Cold weather poses unique challenges for drivers, including slick roads, frozen wipers, stubborn engines, and icy door locks. Equip yourself with essential tools in a winter survival kit to combat the chilly impact on your vehicle during frigid months.
Emergency Traction Aid
Icy winter conditions remove precious traction from your drive tires, whether equipped with all-seasons or dedicated snows. Hard accelerations often end with embarrassing fishtailing or spinouts into curbs, ditches, or other vehicles.
Stash pocket-style emergency traction devices like cleated slip-on gripper soles in your car during icy weather months. If your vehicle becomes stuck, place them under the drive tires to restore traction so you can carefully work your vehicle free. The temporary grip lets you rock gently free or inch cautiously off slick areas without prolonging entrapment. Just take care not to use them on dry pavement, which can lead to an abrupt loss of control.
Windshield Scraper/Brush
To function safely, drivers require maximum visibility in all directions before heading down snowy streets. But waking to a frost or ice-encased windshield delays departures as you laboriously chip away at stubborn frozen buildup.
Keep a long-handled ice scraper and soft brush combo tool in your vehicle throughout winter. Made specially to avoid scratching glass, quality ones clear frost in seconds, not minutes. Look for versions with an extended, telescoping handle so you can attack hard-to-reach areas across your entire windshield without awkward leaning or straining while clearing wintery glaze.
De-Icer Sprays
Door and trunk locks can freeze up and cease functioning in bitter cold. Squirting them with a de-icer spray quickly thaws frozen mechanisms so you are not permanently sealed out of your ice-encased vehicle.
The fast-acting sprays also work wonders when dashboard vents freeze closed or sticking gas pedals and parking brakes stubbornly resist operation no matter how hard you push them. Keep a can handy to melt away troublesome icy buildups clogging mechanical operations before driving off each subzero morning throughout the winter cold snap.
Emergency Warning Triangles
Snowy scenery all looks similar when you are driving, making it tough to gauge distances or identify landmarks. So accidentally sliding off slick roads into snowbanks or ditches can leave you stranded yet hidden from other motorists’ view.
Carry a set of emergency vehicle warning triangles to immediately mark your location roadside after veering unexpectedly off wintery roads. The bright, attention-grabbing red triangles alert other drivers to slow down and steer clear of your immobilized vehicle until plows, tow trucks or police can arrive to assist. Do not risk becoming invisible when halted in snowy terrain alongside active roadways.
Auto Emergency Jump Starter
Cranking a balky engine in cold weather already taxes your battery’s capacity. Combine repeated attempts with failing cells or aged units and you may face dead battery agony right when you want a quick escape from the brutal chill.
The experts at Clore Automotive recommend tucking a vehicle battery jump starter in your winter kit so you are not dependent on other motorists stopping to assist each time bitter temperatures drain or overload your ride’s battery. The compact yet powerful portable jump starters easily revive drained batteries in seconds to get you rolling again. No cables connecting to an outside car are necessary, providing self-sufficient starting power during frigid weather when you need it most.
Conclusion
With the right gear on hand, you don’t need to suffer helplessly when the cold weather stalls your ride, slashes visibility and threatens your safety this chilly season. Stock these cold weather aids so you can take command of winter dangers and keep moving down the road with confidence.