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.

5 Tips for Finding the Best Winter Tires

As the cold, harsh winter descends on us all, it makes sense to prepare for the snow and ice – especially as regards driving. There's no better way to manage dangerous driving conditions than with new, heavy-duty snow tires and a little common sense on your part. However, choosing the right winter tires is not as easy as it sounds and the process can seem relatively complicated.

Never fear! We at Tires by Web know our tires better than anyone and are more than qualified to make some initial recommendations and educate you on the subject. Here are five of the most important factors to consider when choosing winter tires:

1.  Location – First, consider where you live: Is it cold a lot or only a little? You'll need to think about how often you're dealing with cold and slippery conditions when choosing tires. For instance, you might choose all-weather tires if living in an area with only a few snow days a year. However, if your area deals with a lot of ice and snow, you'll definitely want to look into season-specific tires. Also, think about whether you have to traverse hills and terrain or merely flat, paved streets to determine whether you want studded tires or not.

2.  Where are you driving? – Obviously, there's a major difference between city and country driving. The city tends to be less risky because roads are well-maintained and often salted and cleared early – they also have lower speed limits. Country driving tends to mean higher speeds, and more dangerous driving conditions that will require a higher grade winter tire with optimal traction.

3.  Car type – Although 4-wheel drive can be helpful on snowy roads, that doesn't mean you may not need good seasonal tires. Winter tires can improve any vehicle's ability to drive in dangerous road conditions and maintain better traction. The type of tire you choose will ultimately depend on your particular car – the size, make, and model will all have bearing.

4.  Lifespan of the car – How long do you plan to keep your vehicle? This is an important question to ask yourself when selecting winter tires. If you don't intend to keep your car for more than a couple years, it doesn't make sense to splurge on the most expensive winter tires on the market. There are plenty of reasonably priced varieties that will suit your car and not break the bank.

5.  Budget – Although safety usually trumps frugality, tires are a pricey purchase. Since most individuals are on a budget of some kind, it makes sense to find the best price possible for a product. However, DON'T buy used tires from a random seller on Craigslist – your life is too important for a risk like that! Instead, a great option is to find a legitimate online business that specializes in tires and offers excellent prices.

If you are considering winter tires, take the above factors into account and then check out the options that suit your needs. This may lead you to choose Vredestein Snow Tires or one of our other excellent brands. Whatever you choose, new, specialized tires are an investment in your safety that are worth the effort!

4 Tips for the Perfect Winter Road Trip

When you think about a road trip, you are probably imagining it during the summer. While the warmer months are often a more appealing time to take a road trip, many people actually travel more during the winter months when visiting friends and family for the holidays. However, if you decide to drive to your winter destination, you should take certain precautions to keep yourself and your passengers safe. Otherwise, you are playing with fire . . . er, or ice. Below are a few tips on how to plan a seamless cold weather road trip:

Bring a Friend or Other Family Member

Not only will bringing a friend or family member provide you with some company (useful for making sure you stay awake on a long haul), but they can also potentially split the driving with you. This keeps your chances of having an accident at a minimum. While your companion is driving you can catch a quick nap to keep your energy levels high for your fun-filled mini vacation.

Physically Print Out Directions

This may seem a little old-school, but having a printed set of directions will come in handy if your navigation system fails – which is always a possibility. There is nothing worse than driving aimlessly in a city or state without the slightest idea of where you are or how to get where you are going. Familiarize yourself with the major highways and the direction in which you should be heading on your trip so that, if you get lost, you will have a general idea of how to reroute. When in doubt, buy a state or regional map to supplement, or grab one of the free ones sometimes offered by welcome centers at the state borders. Keeping a physical copy of the directions could be the difference between arriving before or after Christmas day.

Keep Your Tank Relatively Full 

No matter how carefully you study the directions or how many GPS systems you have on hand, it's still possible to get turned around – especially if it's your first time traveling to a location. If you're on a long stretch of country road with no civilization in sight or on a turnpike that you can't get off of for several miles, the last thing you want to be worried about is whether you have enough gas. For this reason, it's crucial to keep your tank full. It may also be smart to keep a small gas can in your trunk for emergency situations – though, for safety reasons, it's best that you keep it empty while driving. As a rule of thumb, always fuel up when you hit 1/4^th of a tank to ensure that you're never too low.

Winterize Your Car

Getting your car winter-ready involves replacing and topping off all of your fluids, switching out your windshield wipers and exterior lights, getting new brakes installed, and equipping the vehicle with winter tires. Your fluids (like oil and antifreeze) will keep your engine running smoothly, changing your wipers will allow you to see clearly in harsh weather, brake pads will be crucial to your ability to stop, and the treading on new tires will reduce your chances of sliding and skidding out. Remember not to go too cheap on your replacements, as these are the things that will keep you safe in dangerous conditions. In this case, it pays to go with the best and most reliable brands like Nokian snow tires.

The winter is a beautiful season, but it can be a hazardous one too. If you follow these tips when planning a road trip this winter, you are more likely to rule the road than end up on the side of it. 

Nokian Hakkapeliitta Driving School

Nokian has been producing the safest and best performing winter tires that money can buy for decades. With roots dating back to 1932, safety has always been a top priority for Nokian. 

Even with expensive snow tires, there are still many things that the average motorist might not know about safety when it comes to winter driving. The Hakkapeliitta Driving School is an excellent resource for all types of driver. Whether you're a novice, intermediate or expert driver, you are sure to learn something new at the Hakkapeliitta Driving School. 

The Winter Driving School provides instructions for setting up your car in the winter, and for surviving different driving conditions, on icy roads as well as during snowfall or freezing weather. Speed is very important, for example. When driving on slippery roads, you should remember that doubling your speed will quadruple your braking distance, says Matti Morri, Technical Customer Service Manager from Nokian Tyres.

The Winter Driving School illustrates information through videos and texts. Finally, it allows you to test your knowledge of winter driving with a quiz. Even those who feel confident as winter drivers should visit the site and see if their knowledge is still up to date. The Winter Driving School will be available in English, Russian, Swedish, Norwegian, and Finnish.

Winter tires have a tendency to give the driver overconfidence of the vehicle's abilities. It is a good idea to test the vehicle's response during inclement weather in a controlled environment. Knowing the limits of your vehicle will allow the driver to adequately adjust their driving habits during winter weather, thus making them a much safer driver.  

Check out the Hakkapeliitta Driving School here and become a safer driver today! 

www.nokiantyres.com/winter-driving-school

(credit to Nokian tires blog @ http://www.nokiantyres.com/media-release?id=30721059&year=2012&group=)