What is the top reason for roadside assistance? Can you guess and, maybe, win an oil change?

Do you have roadside assistance? You might have it and not even realize it; it sometimes comes with your auto insurance (check your policy). Roadside assistance is a good thing to have, especially in McHenry during the winter.

Lacking roadside assistance, when the winter winds of McHenry are howling, and often carrying snow, is not a good idea. With roadside assistance, you’re only a phone call away from someone coming to help. In McHenry, there’s a good chance that someone from Rex Towing may pull up in a tow truck behind you and save your bacon when you’re in a pickle (does that constitute a mixed metaphor or separate food groups?).

There are good reasons to call for roadside assistance. In years gone by, most folks changed their own flat tires. In the movie ‘A Christmas Story,’ the father is described as looking at a flat tire as though he’s in the pits at the Indy 500. Today, far more drivers are inclined to call for help. Consider a recent commercial where a teenager is speaking on the phone with his father and the father mentions the lug wrench.

The teenager tells his father, “Of course, I know what a lug wrench is.” Then he turns to his friend and whispers, “Is this a lug wrench?”

So, are flat tires the top reason that people call for roadside assistance? Could be, or it could be something else.

People do call for roadside assistance for all kinds of reasons. When a car breaks down past the point where it can be serviced on the side of the road, they call to have the car towed to an auto repair shop. But, according to one insurance provider, there is one particular reason that people call for roadside assistance that hasn’t been mentioned here yet.

Can you guess what that is? Give us your answer and, if it’s correct, and you’re relatively close to McHenry, IL, you’ll be entered into a drawing to win a free oil change from Performance Unlimited. To submit your answer, simply send an email to rich@richpublicity.com with “Roadside Assistance Answer” in the subject line. If you have the correct answer, your name goes in the hat for a free oil change. The drawing is Feb. 21, 2018 (all entries must be submitted by midnight Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2018). And, good luck.

Entry is valid for an oil change with up to five quarts of oil at Performance Unlimited. Winning entry is valid until June 1, 2018.

Is your antifreeze safe from freezing this Richmond winter

You still have time to have it checked Well, there’s no denying it – winter tends to get chilly here in Richmond. We have to deal with snow and ice on the roads, scraping the same off our windows and windshield, and staying warm while we drive. Of course, you had your antifreeze checked before winter rolled into town. What?! You didn’t have your antifreeze checked before winter clamped down on Richmond? So, how’s your antifreeze doing? If you haven’t had it checked, there’s really no way of knowing, is there? This car has overheated in the middle of a Richmond winter. But, on the other end of the spectrum, the antifreeze can also freeze if it's not up to its job. Hopefully, you haven’t had a serious problem with your antifreeze already. If you did, you’d probably know. When antifreeze fails, it’s a potentially catastrophic condition for your vehicle’s engine. You could have hoses that have burst because of freezing antifreeze. Worse than that, your engine block may have crac...

Blocks of ice falling from cars in McHenry could cause accidents or damage

We’ve all seen those blocks of snow falling from behind the rear tires of a car when the snow rolls into McHenry . Fortunately, they’re just packed snow that will disintegrate under your vehicle’s tires as you simply drive right through them, right? Don’t count on it. Those blocks of snow are often packed so tight, condensed by the thaw-and-freeze cycle, that they’re anything but oversized snowballs . They’re often more like boulders. Hit one of those blocks and the collision between the block and one of your tires could send you careening off the road or into oncoming traffic. In some cases, they’re so solid you could pound them with a sledgehammer with little effect. They truly can represent a serious road hazard. The problem is that it’s difficult to tell how solidly they’re packed when you see them on the road, left their unwittingly by another driver. Either way, your best bet is to try to avoid them. But you want to be careful dodging blocks of ice in the road, too. You need...

Get out to McHenry Music Festival for a good time and music near to home

Some folks here in McHenry will load up the car and head out to Red Rock Amphitheater near Denver to see a show. Some will go to the MSG Sphere near Las Vegas. Some will go to the Bonaroo Festival Concert to see a show. That’s quite a bit of driving and you’d better make sure your vehicle is up to the trip. What happens, however, if something goes wrong – if your vehicle breaks down while driving there or back? What happens if the show is canceled, as happened this year with the Bonaroo Festival? We’re talking about some serious inconvenience, aren’t we? Wherever you go, whether your driving to Colorado, Nevada, Tennessee or anywhere else in this continent, you want to perform your due diligence and make sure the vehicle is up for the trip before you go. And it doesn’t really matter if you’re driving somewhere to see some live music or for any other purpose. A breakdown can be costly and may put you at the mercy of weather conditions or nefarious characters that come across you while y...

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