Prepping Cars For Winter Conditions

Description

Preparations: 1:12 Problem solving: 12:05 Kit: 21:21

In this video I talk about the stuff that I think is important to be mindful of when preparing the car for the cold season, and when driving in the winter time.

I had a really hard time not making this a 5 hour video. Hopefully I managed to keep the stuff you might need and left out stuff you don't.

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Tags: Car,Driving,Fuel,Diesel,Petrol,Gasoline,Engine,Motor,Winter,Snow,Ice,Tires,Weels,Stuck,Battery,Frozen,Jumper Cables,Camping,Travel,Outdoor,Wilderness,Forest,Tip,Prepping,Survival,Prepared,Gear,Kit,Sony A7,Shure VP83,Arctic,North,Winterizing,Winterising,Prep,Preparing,Prepparing,Conditioning

Video Transcription

hello and welcome to the Norwegian wits today I'm going to talk about a really important piece of the outdoors equipment and that's your car how to maintain it and prepare it for the winter it is one of the really important items because when you go out in the wilderness yeah oftentimes park the car far away from from other people and have to rely on it and there are certain things that you have to have to do make sure that the car behaves in a way that you want it to and when it gets really cold things changed quite a bit and it puts a lot of demands on both the car and the driver and I want to talk a little bit about these subjects in this video

in this first part of the video I want to talk a little bit about preparations you can do to your car before you leave home and you can also do this before the winter even starts so the car is the car is ready for the winter conditions and the first and probably the most important thing that you have to take care of is the battery you have to make sure that the battery is operating as good as it absolutely can and you have to make sure that battery isn't too old batteries lost something like five years if it gets older you have to buy a new one you also have to measure the voltage the battery is capable of attaining you also need measure the acid levels and you also need to check the connection points to the to the cables it can be a really good idea to take them off and clean them up with some sandpaper and maybe put a little bit of grease on them and tighten them securely that can be of great importance the second thing that you can do that's really important is to make sure that you have good tires because there's a big difference between winter and summer tires there are quite a few different kinds and categories of tires that you can buy for your car and some of these terrain tires this mud train and all-terrain kind of tires they can be really good in the summer time when you get wet and mushy conditions but when it gets slippery in the winter these kind of tires will not do you much good because

winter tires they have a much softer rubber that doesn't get affected by the by the temperature in the same way as the summer tires do you can buy this with the tires with studs these metal spikes or without them some people argue that unstop the tires are just as good as the standards that can possibly be true in some conditions but when it gets really icy and really really slippery I believe that this studs is the only thing that can actually give you some traction the tread pattern itself it needs to be a pretty deep here in Norway the government they say that this threads had to be at least three millimeters deep I think it's really a waste

