How To Prepare Your Jeep for Winter
Freezing temperatures and heavy layers of snow can put one’s vehicle to the test. Fortunately, Jeeps are built to stand up to the harshest conditions while maintaining optimum performance. However, that doesn’t mean that Jeep owners can or should completely avoid preparing their vehicle for winter. After all, even the most rugged vehicles are no match for mother nature. To minimize mechanical errors and ensure that your Jeep runs smoothly and safely during the coldest months of the year, check out these tips on how to prepare your Jeep for winter.
Take Measures To Ensure Visibility
During the winter, heavy snowfall, fog, and strong winds that blow snow around can greatly impede one’s visibility. Such a lack of visibility combined with icy road conditions make for an extremely dangerous combination. To improve your safety while driving during the winter, it is essential to take measures to increase your visibility despite environmental challenges.
Replace Your Windshield Wipers
As snow falls from the sky, it can accumulate on your windshield and block your vision entirely. To ensure that you’re able to see clearly when driving during the winter, it’s important that your windshield wipers are able to effectively clear away any snow, sleet, or other materials that can block your view of the road. As such, it is highly beneficial to replace your wiper blades and change your windshield wiper fluid to a winter mix which will help prevent the liquid from freezing when you need it most.
Consider Upgrading Your Lighting Setup
Another way to improve your visibility when driving your Jeep during the winter is by upgrading your lighting setup. While factory headlights may do the trick when the weather is clear, they may not provide the enhanced visibility you need when clouds of fog and gusts of snow consume the road. As such, you should consider upgrading your Jeep’s lighting to LED headlights. Compared to factory headlights, an LED lighting setup provides nearly twice the amount of light output at both high and low beams. As such, they can greatly improve one’s visibility during adverse winter weather.
Check Antifreeze Levels
When heading into the coldest season of the year, it is essential that your Jeep is supplied with the correct antifreeze levels. Antifreeze is responsible for preventing the radiator in your Jeep from freezing.
If levels are too low, liquids can freeze in your Jeep’s engine which can not only cause immense damage, but can also put you in a dangerous situation if your vehicle breaks down in a remote location in freezing temperatures. As such, it is vital to check your antifreeze levels before winter comes.
Upgrade or Replace Your Tires
The quality of your Jeep’s tires will play a huge role in how safe it is to drive—especially on wet and icy surfaces where traction is limited. If the tread on your Jeep’s tires is worn down or the tire is damaged in any way, it is important to have them replaced so that you can maintain ample traction on icy roads.
For optimum safety, you may also want to consider outfitting your Jeep with upgraded tires that are specifically designed for winter conditions. If a tire is rated for winter or all-weather, it will likely have a “Severe Ice/Snow” symbol on its sidewall. Such a symbol indicates that the tire has an optimal tread pattern and composition for cold and icy driving conditions.
Make Sure Your Battery Is Up To Snuff
Another tip on how to prepare your Jeep for winter is to get its battery professionally inspected. After all, it’s no secret that cold weather can put excess stress on your Jeep’s battery. To decrease your chances of experiencing a potentially dangerous battery failure out on a road or trail, it is a good idea to get it professionally checked out. A service center can conduct a load test to check your battery load and charge capacities to determine if it needs to be replaced before it fails.
Invest in Quality Rubber Floor Mats
During the winter, the exterior of your vehicle isn’t the only part that’s exposed to the elements. Your Jeep’s interior can also face potential damage from winter weather as people may track in snow, slush, and salt on their shoes. If keeping the inside of your Jeep in good condition is important to you, it’s a good idea to invest in quality rubber floor mats. Such mats will serve as a much-needed protective layer over your Jeep’s floors so that they don’t incur significant damage.
Keep a Close Eye on Your Tire Pressure
As previously mentioned, the state of your Jeep’s tires will greatly impact your safety when driving on snowy and icy roads. In addition to ensuring that your tires have ample tread and are in good condition, it is also important to keep a close eye on their pressure. As temperatures start to drop, it is common for tires to lose up to 1 psi of pressure for every degree that the temperature goes down. As such, tires can become significantly deflated when colder fronts occur.
If a tire isn’t inflated properly, you increase your risk of getting a flat tire when driving at higher speeds and traction can be impaired. To reduce the potential of such safety hazards, it is important to regularly check your Jeep’s tire pressure and adjust it accordingly—especially when significant temperature fluctuations occur.
Swap Out Your Soft Top for a Hardtop
The salt and anti-ice treatments that are put on the road may help make the roads safer, but they can end up doing a lot of damage to your Jeep’s soft top. As such, it can be beneficial to switch to a more durable hardtop during the winter months. Equipping your Jeep with a hardtop will also help insulate its interior better so that you can stay warmer as temperatures outside begin to deep.
To safely and easily put a hardtop on your Jeep or take it back off, Top Lift Pros can help. We are a leading provider of innovative Jeep hardtop hoists and storage tools. Currently, we are the only producer of an innovative Jeep hardtop removal tool that allows Jeep owners to remove their hardtop in two minutes or less without any help. To experience the unrivaled safety, convenience, and ease that our tool offers, shop Top Lift Pros today.
