Part of owning a vehicle is knowing how to be prepared. As your auto body shop about preparing yourself for different scenarios, but today we want to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Rather than getting prepared for a specific situation, have you done a year-round check on your automotive preparedness recently? If you don’t know what you’re dealing with, consider the following things to make sure you and your vehicle are ready for whatever is thrown your way, no matter what season it might be.
Have Winter Tires
All-season tires won’t do the trick when it comes to all season automotive preparedness. Especially in the Front Range where the winters can get a little hairy, and if you plan on heading to the mountains at all, it’s important to have tires specifically designed to handle not only cold weather, but ice and snow as well. All-season tires can handle a mild winter, but it’s safer (and better) to swap out those regular or all-season tires for winter ones around Thanksgiving when the weather is starting to turn for the colder/snowier for the season.
Keep up With Regular Maintenance
This is one of the biggest, most important things we can recommend to any vehicle owner. Keeping up with regular maintenance (tire rotations, oil changes, etc) will not only extend the life of your vehicle, but it will allow you to catch anything that might be wrong before you find out the hard way.
Watch the Gas Tank
This applies year round, but it becomes more relevant as the temperatures cool and you find yourself facing frost in the mornings more often than not. With colder temperatures, you run the risk of your fuel freezing or gelling more easily, not to mention the dangers of running out of gas in the middle of nowhere or when you aren’t near a gas station if the temps are below freezing. We always recommend keeping your gas tank above 1/2 full, but that recommendation becomes more of a requirement when winter rolls around. Trust us, you can thank us later.
Emergency Kit
We know we’ve talked about this one before, but there really aren’t enough times to really drive home how important it is to have an emergency kit fully stocked in your vehicle at all times. What you need might differ from season to season, but we always think it’s best to keep a season-proof version available, so no matter when something goes wrong, you are fully prepared to handle it. It doesn’t hurt to test the things in the kit now and then, too, to make sure they are still working like you’d need them to in case of an emergency. Jumper cables, a tire jack, flashlights, a tool kit, food, clothes, blankets, a crank radio, and spare tires are all good choice to have stocked.
Don’t Neglect Registration
This almost goes along with regular maintenance, but few things hurt worse than getting pulled over only to realize you waited too long to get your vehicle’s registration renewed. Keep a recurring event on your calendar to remind you annually when this needs to be done (maybe put it in there a few times in case you forget) and make sure to renew it before your grace period ends. Most of the time, you can order it online and receive it in the mail without having to bother with the DMV, but if you need to make a trip there, be sure to allow yourself enough time. We all know how it goes at the DMV.
With these tips in mind, you can feel confident as the proud owner of your vehicle that you are prepared to handle anything the seasons might throw at you. What are your must-haves to keep your car/truck/van/SUV prepared year round?
