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Safety Modifications to Add to Your Vehicle

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As a father, it’s your duty to protect your children from harm, including when they’re on the road. And now that your teenager is old enough to take the car out on their own (can you believe how fast time flies?), it’s important to stress the dangers and consequences of irresponsible driving. Adding security modifications is the best way to protect your children and their vehicle.

Not all cars on the road have the same safety standards, which can be problematic for newer drivers on the road. Before handing over the keys, you should consider a few safety modifications to add to your vehicle to prevent accidents.

Reverse Camera

Remember when cars didn’t have reverse cameras, and you had to twist around to see behind you? Those days are over now that reverse cameras are so common in vehicles. However, if you purchase a car that doesn’t have one, you should consider adding it. Your child is more at risk of bumping into a curb or pole without it. A reverse camera will also alert them if someone is walking behind the vehicle.

Blind-Spot Alert System

Switching lanes or navigating through a busy parking lot can be difficult because of blind spots. So another great safety modification to add to your vehicle is a blind-spot alert system. This feature is often in luxurious vehicles, but you can install it in any car. It’ll have various sensors to help detect the presence of another vehicle in your blind areas, preventing accidents when changing lanes.

Tip: when getting safety upgrades, ask your auto insurance company if those modifications will impact your monthly premiums.

Bumper Guard

A bumper guard is a discrete but great feature to add to your child’s vehicle. While you may teach them everything in the driver’s education handbook, accidents can still happen. A bumper guard can help prevent damage in smaller accidents or shield the vehicle from debris on the road. This additional installation will help minimize the vehicle’s damage and potentially protect the driver from injury resulting from an accident.

Safety and responsibility are the main priorities when sending your child off in their new ride! You can keep your new driver on the road safe by adding these key safety modifications to your vehicle. While it’s still important to teach them the road’s official and common ground rules, adding these additional accessories to your car can help prevent substantial damage and injuries.

Electric Vehicles in Hot Weather: What To Know

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If you own an electric vehicle, you’re likely no stranger to dealing with the joys and challenges of driving one. While you’re counting your savings when it comes to fuel efficiency, you might wonder how high temperatures affect this efficiency and other factors. Read on to learn what you need to know about electric vehicles in hot weather!

Battery Performance in Hot Weather

While EV battery systems work in a variety of temperatures, extreme heat can present some challenges. Hot weather can reduce the battery’s capacity, leading to decreased range and performance. This is largely due to an increased rate of energy loss and the need to cool the battery system. To combat this issue, some modern EVs come with advanced thermal management systems, which help maintain battery temperature and performance during hot weather conditions.

Range Anxiety in Hot Weather

For many electric vehicle owners, range anxiety is a significant concern, especially in hot weather. The reduced battery capacity and the additional energy necessary for air conditioning can reduce your EV’s range. To alleviate range anxiety, plan your trips more strategically by keeping an eye on weather forecasts and using route planning tools that can display charge points along the way. Additionally, try to avoid quick accelerations and aggressive driving, which contribute to battery depletion in hot conditions.

Interior Comfort and Energy Efficiency

Keeping your EV’s interior cool is essential during the scorching summer months. However, running the air conditioning can decrease your vehicle’s energy efficiency. To maintain interior comfort without compromising your range, consider pre-cooling your car while it’s still plugged in. This way, you’ll be using external power to cool your car rather than draining the battery. Additionally, parking under shade when possible is one of the best tips for driving your EV in hot weather. You might also consider investing in a reflective windshield sunshade and using the windows for ventilation when possible.

Heat-Related Safety Precautions

Driving your EV in hot weather requires a few essential precautions. First, never leave your children inside your parked vehicle on a hot day, as temperatures can rise quickly—even with the windows cracked or climate control activated. Also, monitor your EV’s battery temperature, as grueling heat can lead to overheating and potential damage. Finally, maintain appropriate tire pressure by checking it regularly, as extreme heat may cause fluctuations that can affect the overall performance of your electric vehicle.

Maintenance and Care in Hot Weather

Proper maintenance is necessary to ensure the optimal performance of your EV in hot weather conditions. Routinely check your battery’s cooling system and coolant levels and clean your air conditioning system’s filter. You should also inspect the seals on your doors and windows to avoid leaks, which can reduce the efficiency of your air conditioning.

Understanding what to know about electric vehicles in hot weather is essential for a pleasurable driving experience for you and your family. By taking proper safety precautions, managing your range, and maintaining your EV, you and your family will be able to enjoy the open road without worrying about the scorching sun. Buckle up, keep cool, and hit the pavement with confidence!

Activities To Do Before the Summer Gets Away From You

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Summer is already here, and that means it’s time to get out there and enjoy the nicer weather. It can be easy to put things off until it’s too late. If you need some inspiration, this list of activities you can do before the summer gets away from you should be valuable.

