If you have a lengthy (time or distance) commute, you may want to pack a winter-stranded bag to keep at work. I keep toiletries, clothes (2/3 days worth) and some medium-weight cold weather gear in the bag. I also keep heavy-rated cold weather gear (thermal layers, insulated boost, heavy coats/bibs) in the vehicle that I take to work, switching that load-out between vehicles as necessary.
This is a great guide. A few things I can add from living in MN:
Vehicles:
• brush the snow off your vehicles ASAP while it's still dry. Resist the temptation to do it all later, as it my freeze into blocks of ice that are much harder to remove and increase the risk of damaging your vehicle during removal. Just pop outside and brush the snow off every few hours and thank yourself later. Also, clear ALL your windows. Don't be that person driving around like a tank commander. FYI, a snow brush WILL scratch paint and scraping ice off of your headlights and blinkers will scratch the plastic. Use a microfiber towel to push snow off of paint (again, sooner the better), and use de-icing fluid on mirrors, headlights, blinkers, etc.
• top off your washer fluid with de-icer fluid that can handle the low temperatures. Your washer jets are a critical safety tool when driving in winter weather. Keep them clear and working. De-ice them and confirm that they work before setting off.
• before it snows, stand your wipers up so they don't freeze to your windshield. Even if they don't freeze to the windshield directly ice can freeze into the wiper blades themselves and they won't work when you need them too. They'll sweep across the windshield and wipe away nothing because they're not able to flex and follow the contour of the windshield. Pro move: upgrade your wipers to bar-type wipers that don't have all the little articulating joints to freeze up. $5 says your wipers are due for replacement anyway.
• while you're at the auto parts store getting real wiper fluid and wipers, get yourself a few cans or spray bottles of Penske de-icing fluid. Use this to clean the ice off your mirrors, wiper blades, headlights, tail lights, window seals (to help keep your windows from freezing shut), and for light ice you can clear the windows with it. The most critical use is de-icing washer jets, wiper blades and mirrors.
• +1000% to Wes's recommendation for actual snow tires. Game changer and table stakes to safe winter driving. There are even performance snow tires that allow you to have a lot of fun in winter.
Warming up your car:
• an engine doing work will warm up faster than an engine just idling, so get going rather than letting your car idle in the driveway. Let it warm up at idle while you clear the last of the snow / ice off the windows, but then get going.
• use lower gears at first to keep the engine RPM a bit higher until the engine warms up. You don't need to red-line it, just try to keep it at or above 2,500 RPM (assuming gas not diesel) until your temperature gauge comes up to its normal spot, then put it back in D or shift up and drive normally. Do not rev the engine high or push it hard before it's up to temperature, just leave it a gear or two lower than usual and aim for 2,500-3,000 rpm until you get warmed up.
• leave the heat in your car turned OFF at first. It's counter-intuitive, but if you leave the heat off for the first few minutes that will let heat build up in the engine more quickly and then you can turn the heat on and warm up the cabin. In my experience this is the fastest procedure for a warm car because the engine can't give you heat it doesn't have yet. In my E46, for example, if it's cold enough and I run the heat at full blast I can actually watch my temperature gauge go down and fall below full operating temperature and all my vents will start to blast cool air. So if I start with the heat on and I'm on the highway, it never actually warms up. Remember that you're borrowing heat from the engine.
Keeping your windshield and windows from fogging up:
• your first order of business is not getting the cabin warm, it's getting the glass warm. Warm glass won't fog and warm glass won't accumulate ice on the outside as you drive. Fog freezing on the inside of your windows is especially bad for visibility.
• go back and forth between recirculating the air inside the cabin and blowing heated fresh air onto your windshield and windows. On recirculate the cabin will heat up faster, but fog will soon form on the windows. When fog starts to form, leave the heat on but switch off recirculate and direct air onto the glass so that drier air from outside can help clear the fog. Once the fog clears, switch back to warming the cabin. Rinse and repeat until the interior temperature is high enough to both feel warm AND keep the windows warm enough not to fog or freeze over.
