A World Without Towing: How To Push A Car
As hard as it is for me to imagine such a thing, let’s examine a world where commercial and residential towing services in northeast Florida didn’t exist. Heck, even the whole world! Would you know how to push a car if your engine won’t start but you need to move your car? Now that you’ve lost your best rated towing company in Jacksonville, will you be stranded? Those of you young and foolish enough to jump up and say “Yes, I can push it!” have a hard lesson coming to you. For starters, it takes at least two people to push a car. So if you find yourself without a tow, either because you’ve ended up on this alien world we’re imaging or, more likely, you’re on the side of an empty road with a dead cellphone battery, here’s how to properly push a car.
It Takes Two
I know men like to think of things in terms of brute force, but, fellas, pushing a car alone just cannot be done alone. Sure, you might scoot the vehicle forwards, but to move a vehicle any great distance you need two people.
One person is required to sit in the driver’s seat for steering and breaks while the other person, obviously, has to push. The reason why you still need a driver when pushing a car is that cars are a lot less controllable with the engine off due to power-assisted steering and breaking. Having someone to sit up front and control the vehicle means you’re not going to damage anyone or anything.
Alert Other Drivers
Let’s hope someone would stop to help you, but if they don’t you need to at least make them aware of your presence. In your roadside emergency kit that you should always have prepared in your car, include a high visibility jacket like construction workers wear for nighttime emergencies. And, don’t forget to turn your vehicle’s hazard warning lights to warn other drivers, too.
Put The Car In Neutral
Especially in automatic cars, putting your car in neutral will prevent damage to the engine, transmission and other pieces of your car. Make sure you have it switched out of drive or park before attempting to move the car. After that short checklist, you’re ready to go. Pushing the car by simply rolling the tires can be easiest depending on your car, but play around with your grip and positioning to find out the best place to move your car. Sometimes opening one of the car doors and allows you to get a better angle on pushing the weight of the car through the interior.
Tagged with: Car Stuck, Stuck In Sand, towing