Drip Auto Pros has a saying that you should always do what’s hard when its easy. This saying can be used in all parts of your life, whether you want to use it for business, detailing your car or for learning how to drive in the winter.

Driving in the winter can cause anxiety amongst many people, it can be scary and unpredictable to expect what can happen on snowed on and icy roads. Over time we are confident you will adjust to the roads and driving on them and dealing with the unpredictability will become second nature to you. But what can you do to prepare yourself and help this to become an easier thing to handle?

Drips Checklist For Winter Driving

1. Buy Winter Tires

When you choose not to buy a good pair of winter tyres you are becoming a significant risk to both others on the road and yourself. Winter tyres will help your car grip and stop much better and the small investment can make driving your car much easier.

Respect others on the road by buying the correct tyres for the season.

2. Ensure Your Car Is Serviced And Maintained.

Driving around with a car that isn’t well maintained is like you going out looking for a disaster to happen. You wouldn’t run a triathlon if your leg was broken so why would you drive your car in freezing temperatures when it is not well looked after.

Some main areas to look out for are ensuring your cars fluids are topped off, do you have enough windshield washer fluid, coolant and braking fluid? Not having these fluids topped off can result in not being able to clean your windshield, loss in stopping power and even your engine over heating.

Are your brakes in top top condition? It is already very hard to stop in the winter and not having your brakes checked and replaced before winter is just going to make it much worse, not to mention it can be harder to replace your parts in the winter.

Running flat tyres in the winter is a sure way to find yourself stuck, losing traction or being unable to stop. When you get your tyres fitted be sure to ask the technician if your tyres have any holes or are leaking air.

Look after some smaller areas as well. Have you replaced your wiper blades if they aren’t functioning properly? A nice pair can be bought from www.costco.com while you are grabbing groceries. Glassparency and ceramic pro can also pair very well when purchasing new wiper blades, these solutions can help prevent frost and ice from sticking to your windshield.

Do all your cars light work, test all the functions such as emergency lights, blinkers and braking, is they don’t this is something you need to get replaced ASAP because without lights on dark winters you are asking for a bad situation. Sometimes your lights may be in great condition but a simple headlight restoration is all you need.

Another very important item that many people overlook is ensuring your battery has good health before the winter. We have all had a case where we had to go boost a friends car because their battery simply couldn’t hold up to the intense winter conditions. Checking or replacing your battery before winter will really help you.

A great tool to carry in your car is this portable battery booster and tyre pump. Personally I have had to use it several times and I found it much better calling for help because It is an instant solution instead of waiting for someone to lend a hand. You can purchase a great one by clicking here

3. Pack Items To Help When You Are Stuck

Getting your car stuck in the winter can and will happen to most people, while not many people are able to get their car out by using their driving tactics many os us can use these common house hold tools to get our cars out.

When your car is stuck it is generally because the wheels have gun deeply into the snow and are unable to gain traction, our end goal here is to provide our wheels with traction to be able to get out of the hole.

Keeping some cardboard, kitty litter and spare vehicle matts are excellent options to wedge under your wheel to help your tyre gain traction in the winter. If you happen to be stuck without any of these items you can get creative, I have been able to get my car out of the snow by using a large rock!

Sometimes we will still need help from others to push our cars out and some important things to remember are to not push on the side mirrors or spoilers, we have seen too many cars get these items ripped off. 

Another key thing to remember is when pushing to allow the car to rock in order to gain momentum, you or a few other individuals are not gonna move a stuck car by applying continuous brute force, use physics to your advantage!

As a first time driver you may not know what to do when stuck so you can watch this youtube video on some basics on what to do to get out.

4. Be Aware Of Your Surroundings

Driving in the winter will eventually become inevitable for you, the best thing you can do is actually get in a car and gain some practice. You should start by driving slow when the conditions are bad and always be aware of your surroundings. 

You shouldn’t care if anyone honks at you for driving slow, its much better if you drive slow and get honked at instead of crashing your car. Driving slow will allow you to get used to the stopping time, knowing what to do when you are slipping and learn the best way to apply your brakes in such cases.

If you do find yourself in stressful cases it can be wise to put on your emergency blinkers or pull over on the side to evaluate your situation, trust me we have all been there. If you find yourself sliding into the direction of another car it can also be wise to drive onto a curb or off the road (make sure there are no pedestrians). It is always better to risk a little damage on your personal car instead of a lot of damage on your car and another persons car.

While Drip Auto Pros does not provide may of these maintenance services we are more than happy to be the best Calgary car and semi-truck detailing company that will help reduce the aesthetic damages winter can bring. Want to learn how we detail cars? Click here to see more