It’s not to late to run through an emergency Wonder Lake winter checklist for your car, truck or SUV

We've put some of this Wonder

Lake winter behind us, but
running your car, truck or SUV
through a checklist to make sure
it's ready for the rest of winter
is still a good idea.

There aren’t many good times for your car, truck or SUV to breakdown. But a Wonder Lake winter is a distinctly worse time for such an occurrence.

Cold temperatures can create hazards for you and loved ones if you’re out somewhere, particularly far from your Wonder Lake home, when the vehicle conks out.

On days when the weather is really bad – temperatures are dangerously cold, the wind is blowing and carrying a blinding snow in its grip – you don’t want to find yourself in a car, truck or SUV that’s rocking with the wind, as the snow builds up outside with no heat inside. And if the engine won’t run, you won’t have heat for long, if at all.

Have you prepared for such a possibility? Or are you completely at the mercy of the elements and a vehicle that won’t cooperate?

The best way to avoid such a calamity is to be prepared.

As Benjamin Franklin put it, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”

Preparing for such a situation starts with taking the time to make such a crisis less likely. This starts with your vehicle. Well, on really bad days, it could also start with deciding if your trip is really necessary. But let’s assume that this trip is that important.

Coolant/Antifreeze: This dual-purpose fluid is essential to the proper operation of your car, truck or SUV. It needs to avoid freezing when the vehicle is parked and not running. It also needs to avoid extremely high temperatures when you’re driving and operating your vehicle.
Battery & Alternator: Are your battery and charging system up to the challenges posed by winter? You want to know that your car, truck or SUV will start and continue to run even if Wonder Lake looks like an Arctic landscape.
Oil: Oil is the lifeblood of your vehicle. You want to change it on schedule, and that schedule is vitally important in the winter.
Tires: Rubber chills in winter and air pressure can drop. Check your tires with frequency to ensure that you can count on your tires for proper traction and not going flat.
Lights & Signals: Your headlights help you to see while helping others to see you. No doubt you can remember a cold-winter night when it was a blessing to see well. And those signals – turn signals, brake lights, running lights – help others to see you while communicating your intentions.
Wipers & Solvent: Keeping the windshield and windows clean is a top priority when winter is doing all it can to interfere with the vision of drivers.
Scrappers & Brushes: As with ‘6’ above, scrappers and brushes help you to clear away snow and ice before you drive.
Fuel: Fuel lines can freeze in the winter, starving your engine from fuel. Filling up the tank often helps to avoid this potential problem.

Keeping the following in your car, truck or SUV will help to keep you and passengers safe:

Blanket, warm coat, gloves and hat
Energy bar and bottle of water
Cell phone with a charged battery
A shovel and a bag of road salt
Reflective emergency road markers

These all give you an advantage when confronting a Wonder Lake winter and keeping your car, truck or SUV safely and reliably on the road.

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...

Performance Unlimited Blog

Search This Blog