Safe driving tactics for the winter season

MARQUETTE — With the snow falling, it’s important to drive safe and smart to keep yourself and your vehicle safe.

Here are a few tips to keep you driving smoothly throughout the winter months.

Drivers are cautioned against using cruise control when roads are ice covered or snowy.

“When the car is starting to manage its own speed and its own accelerator pedal position to keep that speed up, anything is possible if you hit a slippery spot on the highway,” Frei Chevrolet Owner Jim Grundstrom said. “So I am a huge fan of not using cruise control in any kind of winter driving situation unless the blacktop is totally bare.”

Four–wheel drive vehicles can help with traction when the roads are snow–covered, but running in four wheel drive all winter long is not recommended.

“I would advocate that on dry pavement, we want to get out of four-wheel drive and get back into what we would call AutoTrac in the General Motors name language, or certainly just rear wheel drive, and the reason for that is that bare pavement and four-wheel drive is very, very hard on tires,” added Grundstrom. “It wants to scuff the tires off trying to get them to rotate at the same revolutions per minute.”

Drivers of all–wheel drive vehicles do not need to disable their systems, as they function in a way that does not cause the same type of tire wear.

Additionally, maintaining a bare minimum of a quarter of a tank of gas is encouraged both to prevent condensation problems in a car’s gas tank and to ensure that drivers have enough fuel to stay safe if they get stranded in a snowstorm.