Driving on snowy roads:
• Do the basics: increase your follow distance, slow down, think ahead, drive defensively, don't drive alongside people or in their blind spots
• Use your transmission for maximum grip, especially while braking. Even automatic transmissions will usually let you force lower gears. Gear down as you slow down so that you can maximize engine braking over regular braking. This will help you stay in the grip, especially if you catch yourself starting to slide.
Stopping on snow / ice:
• Again, snow tires!
• Stay out of your ABS as much as possible. Modulated braking pressure will stop you much shorter than just slamming on the brakes and letting the ABS figure it out. I'm talking 2-3 car lengths of difference even at slow speeds. If you feel the ABS start to stutter, decrease your braking pressure just a smidge until you stop locking up and then keep feeling for that limit as you maximize your stopping force. Practice this in a parking lot and get good at it.
• At slow speeds, if you find yourself needing to stop but you start sliding, dump the car into the lowest gear you can and modulate your brake pressure to stay out of ABS. On an auto, slam it into L like you're Vin Diesel in your favorite Fast & Furious movie. On a manual car, stick it in first or second and just dump the clutch. Trust me, it won't even stall until you completely stop. As you dump shift, you'll sometimes have half an instant of wheel slip as the RPMs resolve, but on the other side of that small slip is maximum engine braking and maximum stopping grip. You slam it into low, keep on the brakes and off the throttle and the car just sort of figures it out and gives you every last scrap of straight line stopping grip available. I've saved myself from sliding through multiple down hill red lights this way.
To expand on Wes's point, unless you have a mini-split or a multi-zone furnace setup, your thermostat (for most people) is going to be your only control point for broad temperature changes. Closed off rooms/doors and low circulation rooms with closed dampers are going to be much colder. Fans may be necessary to move heat to other areas of the home.
Moving hot air away from your thermostat may also enable you to keep it at an overall lower temperature and get away with just wearing a base layer all over the house rather than needing triple layers and a blanket in one area and sweating in the other.
Baking/cooking with a range/oven is a great way to generate some heat without using the thermostat and gives the double benefit of hot food + heat generation.
If you have a lengthy (time or distance) commute, you may want to pack a winter-stranded bag to keep at work. I keep toiletries, clothes (2/3 days worth) and some medium-weight cold weather gear in the bag. I also keep heavy-rated cold weather gear (thermal layers, insulated boost, heavy coats/bibs) in the vehicle that I take to work, switching that load-out between vehicles as necessary.
This is a great guide. A few things I can add from living in MN:
Vehicles:
• brush the snow off your vehicles ASAP while it's still dry. Resist the temptation to do it all later, as it my freeze into blocks of ice that are much harder to remove and increase the risk of damaging your vehicle during removal. Just pop outside and brush the snow off every few hours and thank yourself later. Also, clear ALL your windows. Don't be that person driving around like a tank commander. FYI, a snow brush WILL scratch paint and scraping ice off of your headlights and blinkers will scratch the plastic. Use a microfiber towel to push snow off of paint (again, sooner the better), and use de-icing fluid on mirrors, headlights, blinkers, etc.
• top off your washer fluid with de-icer fluid that can handle the low temperatures. Your washer jets are a critical safety tool when driving in winter weather. Keep them clear and working. De-ice them and confirm that they work before setting off.
• before it snows, stand your wipers up so they don't freeze to your windshield. Even if they don't freeze to the windshield directly ice can freeze into the wiper blades themselves and they won't work when you need them too. They'll sweep across the windshield and wipe away nothing because they're not able to flex and follow the contour of the windshield. Pro move: upgrade your wipers to bar-type wipers that don't have all the little articulating joints to freeze up. $5 says your wipers are due for replacement anyway.
• while you're at the auto parts store getting real wiper fluid and wipers, get yourself a few cans or spray bottles of Penske de-icing fluid. Use this to clean the ice off your mirrors, wiper blades, headlights, tail lights, window seals (to help keep your windows from freezing shut), and for light ice you can clear the windows with it. The most critical use is de-icing washer jets, wiper blades and mirrors.
• +1000% to Wes's recommendation for actual snow tires. Game changer and table stakes to safe winter driving. There are even performance snow tires that allow you to have a lot of fun in winter.
Warming up your car:
• an engine doing work will warm up faster than an engine just idling, so get going rather than letting your car idle in the driveway. Let it warm up at idle while you clear the last of the snow / ice off the windows, but then get going.
• use lower gears at first to keep the engine RPM a bit higher until the engine warms up. You don't need to red-line it, just try to keep it at or above 2,500 RPM (assuming gas not diesel) until your temperature gauge comes up to its normal spot, then put it back in D or shift up and drive normally. Do not rev the engine high or push it hard before it's up to temperature, just leave it a gear or two lower than usual and aim for 2,500-3,000 rpm until you get warmed up.
• leave the heat in your car turned OFF at first. It's counter-intuitive, but if you leave the heat off for the first few minutes that will let heat build up in the engine more quickly and then you can turn the heat on and warm up the cabin. In my experience this is the fastest procedure for a warm car because the engine can't give you heat it doesn't have yet. In my E46, for example, if it's cold enough and I run the heat at full blast I can actually watch my temperature gauge go down and fall below full operating temperature and all my vents will start to blast cool air. So if I start with the heat on and I'm on the highway, it never actually warms up. Remember that you're borrowing heat from the engine.
Keeping your windshield and windows from fogging up:
• your first order of business is not getting the cabin warm, it's getting the glass warm. Warm glass won't fog and warm glass won't accumulate ice on the outside as you drive. Fog freezing on the inside of your windows is especially bad for visibility.
• go back and forth between recirculating the air inside the cabin and blowing heated fresh air onto your windshield and windows. On recirculate the cabin will heat up faster, but fog will soon form on the windows. When fog starts to form, leave the heat on but switch off recirculate and direct air onto the glass so that drier air from outside can help clear the fog. Once the fog clears, switch back to warming the cabin. Rinse and repeat until the interior temperature is high enough to both feel warm AND keep the windows warm enough not to fog or freeze over.
Driving on snowy roads:
• Do the basics: increase your follow distance, slow down, think ahead, drive defensively, don't drive alongside people or in their blind spots
• Use your transmission for maximum grip, especially while braking. Even automatic transmissions will usually let you force lower gears. Gear down as you slow down so that you can maximize engine braking over regular braking. This will help you stay in the grip, especially if you catch yourself starting to slide.
Stopping on snow / ice:
• Again, snow tires!
• Stay out of your ABS as much as possible. Modulated braking pressure will stop you much shorter than just slamming on the brakes and letting the ABS figure it out. I'm talking 2-3 car lengths of difference even at slow speeds. If you feel the ABS start to stutter, decrease your braking pressure just a smidge until you stop locking up and then keep feeling for that limit as you maximize your stopping force. Practice this in a parking lot and get good at it.
• At slow speeds, if you find yourself needing to stop but you start sliding, dump the car into the lowest gear you can and modulate your brake pressure to stay out of ABS. On an auto, slam it into L like you're Vin Diesel in your favorite Fast & Furious movie. On a manual car, stick it in first or second and just dump the clutch. Trust me, it won't even stall until you completely stop. As you dump shift, you'll sometimes have half an instant of wheel slip as the RPMs resolve, but on the other side of that small slip is maximum engine braking and maximum stopping grip. You slam it into low, keep on the brakes and off the throttle and the car just sort of figures it out and gives you every last scrap of straight line stopping grip available. I've saved myself from sliding through multiple down hill red lights this way.
To expand on Wes's point, unless you have a mini-split or a multi-zone furnace setup, your thermostat (for most people) is going to be your only control point for broad temperature changes. Closed off rooms/doors and low circulation rooms with closed dampers are going to be much colder. Fans may be necessary to move heat to other areas of the home.
Moving hot air away from your thermostat may also enable you to keep it at an overall lower temperature and get away with just wearing a base layer all over the house rather than needing triple layers and a blanket in one area and sweating in the other.
Baking/cooking with a range/oven is a great way to generate some heat without using the thermostat and gives the double benefit of hot food + heat generation.
anyone have a good rec for a warm winter hat? I know Sitka makes great stuff, but I'm looking for something more everyday, and less camo.