Baseball welcomes the same season that brings McHenry the pothole

One sign of the arrival of Spring is the advent of baseball season. This is an especially pleasant time of year for Cubs, Sox and Brewers fans in the area since baseball generally means warmer weather and the end of winter weather. But this is also the season of the pothole here in McHenry.

Potholes are the product of winter weather but don’t put all the blame on the season; you and your car, truck or SUV share some of the blame.

How is it possible that you would play a role in the crumbling of McHenry roadways? To understand, we need to look at how potholes form. For our purposes, it can be narrowed down to a three-step process. The steps are as follows:

Rainwater, melting snow and ice seep into the asphalt. As it runs through, it moves into the roadbed gravel and the soil beneath.
The weight of vehicles passing above forces the water down.
As the moisture in the asphalt, roadbed and soil freezes and thaws, it causes expansion and contraction that erodes the roadbed under the asphalt allowing the weight of passing cars, trucks and SUVs to break the asphalt above into pieces.

What this means is that driving plays an integral role in the creation of potholes. We can do a lot to save the roads from potholes if only we quit driving during the winter months (the heat of summer can cause the pavement to buckle). Since it’s really not practical to stop driving all winter, we’re just going to have to live with the existence of potholes until road crews can come out and patch or replace the pavement.

The problem with potholes is that they disrupt those soft, smooth stretches of road we all prefer to drive on (all of us except the offroad drivers who go out of their way looking for the roughest stretches on or off the road). While this is uncomfortable for us, it’s worse for our vehicles.

For a car, truck or SUV potholes are down-right abusive. They cause excessive wear for steering and suspension components. They generally shake your vehicle apart. Drive over enough potholes and you’re liable to hear new rattles coming from the car, truck or SUV.

Drive through enough McHenry potholes and you’ll need to start replacing your shocks, struts and other components of the steering and suspension. And, it’s important to remember that worn steering and suspension parts can make your vehicle dangerous to drive.

Comments

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...

Timely maintenance is even more important with your Johnsburg Electric Vehicle

Even if you have an electric vehicle in your Johnsburg driveway, maintenance is still critical. You pull out of your Johnsburg driveway and you watch the gas stations go by as you smile from behind the wheel of your EV – Electric Vehicle. Of course, at some point, you will have to stop and charge the battery but you still take some comfort that you’re not standing next to your car as the fuel pumps into your tank. One of the true comforts you take with your EV is that the mechanics of your vehicle are simplified. You don’t have to worry about the engine breaking down anymore, and we all know how costly that can be. But there’s more to your EV vehicle than you may have considered when you first parked it in your Johnsburg driveway. Many of the parts found on gasoline-driven vehicles are also present on your EV. These require the same maintenance as your gasoline-powered vehicle. For instance, you EV still has: Tires and Wheels Brakes Steering and Suspension Windshield Wipers and So...

Performance Unlimited Blog

Search This Blog