While winter is an excellent time to create crackling fires and have a warm cup of coffee, it’s a tough season for the people on the road. Winter causes dreadful conditions on the highway, i.e. icy and snowy conditions—it’s the time when we hope spring would return immediately.
Driving under such conditions requires excellent control and a lot of safety measures to sail through. That’s why you need to learn a few driving tricks to stay safe while driving during winter:
- Vehicle Maintenance must be at the top of your list:
It’s necessary to do regular maintenance tasks for your vehicle to ensure it’s in excellent condition for your road trip or risk running into issues.
Here are the various maintenance tasks you should perform to ensure you’re prepared thoroughly for your winter ride:
- Checking the tires: it’s necessary to check the condition of your tires. Worn-out tires slip and slide in icy conditions. Therefore, it would be best to buy the all-season tires to help you drive through quickly during winter.
- Check your oil and antifreeze levels: Ensure to fill your fuel tank whenever it hits halfway. It will help you to avoid getting caught in with less fuel during harsh weather.
- Test your brakes: You want to ensure that you’re in control of your vehicle at all times in icy and wet conditions. That’s why it’s necessary to check your brakes to ensure you have great control over your car.
- Ensuring that your tire pressure level is to the required standard: Tire pressure drops by 1-2 lbs whenever the temperature drops by 10°F.
- Don’t drive if it’s not necessary
Unless it’s essential, not driving during winter is the best way to stay safe during those harsh conditions. If it’s a must to drive during winter, you should ensure that your vehicle is safe to ride in such situations.
- Ensure that you have emergency supplies
While we emphasize safe driving, it may not always come to your when you encounter a challenge. So equipping your vehicle with some supplies will help you in the case of an unforeseen emergency.
Among the things in your emergency kit should include a first aid kit, shovel, sand, warm clothes, snow chains, flare, blanket, and more. Also, you should have food, water, phone charger in your vehicle.
- Learn defensive driving
The main goal of undertaking a driver training course is to become a perfect and successful driver. It would be best if you practiced defensive driving to achieve that status. What’s more, defensive driving enables you to stay focused while on the road.
It would be best if you drove at lower speeds in winter conditions. Making quick and awkward movements may cause you to slip and slide and land you in trouble. Also, it would help if you accelerated at a lower speed when changing lanes, making turns, and more.
- Avoid distractions
Regardless of the driving conditions, minimizing various distractions may help you stay safe while driving. Even more critical is when you’re driving in wet, icy, and snowy conditions. You should turn off your phone, radio and ensure that your hands are on the wheel constantly.
Conclusion
Winter comes with various harsh conditions that make it challenging to drive on the road. It would help if you were prepared to avoid running into problems when you drive in wet, icy, and snowy conditions. The expert tips mentioned above can help you know what to do when driving in winter conditions.
