As The World Turns

WINTER DRIVING EH?

Coming from a tropical country, one's only major converns when driving a car are:
- Will the car overheat?
- Is the air-conditioning working?

And that’s it in the tropics. .

Oh the “Fun” of winter, sliding around on the ice and snow (I wish I had car like this though). I have since learned a lot since getting a car here (*sage sounding voice*). So like any new parent its been a process of discovery during winter as well as laughable and terrifying experiences. So for winter driving, there is a host of items you are better off with and for safety’s sake too.


Tires
Regular tires I use are All Season Tires but only good for 3 seasons, Spring, Summer and Fall and the occasional sprinkling of snow. But any ice or real snow and you can forget about moving. I remember one hilarious moment when I was spinning my tires and not moving on a very very slight incline! I had to let my car roll back about 50 meters to a flat spot and then getting momentum to charge up that slope. How sloped? Errr less than a disabled person’s wheelchair ramp. But the worse part was, on ice, just touch the brakes and you slide, I once almost slid to the middle of a junction, lucky no cars then. Lessons lessons and ABS doesn’t help, if anything, you will probably slide further since the tires don't stop rotating.Then along comes real winter and better that you change to Winter Tires. They provide waaaaayyyyy better grip, won’t slide on ice and snow so easily, drives and brakes so much better on the white stuff. But these really suck on long trips and during the summer they have less grip because they have been made stiffer for the winter cold. See how chunky are the tread blocks.



Anti-freeze Windshield Washing Liquid
In hot weather its easy, plain water will do.
In winter, anti freeze is a must, there is a lot of muck and mud thrown up by car tires and washing your winscreen is a regular affair.




Anti Freeze Coolant and Engine Oil.
These are a godsend, otherwise you will have a nicely formed block of ice in the engine bay instead of an engine the next morning. Some cars have their radiator grills covered, unthinkable in SG! I also remember the engine temp dropping (!) instead of the usual heating up that cold cold day.



Engine Block Heater
Together with the anti-freeze, this little baby will keep you engine nice and warm. Just plug in. Engine gets warmed up faster too.





Gas (petrol)
Up here in the Sua Teng (Hokkien for mountain top) better to add anti-freeze to the gas. Petro-Canada already adds that to their gas so saves me a bunch of trouble.


Wipers
Regular wiper blades work, Winter blades better, they have a rubber sheath over the skeleton so ice get into it and become stiff.


Must have fashion accessories:

Snow brush – for brushing off all that snow that covered your car overnight. Also can be used to brush snow off oneself, be used as a pointer and a self defence weaponc against squirrels.







Ice Scraper – for scraping ice off your windshield, its hard work! Also for scraping off your tongue frozen to a metal post.






Snow shovel – to dig your car out after a really heavy snow storm

# posted by Fantasy "Sticky" Flier : 9:04 PM