Plan That Family Camping Trip

Around April or May, it’s easy to say that you want to take the family camping this summer, but it’s much more difficult to actually pull it off. You must make sure you have all of the necessary gear for the campsite on top of checking to see if all of your kids packed everything they needed. Plus, you have to find a suitable campground site with activities that everyone will enjoy.

We get it—this can all be quite stressful. Fortunately, once you get there, it should be much smoother sailing. You can either kick back and relax or partake in some fun camping events.

Get Some House Projects Out of the Way

One thing that all dads like to put off when summer rolls around is the big house projects that need to get done this year. However, some of the best outdoor improvements can be the most rewarding in the end, which is why it’s so vital that you start now. That way, you can make sure you have plenty of time to admire your work and take advantage of its benefits. Plus, you can use the rest of the season for more fun excursions with the big project out of the way.

Set Up a Garage Sale

Unfortunately, we have another one for you that isn’t quite as fun but needs to get done. A garage sale is a summer activity that always has a habit of getting away from people. This is why you need to begin the season with a full-blown garage sale. We’re sure that your family has a ton of unused stuff that others will gladly buy from you. Even though you likely won’t make a ton of money from one of these, you can at least put it toward another fun activity.

Join a Sports Team

Let’s do something that’s just for Dad. Joining a local sports team is a great way to get some sun while participating in an activity that you enjoy. Whether you decide to play something that you did back in high school or try out something new, we’re sure you’ll have a blast with it. Who knows? You might even make some new friends that you can spend time with when you’re not at home.

Try Something New

At the end of the day, though, the goal of this article is to get you thinking about your options this summer. There are so many things to do, and we don’t know what you’ve already tried. That’s why it’s best to just get out there and do something you’ve never done before. You won’t regret it.

Steps To Purchasing Your Teen’s First Vehicle

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If you’re looking for the right first vehicle for your teen, it can seem like a big chore. These steps to purchasing your teen’s first vehicle will help you figure out where to start. Get your teen the right car to get them driving safely.

Teach Your Teen About Car Maintenance

Teaching your teen the importance of car maintenance is one of the most important ways to ensure they’ll be safe on the road. Teach your child about getting regular oil changes, keeping the proper tire pressure, and the importance of hand-washing your car. Make sure your teen knows how to properly maintain their vehicle before getting on the road.

Talk About Your Budget

Some parents decide to take on most of the financing themselves, while other parents expect the teen to cover most costs. What works best for your family is up to you, but make sure to set your teen’s expectations. Your teenager should know the cost of their car, insurance costs, maintenance costs, and gas prices before signing on to get a new car. Help set your teen’s expectations and let them be a part of the process. Even if they aren’t paying for it, it can still be a learning experience.

Set Some Rules

Another essential step in setting up your child’s expectations is to lay out some rules they’ll have to follow when using their car. Set some ground rules like when they can use the vehicle, whether they’ll have to share with other siblings in the future, and how they’ll have to obey traffic laws. Setting up some rules will help manage your child’s expectations for their new car, and they’ll know when to expect consequences to occur. Lay down some clear boundaries around using the vehicle for your child.

Prioritize Safety Features

Safety features are essential for deciding on a car, especially for a teen driver. Let your teen know that you’ll be prioritizing the safety of their vehicle above the features that they are hoping to get. If they want a particular paint job or style of vehicle, they’ll have to invest in one in the future, but safety takes precedence for now.

Test Drive Some Cars

Now that your teen knows what to expect in their first car, it’s time to test drive some new vehicles. Let your teen test drive the car and allow them to enjoy their excitement. Complete your own test drive to check on the features you’re looking for in your teen’s car. If you both test drive the vehicle, you’ll both be happy.

Have a Mechanic Check the Car

If you’re looking at used vehicles, it’s crucial to have a mechanic look over the car for any repairs that will have to happen soon. Make sure a mechanic looks over any used vehicles, and you’ll be confident you’re making a purchase that makes sense.

Emphasize Safe Driving

Now that you’ve found and checked your teen’s new car, they’ll be ready to drive. Emphasizing the importance of safety is one of the most crucial steps to purchasing your teen’s first vehicle. Safe driving is critical to help your teen take care of their car and stay safe on the road. Now, your teen is ready to take on the road responsibly.

Good as New: Mechanical Upgrades To Make for Your Old Car

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Cars fall apart as their components wear down over time. Wheels degrade, oil must be replaced, and many other components need repairs for a number of reasons. Here are just a few mechanical upgrades to make your old car feel good as new.

