When the cold winds of winter start blowing, you better take note and prepare yourself and your car for cold mornings (and days!) ahead. Even if you’re good at driving on snow or ice, better pack in some of these things to help you survive in case anything happens.
Ask anybody who fell into a ditch or got stuck in a blizzard, and they’d tell you that they never planned on doing that at all! With the climate going crazy as it is–I mean, come on–tornadoes and floods during the winter?
Better be safe than sorry… or dead.
Things to Keep in Your Car During the Winter
Auto Jump Starters. This is especially useful for older cars, or cars with unreliable batteries. Even if you manage to arrive at your destination, if your battery dies on you, you may be unable to start the car and you’ll get stuck! Better yet, you might want to get a jump starter with an air compressor. During the winter, the air inside your tires may lose some of their pressure because of the cold. The air compressor will come in handy to keep your tire pressures stable.
Blankets. If you fall in a ditch, or you end up stuck in a blizzard, and you can’t get out. Or if you’re traveling somewhere and your car gets stuck, a blanket can help keep you warm. You may want to keep it inside the car and not in the trunk so you won’t need to go out just to get it. Make sure to include some gloves and hand warmers to fight the cold.
Flashlight. Your smartphone may have a flashlight, but it will quickly drain the battery and will lead to more problems for you–no light, and no phone either to help you contact the people who can help you. Get a small but adequate flashlight that could help you see in the dark in case you get stranded.
A Dumb Phone that will allow you to call and text. Smartphones are so popular these days, but they’re just battery hogs! You can only use them for a full day and then it’s time to charge them up again. Don’t you miss those dumb phones that will just let you call or text? It would be a good idea to have one for emergency purposes in your car. But if you don’t have one, just get a spare battery or portable charger. Some jump starters also double up as a power source. That would be really handy in emergencies.
Wind-up radio. Some emergency radios can be recharged by a solar panel, some have batteries, and some are wind-up. The latter would be ideal for some worst case scenarios. After all, when you don’t have electricity, you can just use your muscle power to wind it up and use it again. In times of emergency, information and awareness can make the difference between life and death.
Store a first aid kit, too. If somebody got involved in an accident, you can just take your first aid kit and provide some temporary help, until the professionals arrive.
Extra winter clothes will help you keep warm, especially if you need to leave the vehicle. Layers are key – the more layers of clothes you can put on, the warmer you’ll be down at the surface of your skin.
Get a bag of sand or kitty litter and store it in the trunk. This can help you in two ways–they can add weight to your car, which will help you gain more traction on icy-slippery roads. You can also sprinkle or spread these near your tires to help you get out of a slippery situation (literally!).
Ice scraper. This is really a must if you have winter. Even if you don’t get a lot of snow, water vapors may still freeze on your windshield and if you rely on your heater to do melt it away, it may take you a long time.
Store some foods. But please don’t store something perishable like a banana, or a stew, or something that will rot. Dried foods like beef jerky could be handy, canned food will also work–just make sure they are the quick open type of cans, or you have a can opener in there, too. Store some water, too. Just make sure to replace them regularly to prevent them from freezing and exploding inside your car.
Shovel. When the snow piles, a shovel can help you remove those snow. But a real snow shovel will not fit in a car. So, get something that’s portable. There are some smaller shovels that you can fold or detach. They’re definitely smaller, but they can be handy in an emergency.
Winter Car Kits
You can choose to buy and gather these things separately, but you also have the option to buy some product containing most or all of the things we mentioned above. Check out the following products:
