Winter Is Coming – Is Your Car Prepared?

On the show Game of Thrones, the character Jon Snow is preparing for winter by gathering up Dragon Glass and recruiting allies to join him on the wall in defense of the White Walkers and the Night King. While Jon Snow is traveling the length and breadth of the continent in the show at light-speed in order to save his people, we only need to travel to the store (and possibly to a mechanic) in order to get ready for winter to save our people.

Girl stuck in the snow via carstuckgirls.com

When I was in the U.S. Navy, I had a good friend from Minnesota who always kept a one-gallon coffee can, matches, and some candles in the trunk of his car. Intrigued, I asked him about it, and he replied that a couple of candles will put out enough heat to keep the interior of your car warm should you break down during a snow storm. I grew up in the desert and always kept a gallon of water in my trunk, so I always found that to be good advice. But is it true?

Candles and Coffee Can via Consumer Affairs

Well, yes it is! Here is a link to a great article from Consumer Affairs:

ConsumerAffairs

Stuck in a blizzard? Here’s an inexpensive emergency heating system

Of all the reasons you don’t want to ride out a winter storm stranded in your car, the most obvious is the danger of freezing to death.

Here is another great one with some additional advice for North Dakota State University:

There are of course some other things you might want to do to get your car ready for winter, which we all know is coming! The good news is that it’s a bit easier than crossing the wall into the land of the Free Folk and kidnapping a Wight in order to convince some Queens down south that the dead are coming. Of course, the level of difficulty in convincing your Queen that she needs to be prepared for winter all depends on who you’re married too… lol

Game of Thrones Women via the Feminism Project

In order to get ready for winter, in addition to the candles, you probably want to have winter tires put on your car, put an extra set of gloves and a coat in the car, check the battery, make sure the head lights and brake lights are working, install new windshield wipers, pack a flashlight and ice-scraper, put on a good heavy coat of wax to protect your paint job, and make sure the radiator has new anti-freeze. Here is a great list from WikiHow:

wikiHow

How to Prepare a Car for Winter Driving

You must prepare your car for winter driving – unless you live in an area of the world where there is only a minimal difference in winter and summer weather. It is essential that you prepare a car for winter driving, because winter puts…

Game of Thrones Season 7 Episode 6 via HBO

So if Jon Snow can do all the things he has to do in order to get ready for Winter, I’m sure you can do a little work and make sure you’re good and ready, too!

Keep driving my friends!

My thanks to Larry for his excellent help with this article.