There’s a good reason the song doesn’t talk about driving in a winter wonderland. The onset of cold weather can create havoc with unprepared vehicles and their owners.
Here are a few tips to keep your inventory, fleet or daily transportation in good working order.
Regularly Check The Tires
Cold temperatures lower the inflation pressure in tires, which also lessens grip. Increase the frequency with which you check and maintain tire pressure to avoid slipping and sliding.
Create a process of regularly checking the pressure on all the tires in your fleet or inventory that includes a way to verify the checks were done. No one wants to see inventory totaled or work-related road accidents.
If you manage a fleet that needs to be used in winter, crunch the numbers to see if investing in snow tires makes logical and financial sense. Err on the side of caution when it comes time to consider replacing worn tires.
Flush & Fill Fluids
Liquids can freeze in cold weather. This may sound obvious, but every year vehicles get damaged when liquids turn to solids and crack containers and burn out pumps.
Flush and fill all of your fluids, not just the radiator. Only use winter window washer fluid that resists freezing, and keep the oil and gasoline topped off. More volume makes it harder for fluids to freeze solid.
Check Battery Health
Few people like getting out of a warm bed on a cold day. The same is true for the electrons in a car battery.
Be sure to test vehicle batteries with a voltmeter and a load test. The latter can detect a weak battery that’s likely to be unable to turn over an engine when stressed by the cold weather. Replace weak batteries before they can leave someone stranded, maybe even you.
Lastly, visually inspect the battery terminals for the white powder of corrosion. This can also cause battery issues.
Other Routine Winter Maintenance
The arrival of cold weather is also a good reminder to perform routine maintenance on all your vehicles.
Check and replace the wiper blades, visually inspect all hoses and belts, and make sure lights are in good working order. Any mechanism can fail under duress, but maintenance reduces the likelihood of such failures.
Special Needs of EVs & Hybrids
For vehicles powered by something other than an internal combustion engine, there are a few other frosty facts to consider.
Be extra cautious about the amount of charge and the range a vehicle is likely to travel. EVs and plugin hybrid batteries lose capacitance in colder weather, so a single charge will travel shorter distances.
Make sure every EV or plug in hybrid is completely charged whenever possible. Some dealers keep only a little gas in the tank for security reasons, but it’s a bad idea to do something similar with batteries.
If you work in northern climates, consider investing in vehicles with the optional battery heater. A simpler solution is to store EVs and hybrids inside to spare the batteries from some of the cold and wind chill.
If you don’t have shelter, car ports and insulated covers can provide at least some protection.
The Bottom Line
Fate favors the prepared, so be sure to take care of the vehicles that take care of other people, especially when it’s cold outside.
