With winter coming up fast, many people need to start thinking about preparing for the new road conditions. What you can do to help prepare your vehicle largely depends on what you drive. Ideally everyone would have some sort of four wheel drive car or truck with studded tires and a whole slew of other emergency road side equipment. But no one is made of money and studded tires are illegal for common civilians to have for driving on the road in Wisconsin. There are still some relatively easy ways of making your ride better suited for the coming road conditions.

If you have a front wheel drive car you’re pretty well off. Front-wheel drive cars handle better on slick roads so you’re less likely to end up in the ditch. It’s always good to have snow tires for your car too. Even putting them on just the front will help.You can pick up some used tires for 25 bucks at triple T.

If you have a rear wheel drive car or a small rear wheel drive truck you may have problems with the rear end being to light. Every time you take a corner it might just want to go in circles. A good way to give you more traction is to weigh down the back so the wheels stay planted. You could put sand bags or anything heavy in your trunk or truck bed. If nothing else, use snow. Once again snow tires help.

When you first start driving, you are more than likely to end up in the ditch. Your driving skills ,or lack of them, aren’t always the reason that you may slide off the road. Sometimes the roads are too bad for the best of drivers. It is more a question of “when” than “if” you will end up in the ditch.There maybe a few things you’re going to want to have with you in case of such a situation. A simple first aid kit is a good idea to have with you. It doesn’t have to be an emergency field surgical kit and a hand book title “So You Want To Be a Surgeon.” Just a few band aids, maybe some gauze and disinfectant wouldn’t hurt. It isn’t too far fetched to think a new driver’s first winter might send them off the road. That 1982 rusted death trap of a first car that had the air bag cut from the steering wheel after the first six accidents it was in, might not be the indestructible capsule you think it is.

There are also some other things that you should always have in your car for emergency situations, and to help make things easier. An ice scraper is great to have most winter mornings, but a card of some sort like a school I.D. or credit card works well too. If you don’t want to worry about it in the mornings then lay a damp towel over your wind shield and all ice will be stuck to that instead. Unfortunately it may freeze to your wind shield wipers if your not careful so try to keep it off of them. If you are stuck in the snow, or even in traffic, and might be there for a little while it is good to keep blankets or extra clothing to keep you warm, extra gasoline, flares or reflective roadside triangles, a flash light, water to keep hydrated and a change of proper winter foot wear for those of you who insist on wearing slip-ons December-February. Always remember that if you are on the side of the road to stay in your car with your seat belt on or in a safe spot away from the accident in case another driver does the same as you did and hits your car.