Winter Driving Tips | Royal Moore Buick GMC
Driving in winter weather conditions isn’t for the faint of heart, especially here in Portland. Royal Moore Buick GMC is here to remind you to take care as you drive around town or across the country this season. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2019 saw 440 fatal crashes along with an estimated 33,000 injury crashes caused by severe winter weather.
The last thing you’d want is for snow-covered roads, sudden whiteout conditions, and other unexpected winter events to endanger you and others traveling with you. Here are a few winter driving tips aimed at helping you stay safe, alert, and prepared.
Staying Prepared
No vehicle is complete without a winter emergency kit. On top of the first aid kit you should already have inside your vehicle, you should also have plenty of cold-weather gear on hand for every journey. That includes extra blankets and extra sets of warm clothing. You should also keep extra water and non-perishable foods in your vehicle, along with a flashlight, extra batteries, and an ice scraper, among other useful items.
If you haven’t switched over to winter tires already, now is a good time to do just that. Winter tires offer more usable traction than what you’d get from ordinary all-season tires. Some varieties even feature metal studs for clawing through thick snow and ice, although that’s only useful on mountain passes and other roads that aren’t regularly plowed or de-iced.
It’s also a good idea to keep your gas tank half-full throughout the winter. Not only does it help protect your fuel pump, but you’ll also have fewer worries about running low on fuel.
Driving in Cold Weather
No one said driving in cold weather was easy, but these tips should make it a bit easier to make it through the winter:
- Always check your fluids before setting off on long trips. Make sure all of your car’s vital fluids – engine oil, coolant, brake fluid, etc. – are at their correct levels and top them off as needed. Also, keep a close eye on your vehicle’s undercarriage for leaks.
- Check your tire pressures before each drive. For each 10-degree drop in outdoor temperatures, your tires will lose up to 2 PSI of pressure. A 25-percent drop in tire pressure can trigger your TPMS light, so be mindful of this as you keep track of your car’s tire pressures.
- Make sure your tires have plenty of tread. Even winter tires can lose traction if there’s not enough tread left. Use a tire gauge to measure the remaining tread. Tires with less than 3/32-inches of tread should be replaced as soon as possible.
- Always check the weather report before your trip. Find out what the weather has in store for your planned route and plan accordingly. Don’t hesitate to delay your trip by a few hours or even a few days to avoid severe winter weather.
- Use a winterized variety of windshield washer fluid. Winter blends feature anti-freeze properties that prevent them from icing over, making them effective when temperatures dip below freezing.
If you don’t have to drive in bad winter weather, just stay home. There’s no point in taking unnecessary risks, even if you feel you can drive safely under severe weather conditions.
Driving in the Snow
- Don’t speed on icy or snowy roads. You don’t have as much traction or braking ability as you think. Instead, drive a bit slower than you normally would in dry weather. Doing so will give you more time to react to unexpected obstacles and other sudden changes.
- Accelerate and brake smoothly. Hard acceleration and hard breaking only breaks traction on snow- and slush-covered roads. Apply the gas slowly and smoothly as you accelerate from a stop. Use the same slow and smooth motion as you bring your vehicle to a safe and predictable stop.
- Increase your following distances. It takes longer to slow down and stop on icy and snowy roads, so make your following distances a bit longer to account for the longer stopping distance. Leave a 5- to 6-second gap between you and the vehicle ahead of you.
- Don’t floor it up hills. Again, flooring it will only make you lose traction. Instead, take a gradual approach to climbing hills. Use only as much power as needed to move forward without breaking traction and let inertia do the rest.
- If you’re going up a hill, don’t stop mid-way. In most cases, you won’t have enough traction or inertia to get yourself started again.
- Avoid making any sudden turns or lane changes. Sudden movement can easily unsettle your vehicle, causing you to lose control of your vehicle.
- Know when to expect black ice. Although you can’t see it, you always want to be on the lookout for it. Approach bridges, overpasses, tunnels, and other parts of the road that sporadically see sunshine. Occasionally, you can spot black ice via shiny patches that stand out from an ordinarily dull road.
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