don't take it down that far maybe four or five millimeters it's it's a good thing to do aim for and also when you buy winter tires of course tires are pretty specific to different cars and it's in general a good idea to stick to the entire dimensions that's recommended for your car but you also need to know that when it gets really slippery the wider the tire the tire gets the less traction you get so it's really nice in the winter time to have really narrow tires if you take a look at tires they use for racing in winter conditions on ice and icy roads you see that they are really really narrow almost like a motorbike tires there's also a few other things that have to be mindful of one thing is the cooling liquid in the engine you need to make sure that there's enough defrost liquid in this in this mix so the cooling liquid doesn't freeze in the engine or the radiator because that can actually damage the engine pretty much completely so you'd you measure this liquid and get a reading on what temperature it's it's good for and you mix in some more empty freeze as required that's important you also need put in some windshield cleaning liquid in the car that doesn't freeze if you use water it can break the pump the system and it doesn't work and in some conditions in the winter time you're really really dependent on being able to clean your windshield because it's it's really getting dirty when you're driving behind other cars and have this slushy dirty snow thing that's coming up on your windshield all the time there's also this thing with with fuel that you should be mindful of it's always in the winter time it's always good to keep a full tank in your in your car with fuel and there's a few reasons for this of course when it's cold you really don't want run out of fuel and stop in the middle of nowhere because it can be dangerous you can't put yourself in a dangerous situation there's also a couple of other things I want to mention about keeping the fuel levels as close to fuel as possible because when the levels drop you all this air inside and this air contains moisture and this can condensate inside the walls of your fuel tank and get into your fuel and make really big problems it can even make the car stop completely if you get enough of it there's also this thing if you hit the ditch you get stuck somewhere it's really nice when it's called to have fuel so you can keep the engine running to get the heating system inside the car going because without the engine running the car gets really cold really quickly another thing you should look out for is damage to the windshield windshield wipers and light bulbs because you need to have good visibility because in the winter time the days are shorter and you get a lot more dirt up on your windshield so we need light and visibility so check your light bulbs and your wipers you also need to make sure that the rubber seals around your doors and windows are lubricated so that doesn't freeze up this is particularly important when you decide to wash your car in the wintertime let dry off all the water from this seals and you lubricate them there's a few different products out on the market that I can do this for you and the same goes for the for the locks most cars have this remote control remote operated central locking system but this can fail and also when if the car runs out of juice on the battery this doesn't work so you should be able to unlock the car car doors and importantly the fuel cap even if the car is out to power so make sure you lubricate them there are a couple of things I want to mention specific to diesel or petrol engines that it should be a month loved on these cars you need make sure that the diesel filter is it's good that it doesn't contain water that can be a really big problem in the winter time and for petrol engines make sure that the distributor is it's running like a child because you can get moisture inside which can cause corrosion and this can make the ignition system malfunction on petrol engines you should also check connection points to the spark plug LEDs this can also be clogged up with corrosion and get into trouble there's another thing that you should before you depend on your car in the winter time that's familiarize yourself with the towing points the attachment points for the towing ropes in front in the back of your car there are some different ways the manufacturers make these points and you should know the system that's used on your car in this part of this video I want to talk a little bit about solving problems and a little bit about the extreme cold the first thing be mindful of where you park the car because if you have the car parked somewhere and there's some snow cleaning some snow shoveling and going on and on that road it can block your car inside in a way that can complicate it out and if it's next a regular road and the snow shovel is driving past here you get this always snow and small rocks and slush everything let's thrown off the road and can hit your car and break your windows and mess up your paint and put your car in pretty bad shape so be mindful where you actually park the car in in winter conditions it's always good to bring a little bit of sand inside the car because if you get stuck you can throw this underneath the wheels and give you some traction if you don't have any at the Sun with you you can get some help from using spruce boughs just cut off some some branches from a spruce tree and try to make yourself a little surface with a little bit more of traction it can be can be helpful to know that another problem you can run into is frozen locks on the car this can be easily solved if you have a little spray can with some deicing you can buy this in in gas stations if you don't have that you can use some hot liquid if you have some thermos insulated bottles with some water hot water or coffee or something

you can pour this on onto the lock and make it the ice enough so we can open it I also heard people that's that has sent himself by actually peeing on the on the lock the hot urine will actually melt the ice inside the lock so we can open it

but all these kinds of water pour into the lock will actually make it even worse afterwards but at least it can help you to get it get out of a sticky situation there's also one thing that can happen to your car in the winter I've had this problem with a couple of all the cars I've had and that's the motor the starter motor that kicks in and actually winds up your engine so it's it starts running this starter motors has this is a cylinder and it has this little cylinder on top of it or on the side of it that a mechanism that actually makes the the starter motor connect to the flywheel of the engine and this can freeze up when it when it gets cold so it doesn't actually turn the engine and this can be solved sometimes if you have some metal object like on hammer and you hit this little cylinder on top of the or the side of the starter motor this can loosen it up so it starts operating it's it's a thing that can be helpful most likely on your cars you will not get into this this problem but it doesn't hurt to know it another little trick that can be useful to know is when it gets really cold it can be a little bit difficult to get the temperature of the engine to get high enough these circumstances it can be helpful to put some sheet of cardboard or something like that in the front of the radiator to prevent the cold air to hit the radiator and this can help you to get to raise the temperature of the engine and it can also help give more heat from the from the heating system in the car on your course I don't think this probably is necessary but if you run into problems with the engine does get warm enough try to put something in front of the radiator it's it works it can also prevent

