Beyond Origins the Discussion

Winter Survival Hints & Tips For Drivers

September 7th, 2008

As a young Sales Engineer, I worked the North of England, North Wales & Scotland.

After listening to motorists’ tales from my Dad’s pals I got together my own Winter Survival Kit, which I kept in the back of my car each time I went out of town in winter.

My Kit was made up of a cardboard box with some Newspapers in the bottom, a roll of sellotape, a few large bars of chocolate, a large bottle of mineral water, a sleeping bag, a torch and a half bottle of rum. Additionally I put in a spade, and each time I was travelling out of town, I’d add a flask of hot chocolate, which I would drink up at the end of the day when I didn’t need it, and finally, I always put in a warm overcoat or ski-jacket. I made a point of not letting the petrol to drop below half a tank for two reasons: first, because the extra weight over the back wheels would assist with drive in slippy conditions, and secondly, so that I would always have enough petrol to keep warm in case I got stuck in bad conditions.

In those days, I didn’t know about winter tyres, winter Windscreen Wiper Blades and the like, but I did make sure that my tyres and Car Wiper Blades, fan belt, engine hoses etc were in top fettle.

Of course, this gave my mates lots of chances to rib me mercilessly. but then one day, I and hundreds of other drivers were trapped in blizzard conditions on the M62 for about 10 hours.

This was a miserable situation for everyone else, but for me it was almost like one of Michael Palin’s Ripping Yarns.

The day kicked off completely normally and I set out at around Seven am to drive from Lancashire across into South Yorkshire. I stopped at Birch Services, just before the climb up into the Pennine Hills, and topped up the petrol, because it was down to half a tank. The Motorway Police said the road was fine in spite of the wind and snow, as long as every-one kept moving.

20 minutes later, everything came to a grinding halt when an articulated tanker was blown over and jack-knifed blocking most of the carriageway. Within minutes the snow built up around the vehicles, and the traffic jam was a few miles long.

Therefore they closed the Motorway in both directions, and used the other carriage way to begin taking people back down to the Services. Of course a single able-bodied guy in his twenties was always going to be one of the last to be rescued, and so I sat there from around Eight in the morning to around Eight in the evening.

I took my spade to dig the snow away from the car & create a wind-break. This reduced the wind-chill and allowed me to safely run the engine once or twice an hour to keep warm. There was no danger of running out of petrol for days. When it went dark I put down the passenger seat & rolled out my sleeping bag. I was just starting to tape thick layers of newspaper onto the inside of the windows when a traffic cop came & told me they’d be taking me out within a couple of hours. He was delighted to get a steaming cup of hot chocolate laced with rum!

I was safe warm & unfazed by the situation because I was properly prepared for it. I would have been OK if I’d had to survive all night out there.

The moral of this story is - have a survival box for winter driving. I still have one, and no-one laughs at me any more. I’ve refined it a little, because I now have an electric car kettle instead of a thermos flask, and Silicone Wiper Blades for extreme conditions. Silicone Wiper Blades aren’t just winter Windscreen Wipers, good ones are High Performance Windscreen Wipers for all conditions.In fact I leave them fitted all year because they have all year performance advantages. Also, from October to March I have winter tyres for improved grip.

Entry Filed under: Automotive