Skip to main content

Long Wonder Lake nights make your vehicle’s lights all the more important

Wonder lake headlights
The sun rises in Wonder Lake today at 7:22 a.m., Tuesday, Jan. 10, and it sets at 4:39 p.m. That’s not the shortest day of the year but it’s only 9 hours and 17 minutes of daylight. Consider that the longest day of the year, June 21, the sun will rise at 5:16 a.m. (adjusted by an hour when we jumped the clocks forward one hour on March 12) and will set at 8:33 p.m. That represents a 15-hour and 17-minute day. 

The difference is six hours – six hours of additional sunlight in June and six hours less than that now. Translated to fit the concerns of Wonder Lake drivers, that means that you’re far more likely to spend more time driving in the dark. Those lights on your vehicle are critical.

  • You have lights designed to help you see – the headlights and, when you backup, the backup lights.
  • You have lights designed to help others see you – the running lights.
  • And, you have lights designed to help you communicate your intentions to pedestrians and other drivers.

Headlights: You want those headlights to work so you can see where you’re going when it’s dark. You want the ability to switch on the high beams to improve your sight in particular situations. And you want the backup lights to work so you can see where you’re going when you back up. Even if you have a reverse camera, you want those lights working so you can see where you’re going.

Running Lights: You’ll find these on the front, back and sides of the vehicle. They all need to work. They’re positioned to give other drivers an idea of the dimensions of your vehicle so they know where it begins and ends. They help other drivers to keep from running into you.

Communication Lights: These include the brake lights, the reverse lights (dual purpose) and the turn signals. These lights allow you to communicate your intentions before you act behind the wheel. It’s beneficial to all involved when other drivers know when you’re going to stop, turn and/or backup. 

These lights are essential all year round. Some are essential even in broad daylight. For instance, lights that signal your intentions are imperative regardless of the time of day or night. And, though night is shorter in June, you still want those headlights when it gets dark.

It’s just that, in a Wonder Lake winter, we have so much more nighttime during the day. It’s essential that the lights on our vehicles work. It’s a good idea to keep them clean and adjusted, too.


Wonder Lake tire rotation


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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...