the engine from cooling down enough and get hot so don't do it unless you think you absolutely need to do it I also want to mention just a couple of things that can be good to know if it gets extremely cold and one of them is that you can if you staying in in some kind of cabin or house you can take out the battery and bring it in and keep it in the heat that can help preserve the power of the battery you can also gain the engine oil and keep this in a bucket inside so it doesn't get almost like solid out in the cold so when you're going to drive he just put in the battery and pouring the the motor oil I heard about people that's said them by doing that another thing that I know people have done is actually nice to fire or put caps camping stove underneath the engine I probably wouldn't advise anyone to do that on a regular cars but on big trucks and tractors it can get the car started motor started I think the best advice to follow in extreme cold temperatures it's just to keep the engine running continually because then it it stays warm and the battery is charging and everything is running the the problem states actually start when you stop the engine and it cools down and everything starts you freeze up I also think if if you get into some problems when it's extremely cold and you don't have all this equipment like arctic sleeping bags and stuff like this I think it would be good advice to make yourself some kind of snow cave or some other kind of shelter and sleep outside the car if you have to spend spend the night out in in really really cold because the car gets really cold inside I think that if it gets any colder than negative like 40 degrees it's not really advisable to drive cars anyway you should probably Drive snowmobiles or use a dog sled or something like that because cars are not meant operate in these extreme Kolb's in this last part of my video I want to talk a little bit about some kit ya want to bring when you're driving car in in the winter the first one of the most important things you need is I scraped you need to be able to clean the windows from from ice the second item is some kind of brush to take away snow if you get some snowfall it's not a good idea to leave it on the car you should clean all of the car from snow so bring some kind of brush to do that I also think that a flashlight some kind of battery-operated flashlight is really handy to have available if something happens in the winter time of course all year round but especially in the winter time another thing that I think you definitely should bring in Norway you have to have this available in the car it's a West with reflective materials on it so if you have to go outside the car and do stuff change the tire or something like that all the drivers can see you in the dark it's it's really really important to have some kind of way to make yourself visible

you also need to bring some some clothes some extra coats some clothes that's suitable for the temperature you're going to drive in because if something happens and have to walk you need to have something you need maybe like a warm jacket some gloves and wool hat some worn shoes stuff that makes you able to move outside the car and and walk some distance without getting into a big trouble I also think it's really to bring some kind of mobile phone it's it can be crucial to be able to reach people if you get stuck or something happens so a mobile phone this six items the ice scraper the snow brush the flashlight the reflective vest some extra clothing and mobile phone that's something you have to bring every time you travel out in in the winter time there's also a few other items that can be really really helpful to bring especially if you're traveling a little bit longer distances in less populated areas and one of them is some kind of a snow shovel you might get into a situation where you need to dig out the car you can bring some kind of shovel that's good for hacking through ice but usually these samples are a little bit too small to remove larger amounts of snow so you have to to make a decision what kind of snow shovel you want to bring but that's won't get the piece of get to have in the car you can also bring some chains or this I think they call them tire shops tire chains or tire socks that you can put on the tires to get a little bit more traction that can help you out of some sticky situations you can also benefit from bringing some jumper cables this jumper blocks with the battery can be helpful but as I said earlier they also get affected by air by cold weather so they can be a drain of the juice in the cold but jumper cables that's really really useful thing to bring also a towing rope of some kind it's it's important if you get stuck and you need help to be pulled out somewhere from another car you need some kind of rope to attach between the cars so a towing rope that's really good thing to bring it can also be really helpful to bring some sand in the car some kind of this is for the litter box for four kittens can do it can also bring some

sans that Dubai that's mixed with salt maybe some seashell that's more specific to put on ice but whatever kind of of Sam's

you get it's really handy when you need it

also this oil silicone-based lubricants for for this seals rubber seals around your windows and doors it's really good to bring with you in the car also this defrost lubricant to open frozen locks it's also a good thing to bring with you this list I think contains the stuff that most common people will benefit from bringing of course if you're traveling to some wilderness adventure you bring a lot of other kids backpack together with your camping gear and that can also come in really really handy I know that some other people bring some always some kind of survival kit items in the car but if you want to look into that I think there's a whole lot of other videos on on the internet that can explain what kind of stuff to bring to end this video I want to mention maybe the most important thing of all and that is that you need experience to travel safe in in winter conditions you can't read a book watch a video talk to someone you have to do it over and over again and get the experience it's the only way to learn this stuff I hope this video has been been helpful and giving you some pointers I think I should just leave it at that so thank you so much for watching and I hope to be able to make some more videos pretty good