Stay Safe On The Road With These Winter Driving Tips

Winter weather is coming. Is your car ready? Many drivers forget about their cars until they end up stranded on the side of the road. With a little bit of attention now, you can be well prepared for whatever driving conditions you face.

Have Your Car Serviced

Before winter hits in full force, take your car in for a routine service and oil change appointment. Your mechanic will check all of its systems and parts to ensure they are in good working order. Why is this important in the winter? If your car breaks down in winter, you could be facing an emergency situation. Being stranded on the side of the road in cold weather is much more dangerous than being stranded on a pleasant summer day, so make sure your car is in good shape to prevent a breakdown.

Check the Cooling System

Have your mechanic check your antifreeze to ensure it is ready to stay in liquid form, no matter how cold the temperatures dip. If you have less than a 50/50 mix of antifreeze and water, your car may not be protected when temperatures drop below zero. A 50/50 mix protects your car at temperatures up to 34 degrees below zero.

Check the Windshield Wipers

When it starts to snow and ice, your windshield wipers will be your first line of defense to ensure you can continue to see while driving. Make sure they are in good condition, and replace them if they are showing signs of wear. Also, make sure the windshield washer reservoir is full, because the salt spray in winter weather can make visibility difficult.

Keep the Gas Tank Full

The winter is not the time to run the car near empty. There's just too much risk that you could end up in a ditch. Plus, without gas in the tank, you could end up without a way to heat the car. Keep the tank half full at all times to prevent a tragedy.

Test the Defrost System

You need a working defrost system to ensure that you have visibility at all times. Make sure the rear window defroster is working, and check the defrost on the front windshield as well. You need to be able to see in order to drive safely, and the defrost systems are a key component of maintaining visibility.

Stock the Right Supplies

Finally, make sure your vehicle is stocked with the right supplies. One of the best winter driving tips to keep in mind is to prepare for the unexpected. Your winter supply should contain:

• Large snowbrush with ice scraper
• A bag of sand to give your tires traction
• Extra windshield washer fluid
• A blanket
• Extra warm clothes
• A few bottles of water and some nonperishable snacks

Remember, it's unlikely that you'll get stuck in a serious blizzard for hours, but it could happen. You need to be prepared!

Choose the Right Tires

Finally, make sure you have the right tires for winter driving. Winter weather or snow tires have specially designed treads, sometimes with studs in them, designed specifically for excellent traction on slick roads. In areas where snow is rare, all-season tires are a good option as well to provide traction in those times when the road gets slick.

Are you in need of new winter tires? Tires By Web has a large selection of winter tires, including Nokian Tires, to help keep your vehicle steady on the road. Browse our winter and snow tires today, or call 800-576-1009 to learn more about our options.

Comparing Stopping Distances Of Tires In Snow

Here in New England, it’s almost like the snow hasn’t stopped falling since we ran a truck tire testing updatelast month. The abundance of snow this year made it possible to evaluate the snow traction capabilities of our truck tires at our Connecticut test facility, avoiding a trip to northern Vermont. (See from last winter: "Behind the scenes: Consumer Reports snow-traction tire testing in Vermont.") We run our standard snow traction acceleration test to evaluate how tires perform in the white stuff, measuring the distance traveled from 5 to 20 mph. The shorter the distance, the better the tire grip.

And some readers had some questions about the tests we run, specifically how this grip might apply to stopping on snow. So we ran some back-to-back tests on randomly selected winter, all-season, and all-terrain tires. The chart below depicts ABS stopping distances from 20 to 0 mph and accelerating distances traveling 5 to 20 mph over hard-packed snow, which mimics a well-traveled snow-covered road. (Also read: "Staying safe on snow- and ice-covered roads.")

What we found was that our test data supports our subjective observations: A winter tire can provide secure grip to accelerate and stop on snow. And winter tires work better than an all-season and all-terrain tire we tested for comparison. Many people make a winter tire purchase solely on the idea of avoiding getting stuck in the snow. And while that has its merits, we think it’s more important to value tire grip for stopping, possibly helping you to avoid a collision. Here, our winter tire stopped at 13 and 16 feet shorter than the all-season and all-terrain tires, respectively—and that was from a relatively slow 20 mph.

Bottom line: If you need to be on the road in wintry weather, consider a winter tire for the best grip to start and stop. That’s especially important to drivers of all-wheel-drive cars and trucks who think they don’t need them. In truth, they may have the get-up-and-go traction to battle winter weather, but they cannot stop any better than a car without all-wheel drive. Only winter tires and your good senses will help that.




From Consumerreports.org:http://news.consumerreports.org/cars/2011/02/winter-tires-comparing-stopping-distances-in-snow-all-season-all-terrain-tire-comparison.html

Be sure to check out TiresByWeb.com - Your Supplier of Winter Tires Since 1977!