Winterization tips

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Winter temperatures, precipitation, and salt can quickly compromise your fleets wearable parts. Consider scheduling an appointment with our service department to prepare your truck or fleet for the winter season.

Engine Performance: Pay attention to how your engine sounds and behaves. Is it idling correctly – in other words, smoothly and at low RPMs? Does it stall out on you? Does it ever have hard starts, or diminished power? All of these can be indicative of a number of problems, ranging from dirty filters to broken parts. The cold weather can really exacerbate any existing issues, making problems much worse. 

Battery: Batteries drain quickly in cold weather and can be tough to charge on the fly. We can test, charge, and replace all batteries and do electrical winter maintenance for all the electrical connections  

Brakes: Thin brake pads always negatively affect stopping power, but in extreme cold, thin material can crack. Replacing pads early can save you from an emergency situation later. We have multiple different brake and drum lines available  

Air dryer: Without a working air dryer, the water in your brake lines will freeze in winter weather, putting you and others on the road in harm’s way. We can check the air dryers operation and its filter to prevent problems on the road  

Tire pressure: Cold temperatures slowly reduce your tire pressures, Impacting tread life, fuel economy, and safety. We can check and adjust all tire pressures.  

Tires: Winter is the time to put safety first and foremost. Rotate your tires and consider changing any rib tread tires to lug treads. Lugs have much deeper treads and improve bad weather handling and stability. 

Cooling system: Within the winter cold months it is important to have your antifreeze tested, reconditioned, or replaced in the absence of leaks, antifreeze chemicals such as ethylene glycol or propylene glycol may retain their basic properties indefinitely. By contrast, corrosion inhibitors are gradually used up, and must be replenished from time to time. We recommend periodic complete replacement of engine coolant, to simultaneously renew corrosion inhibitors and remove accumulated contaminants in the cooling system  

Windshield Wipers: In most areas, winter means rain, sleet, snow, and ice. If your wiper blades are old, they could limit your visibility. The summer months may have dried and cracked the blades, which can greatly affect their usefulness.