My Super Easy Life Hacks for Dealing With Texas Heat in Your Car

Dealing with all this Texas heat is ridiculous and unbearable. The high temps can exacerbate road rage and things can get pretty heated (no pun intended). So I came up with some tips to help before hitting the road during a heatwave.

A few years ago I wrote about ways to alleviate some of the heat-caused-by-car issues. Then I came across similar advice from an automobile insurance company. Paula Smith Insurance had a few hacks for keeping the car cool while it's parked in a scorching parking lot.

Start off by gathering a few things you'll need to beat the heat.

#1, protect yourself from crisping your buns. Cover your leather and/or vinyl seats. I lay a small blanket on the seat, as well as the front of the seat where the backs of your legs can get fried.

#2, using one of those folding front-windshield covers works wonders until your spouse or child steals yours and you have to improvise. I now use an empty manilla folder placed upside down on the steering wheel. A small hand towel works great too.

#3, crack those windows. It's not like it's going to rain every day. I tend to crack all the windows about half of an inch to allow air to flow through the vehicle. Being that I drive a pick-up truck, I also crack the big back window. It helps a lot.

#4, plan for the shade. What I mean by that is that there are several places I park at different times of the year, depending on the sun's position. If I can park my vehicle where the sun is behind me when I'll be leaving, then most of the heat is concentrated on the bed of the truck or the trunk of the vehicle.

#5, use window shades if you've got them. While I'm not a huge fan of tinted windows because it tends to hamper visibility at night, window tinting works wonderfully against heat. However, I would rather use a couple of those pulldown window shades moms are sometimes gifted at baby showers. I place them on the windows where the sun is shining in.

Get our free mobile app

Finally, if you can carry a water bottle with cool water in it, it can help a parched throat and tends to cool a person down while sipping on it. I hope this helps. "Drive nice and pre-plan before you grab that scorching hot steering wheel." Happy driving y'all.