CATEGORY / Travel

17Aug

2019

carstuff / Towing, Travel / 0 comment

What You Should Do After Your Car Breaks Down

Looking helpless and stressed while stranded on the highway with a busted flat tire or engine is the worst nightmare of motorists. However, car breakdowns happen and they are both costly and dangerous.

Below are some of the things you can do after your car breaks down:

Give an Emergency Signal to Other Drivers

If your vehicle stalls in the middle of the road and you cannot pull it over to the other side, never get out of your car. A driver who does not see you could run over you. What you should do is to turn on your hazard lights and if it’s dark, turn on the sidelights.

Get Your Vehicle Safely Out of Traffic

Pull over your car to the roadside as quickly as possible. Never stop at the middle of the road and try repairing your car and change your tire. You will just blow the traffic’s flow and you’ll put yourself at risk. It can also be a hassle to other motorists.

While slowing down, keep your cool and take your foot off the accelerator smoothly. Never brake hard suddenly. If you could still drive to the nearest emergency bay, you must do it to avoid getting your vehicle towed and get a traffic violation traffic. You should also remember to turn on the signal lights to warn the other drivers behind you. Be cautious when a bus or other big vehicles is trailing you. It’s important to stay away from them and give them the space so they could go around you.

Always Be Careful When You Are Talking to the Strangers

It is your choice to accept help from strangers. There are some people who could give you a hand when your car breaks down, but not all are good. Others might be scammers or thieves who will just take advantage of your situation. If somebody offers help, know how to judge people well. If that stranger behaves suspiciously, never let him access your car and just lower your window a little so you can talk.

Call for Help

If you have pulled over completely on the roadside, you should put your reflective triangle behind your vehicle to alert some motorists that your car breaks down. You may contact your family members, nearby friends or car insurance provider to avail roadside assistance or towing in Cleveland (if you happen to be in northeast Ohio). This will help you note your location and landmarks to help individuals find you. Not all car insurance covers breakdowns. Others provide emergency roadside assistance, which may often include minor repair services and free towing once your insured car breaks down.

When your car breaks down while you are driving, it is not just risky but also nerve-wracking. You should be alert enough to ensure your safety in this kind of situation. You can reduce experiencing car breakdowns through inspecting your car thoroughly before taking it out for a drive. With this, you will always stay safe on the road.

25Jun

2019

carstuff / Blog, Tires, Towing, Travel, Uncategorized / 0 comment

6 Tips To Extend Our Car’s Gas Mileage

As the prices of gas remain high, knowing how to extend the gas mileage of your car is crucial. Through stretching your gas tank further, you may reduce the times you should fill up every month, which may help you stick to your set budget. It’s important for people who bought non-efficient cars when the prices of gas were cheaper. However, no matter what type of car you’re driving, you may always use extra money every month and cut back your gas expenses, which is a good way to save more money.

To increase your gas mileage, keep these following tips in mind:

Inflate Your Car’s Tires Properly

Under-inflated tires may result to using more gas as your car moves. See to it that your tires are inflated to the indicated pressure in the user’s manual for best balance between traction and gas mileage. This would translate to significant savings as under-inflated tire may cost you 5 MPG or more.

Get Rid of the Excess Weight

You would be surprised on how much all the junk in the trunk of your car may weigh. If your car features a front-wheel drive, putting more weight on rear axle may mean that the front wheels are not getting as great grip as they must be. This reduces your car’s gas mileage. In addition to that, extra weight means that the engine should work a bit harder to move your car, which can also reduce gas mileage. If you are carrying lots of weight, lightening loads will help you get 1 or 2 miles more per gallon.

Replace Spark Plugs and Air Filter

Replacing spark plugs and air filter during a car checkup will not just help the car last longer, but also it may help the car’s engine burn gas in a more efficient manner. For many cars, it costs less than fifty dollars if you are comfortable with the DIY approach for car maintenance.

Use Only the Recommended Motor Oil

Never think that using old kind of motor oil would work for your car. The reason behind it is that its engine is made to work best with a particular type of motor oil. If you are using a heavier weight oil, it might cause too much friction, which may result to engine working hard and burning more fuel. So, check the user’s manual of your car and know what specific oil to use.

Check the Gas Cap Seal

Rubber seal on gas cap would break down in the long run, which will enable oxygen to leak in the gas tank. Due to this, it will cause too much air in your engine and would pull gas from the tank, which will burn more gas.

Drive Below or at the Required Speed Limit

If you want to improve your car’s gas mileage, make sure to pay attention to your speed limit. Driving slow saves you money and also may help prevent accidents on the road.

The Bottom Line

You do not need to go out and buy a new fuel-efficient or fuel-saving car to save on gas. There are lots of things you may do boost your gas mileage and using those tips above will surely help you enjoy savings, particularly if you drive several cars draining the monthly budget of your family. Remember to take your car for regular tune-ups and checkups as this will help you save a good deal of money. A car that does not run at optimum level may cost you a lot in the end.

This is a guest post from the repair pros at Tow Truck Palo Alto, CA.

31Jan

2019

carstuff / Blog, Tires, Towing, Travel / 0 comment

5 Tips to get the most out of your vehicle’s tires

We all know that a good set of tires can be very valuable. You want to ensure that your car tires stay damage free so that you can get the most out of them for as long as possible while feeling safe driving. The following are five tips to keep your car tires safe and prevent the need for help from a local towing service:

Don’t Drive Over Potholes

This might seem like common sense. However, during travel, at times we may be just concerned with getting from point A to B. You might be tempted to take that side road, but don’t do it. Driving on potholes is the easiest way to puncture a tire. If you find yourself on a road with potholes, put your hazards on. Then reduce your speed to 10 to 20 miles per hour. The slower you can go the better. That will help you avoid dangerous craters in the road.

Beware of Construction Debris

Unfortunately, construction debris is everywhere. It doesn’t matter if you’re driving in a city or a back country road. It can be in the form of broken glass, mirrors, screws, or virtually any sharp object. Be sure not to drive — or drive very carefully — in any area that looks like it has debris.

Always have a Proper Spare

Having a “donut” tire in the car can be okay in a pinch. However, you are not supposed to drive more than 50-100 miles with it on. Wouldn’t it be better to just replace your tire with a regular spare. Then you can continue on driving. Make sure, however, that you tighten the lug nuts after 25 miles of travel. If you can’t make the change to a spare on your own call roadside assistance near you for help.

Go For the New All Weather Tires

Having the new all weather tires can prevent you from having to change from spring to winter tires. This really is not something that people usually make the time for anyways. They usually end up driving their all seasons in winter and getting into an accident. Or they wear the treads of their winter tires during summer heat.

Make Sure to Get your Alignment Checked

A car can be off balance too. If it is, then you are wearing certain tires faster than others. Make sure that you avoid this catastrophe and get your alignment properly balanced.

Guest post by Aurora, CO Towing Pros