are used a fair bit of the time to watch cows and look for game. No problems with the binoculars have occured. They are SLCs and have been in my trucks since 1997.
If its hot and if I remember to do it they go under the fold down console.

I'd say with modern grease free binoculars it's a non issue.

one of the things folks buy with quality is long life. afaik the glue holding doublets achromats et al will eventually lose light transmission if eyecups and other soft parts don't go first - may not be noticed. no question light through the lenses especially focused can hurt too - but then light is ionizing radiation - cosmic rays hurt too. I don't worry about it much but my in the truck is more likely to be Katmai 6x anyway.

One concern from extended heat exposure would be internal lubricants that might eventually work their way onto internal lenses and prisms. Also, internal glues, sealers and o-rings may shrink or expand and lose effectiveness.

That's why the only time you'll find my Steiner Predator Pro 10x26's from Cameraland riding around in my truck is when I'm transporting them somewhere.

Doug is probably right about the seals and glues and lubricants possibly leaking. I might have to re-think this. I guess you could always send them back to get fixed if something happened.

Never gave it any thought, but my Swaro SLCs failed two years in a row several years ago while hunting Mule Deer in the Tans-Pecos area of west Texas. I do not remember the temperatures involved, but it can get down into the teens at night (with a cold spell) or it can hit the high eighties in the daytime if one of the highs settles in. Maybe so the bino was not all the problem....? jack

Different issue but I worry more about temperature swings from cold soak at low temperatures - low meaning towards negative 40 - to toasty warm roaring fire than I do about the temperatures themselves - and maybe vice versa but not so much. Lubrication may have a lifespan - there was a nice camera lense that may have had oilite bushing style luberication someplace in the system and reportedly went dry after many years.

I keep mine in a cheap small cooler from Wally World and use a couple of small towels for padding during the summer. Don't know how much it helps, but the binos haven't fried yet.

Probably?

I said this Doug awhile back and folks basically laughed thinking I was nuts. Far as I'm concerned, others can drag their bino's behind their trucks on a fire road for all I care. I don't care to bake a $1500 pair of bino's.

I've only got one decent (not high)quality binocular, a 15 year old Nikon. It lives in my pickup in the summer, cause if I don't have it, I can't use it, and I don't have the best eyesight in the world. So far, no problems, and it's been in that pickup sitting at the edge of a field on some HOT days, usually on the passenger seat, or behind the seat.

That said, I'm sure this is not good for it, but I bought that binocular to use. It's a tool, not an heirloom. I've also never had a problem with any riflescopes stored the same way on hot days in the pickup.

I am curious, do those bino's ever get exposed to cold temps for extended periods of time or are they basically kept in that truck enviroment.

RD, not as much cold weather. I take them with me when I go to the farm, and that is a lot more summer weather than winter. I teach school, and play farmer in the summer. Once summer comes, they stay in the pickup usually in their soft case. I am willing to risk them being damaged or stolen, to have them there when I need them. I've used them when they were too hot to comfortably hold. In the winter, they live in my house unless I go hunting, so they've been cold, but not as much as they've been hot. Still clear, adjustment/focus still good, and they've never yet fogged.

Keep in mind, I'm not saying this is good for them...I'm just willing to take the risk.

I've had a pair of Swarafski 8X30 SLC's in my truck for close to 20 years now. THe only time they aren't in there is when they are around my neck hunting. This is in Wiscosnin so they've been from about -40 to God knows how hot it gets in the truck when it's 100+ outside. Never had a single issue with them.

I think the vibration of being in a truck is worse than the heat. I've seen a lot of cheaper pairs go out of sink due to the vibration.

Mine are Nikons... they stay in my truck and another pair in my car... I just leave them hanging around the head rest, and dangling in the bar on the seat on the passenger side of the vehicle... they stay in there year round...

no ill effects...

both pairs were scopes that were $200 and then dropped to $100 when the new models came out...

work fine for my crappy eye sight...