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TOUR TIPS: 5 WINTER TOURING TIPS

New Post has been published on https://deepdarkriver.com/2018/01/30/tour-tips-5-winter-touring-tips/

TOUR TIPS: 5 WINTER TOURING TIPS

[BANNER] TOUR TIPS: 5 WINTER TOURING TIPS Welcome the first ever installment of Tour Tips!

This will be a weekly article located HERE designed to help bands, musicians, travelers and anyone of that ilk – amateur or professional – gain more insight into a life on the road.

Winter is bitch in most countries in the Northern hemisphere. But Canadian winters are a cruel, miserable, heartless old crone who likes to throw rocks at the paper boy for no other reason than it’s funny. It takes certain level of courage to pack your life into an ancient, dilapidated vehicle and drive 15,000+ kilometers to hopefully earn some money and followers. Yet more and more people seem to be setting out to do just that with startlingly lustful fervor. This is the first installment of Tour Tips – a blog series designed to paint a helpful picture for those chasing the dream on the open road. Whether it’s your first trip, or your one thousandth – you’ll be sure to glean some helpful information from what I have to tell you. Now where was I? Right! Throwing rocks at children. Now the first thing you need to realize when you leave your front door is that Mother Nature is in charge. Not you. Mother Nature. She is a dominant, mindless force that governs the planet’s ebb and flow and she has no time to wait for you or your guitarist to have a fucking smoke before you leave on a 10 hour drive in February through the Rocky Mountains. No, you must respect her and bow before her might. Take into consideration the fact that winter in the Northern Hemisphere hurls all sorts of calamity into the paths of travellers. Roads become entrenched with black ice, accumulations of snow or drifts of snow hurled up by gale force winds. Travel by air becomes much more treacherous at whiteouts and ground planes for hours or days. Even in the unlikely event you can’t drive or fly – entire lakes can and will freeze over. So here are 5 dos for surviving your first winter tour: 1 – WINTERIZE YOUR VEHICLE This might seem like a no-brainer, but you would be surprised how unprepared most motorists are when it comes to winter. Before you set out: A – Change your oil (and buy a 2nd jug to keep in the back of the vehicle). Use a slightly less viscous oil than what your engine requires (eg: if your engine takes 5W30, then use a 5W20 oil). Thinner oil will flow more easily, allowing for easier start ups. B – Check and/ or change your spark plugs once every year or 2. If you drive a lot (touring musicians do), then once a year. The copper tip plugs (most common type) have a life expectancy of 30,000 miles (48280 km), but are the least dependable. If your plugs are bad, you won’t be able to start the engine. If you’re like me, you hate changing spark plugs because most modern vehicles’ engineering has made half of them ridiculously inaccessible. If you value your time and are seeking to check your spark plugs, it’s usually better to just change them to save yourself more time and peace of mind. C – Check all fluids and belts. If you are running low on any fluid, chances are you have a leak. If it’s within your means, then fix the leak. If not, keep a spare bottle in case of emergency. Belts should be changed if they look like they are cracking. If they squeak, it’s either the belt or one of the pulleys guiding the belt. Better to be safe and check both. You can get old milk crate from a lot of grocery stores. These make fine containers for holding fluids and other maintenance supplies. D – Replace your wiper blades. They aren’t expensive. Just fucking do it. E – If snow tires are too expensive for you, keep a Home Depot bucket full of sand and gravel with a scoop to toss beneath your tires to help you gain traction on a difficult stretch. Alternatively, buy some traction mats for around $10-100 each. They will save you some real grief if you get stuck in a snowbank.

“I’m having a great time, guys!”

2 – Ensure your warmth This is also a no-brainer. Winter is cold, no? On some of my tours in the winter, we have encountered temperatures as low as -40 celsius. If you were to break down in the middle of nowhere in that temperature and the doors of the van flung open (so someone can fucking smoke) and you had nothing but shorts and a t-shirt on – chances are you won’t survive very long. Seriously.

“I’m also having a great time!”

Finger-less mitts come in very handy when loading in gear or having to communicate on your phone outdoors. Bring larger mitts to slip over them, just in case. Bring sleeping bags, pillows and extra blankets. I would recommend this in any season, but most importantly in the winter time. Even in the event of having to sleep in the van, use gorilla clips to hold blankets up over the windows to contain more heat. Which brings me to my next point… 3 – Plan smart routes Sure that scenic route was bad ass when you passed through there last July, but consider what it might be like in the middle of winter. Even if you’ve never been there before and it might cost you a hundred kilometers or more, always take the route more frequently traveled. If you run out of gas or you slide off the road, you’ll be happy that there is a car or ten about to pass you from either direction. One of them might even stop to help! Take a good look at Google Maps well before you leave. Keep a weather app on your phone and frequently check your destinations. Google Maps automatically details numerous routes for you to take, and always displays the best one first.

I will be sure to write a much more detailed Tour Tips installment around routes and cutting costs on the road, so stayed tuned for that! 4 – Pack lightly This one is good for any season, or even another Tour Tips segment. Less is more. This is more focused towards music equipment. Nothing makes a load in or load out worse than bad weather, and you never know what will happen when you are touring in the winter time. This problem only gets worse when you are going into unfamiliar territory, or venues you have never visited before. I remember once upon a time, my band was obsessed with big amps, loads of stage equipment, lighting, effects, stage risers and extra PA speakers. My mind changed on all of this when we had to load out during a massively torrential downpour in Montreal. All of our gear was totally soaked and we were left ringing water out of merchandise and guitar cases for the next week. It took me a while to convince my guitarists to downsize, but they eventually relented.   My band now plays without amplifiers, running mostly DI signals from preamp units. The drums are the only bulky thing in our setup (when will drummers let go of the past?). Additionally, large luggage can also be a massive hindrance upon your load ins and load outs. If you’re constantly climbing over big bulky luggage to get in and out of your trailer or vehicle, or having to remove it to get to other things, you’ll run of these things quickly: patience, time and respect for your companions. Hard cases are definitely attractive for guitars when you are on the road. I recommend guitarists and bassists look up bags from Mono & Reunion Blues. Not only do they acclimate much more evenly and safely, but in most cases they even protect your instrument better than any generic hard case. They even have shoulder straps so you can take 2 or 3 of them into a venue while still have hands free to carry other items. In the future, I’ll make a more detailed post on this subject. Or I might make a whole series on this. Stay tuned…! 5 – Buy a small kettle This is one of the best decisions I’ve made when it comes to touring. You should already have an adapter to plug your 120VAC units into your 12V as I am sure almost every person in a touring band has fought for dominance over the only outlet to charge their phone. As far as small electric kettles go, I don’t leave home on a trip without mine. Every band or traveller should buy a small kettle for boiling water to leave up in between the seats of your vehicle or to bring with you when you are out on the road. You can get them from Wal-Mart for $15 (Canada – HERE) (U.S. – HERE). Buy one of those inexpensive plastic kettles, instant coffee (or a big box of tea) and a stainless steel travel mug. You will not regret this. I have personally spent my last couple of dollars at a Tim Horton’s to get a coffee on tour. It sucked. But if you have the ability to brew coffee or tea in the van or venue whenever you want one, you’ll be happier for it. You won’t have to stop as many times, the extra heat it generates will help keep YOU warm and you’ll keep lots of extra money in your pocket and your bands money fund. Now that’s being thrifty. Thank you for reading the first Tour Tips! Next Friday I will be back with Tour Tips detailing the 5 Unwritten Rules of the Tour Van. To help and spread the love, share this blog with your musician or traveler friends!

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