Coilover Springs

What is a coilover spring? A coilover spring coils over your shock absorber, a piece of your car that allows your car to feel far fewer bumps in the road. These springs keep an ideal weight distribution on your car, constantly compressing and extending with each bump of rough terrain so that the drive is smooth and stable. Unfortunately, these pieces degrade over time. A coilover spring upgrade will have your car driving smoothly again. After driving steadily again, you will be thankful you got made this upgrade.

Quality Tires

Tires are one of the first things that need replacing as you drive your car, and they can make the biggest difference in the quality of your car’s driving. If the tires are too small, you will have issues. Similarly, if the tires are too big and overinflated, your drive will be much rougher. Quality tires come in many shapes and sizes; the right choice depends on the specifics of your car’s make and model and how you are driving it.

Fog Lights

This is less of a mechanical upgrade than an aesthetic one, but if you have driven in bad conditions, you understand how lifesaving fog lights can be. Bad weather is not only challenging to drive in, but it reduces visibility, making driving even more dangerous. Fog lights are an excellent upgrade that makes driving safe and easy, and they are helpful for all kinds of weather conditions.

Spark Plugs

This upgrade is not often thought about because many people assume there is only one kind of spark plug. However, different spark plugs can significantly affect your overall fuel economy and help you save gas over time. Higher-quality plugs provide your car’s engine with better combustion, and you will reap the benefits.

These mechanical upgrades to make your old car feel good as new may seem insignificant, but when combined, they can make your car feel like you just drove off the lot. You are rewarding yourself if you put some due time and attention into your car.

Best Temperature for Bodily Function During a Workout

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Rarely remaining static for too long, the body is a fantastic system that can regulate itself. Having the ability to maintain itself through different processes allows for this self-regulation. Through a process of elimination and statistical study, we can determine without question the best temperature for bodily function during a workout.

Regulating the Body

The body’s natural mechanism of regulation is more formally known as thermoregulation. A perfect example of this is warming up for exercise. Whenever you warm up, the blood from your core rushes into your musculoskeletal system and cardiovascular system all at once. This primes the body for activity and, in turn, slightly raises the temperature of the body, activating it for whatever it needs to get done.

The Ideal Temperature

Certain things will happen whenever the body is under stress. If the body is too hot, it will cool itself, and whenever it’s too cold, it will warm itself. The body prefers to be in a state of comfort, so in order to achieve this, it works to keep itself within a certain temperature range. Studies show that this range is somewhere between 68 and 72 degrees Fahrenheit, or roughly 37 degrees Celsius.

Dressing in Layers

It’s important that you pay careful attention to the weather forecast and terrain for your outdoor activities. Wearing the proper clothing keeps the body well-regulated and comfortable. In recreation such as skiing or snowboarding, for example, dressing in layers to better help the body regulate its temperature might be ideal. You’ll need fewer layers in warmer weather, so for hiking in summer temps, you might only want shorts and a tank top or T-shirt.

The next time you’re shivering in the cold as your body works to warm itself or sweating uncontrollably after a nice workout, you’ll now recognize thermoregulation in action. It’s important to know what your body is doing so that you can act accordingly to the elements. Therefore, everyone should know the best temperature for bodily function during a workout or during rest periods.

Ways To Show Your Dad Appreciation on Father’s Day

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Father’s Day is a day that every father awaits. There’s nothing more heartwarming than receiving handmade cards and gifts from your kids (they’re crudely made, but they’re full of love) and having them excitedly tell you how much you mean to them and how proud they are to have you as their dad. Parenting is often thankless work, so it can be nice to hear that you’re doing a wonderful job.

As a father, you’ll probably spend the day with your own family. But that leaves one very important person alone on this special day—the father who raised you. Instead of leaving your old man out of the celebrations, make this year special with these creative ways to show your dad appreciation on Father’s Day.

Write a Letter

Do your parents live miles away from you? You probably don’t want to go through the trouble of packing your luggage and hopping on a plane for a single day of celebration. What should you do, then?

If you can’t see your father in person on Father’s Day, take the time to pen a heartfelt letter instead. Tell your dad how much you appreciate him. Whether you send him this message through text or snail mail, he’s sure to flash a smile when reading it.

Make It Fun

Maybe you think Father’s Day should be an exciting event. Your family takes you to the beach, an expensive restaurant, or the local golf course each year to celebrate. Why not do the same for your own dad? The next way to show your dad appreciation on Father’s Day is to plan a fun activity or outing.

It doesn’t have to be on Father’s Day, but during that same week, invite your dad to spend a day with his favorite kid. There are countless things you can do and places you can go. Just make sure that whatever you’re doing is something you know that your dad will enjoy.

Celebrate Together

This momentous day in June is a time to celebrate fathers of all kinds. Instead of letting your dad celebrate on his lonesome, invite him to join your family festivities. What was that one saying? The more, the merrier.

Father’s Day is more about family than anything else. The more family you include, the livelier and more joyous it will be.