“O’ Christmas tree, O’ Christmas tree, please remove it from my wheel well.”
The end of Thanksgiving used to mean the start of the holiday season. But the Christmas music and ads have begun after Halloween in recent years. Christmas tree-buying, however, really ramps up after the Turkey Day stomach cramps.
In the bustle of the breakneck calendar pace leading up to America’s biggest holiday, people can forget the importance in making sure that brand-new Christmas tree — real or fake — is snug on the frame of their vehicle. The consequences for doing a shoddy job should push this task up higher on the priority list.
Justin Levanger, a Certified Mechanic and Reconditioning Manager for Carvana in Winder, says drivers cannot be too careful in loading their tree for home.
“It’s perfectly acceptable to use bungee cords and ratchet straps to attach (the tree) to your roof rack,” he told the AJC and 95.5 WSB.
Using the trunk for an artificial, boxed tree or even for the fresh cut tree itself begs another level of care. “Make sure you secure your trunk lid to the vehicle, so it doesn’t bounce around and impede your vision any more than is necessary or cause any damage. And make sure all your tail lights are visible with that in the car,” Levanger explained.
Drivers should treat trees as they should ladders: If the tree sticks out longer than the car, “put some sort of bright-colored flag on it to alert other drivers,” he said.
Might I recommend a red or green flag to be festive?
Other vehicles and motorists are what drivers transporting trees should first consider. Road debris damages cars and causes crashes, as drivers swerve to avoid the hazards. This leads to delays, injuries, or, of course, worse.
Then there is the damage to one’s own car that a sloppy treeload causes.
“If the tree does fall off, it could damage a windshield, a back glass, a hood, or the paint. If the tree is sliding around on the roof, it is going to cause some paint damage,” Levanger noted. An unstrapped, ajar trunk lid can snap back and damage the back glass of a vehicle and can also damage the trunk supports and leave it misaligned, Levanger said.
Because he reconditions vehicles, Levanger has seen all sorts of paint and body damage. If a fresh Christmas tree leaves sap on the paint, he says a car owner can usually remove it with rubbing alcohol or WD-40 within 24 hours.
The bigger the vehicle, the more fit it is to carry a tree. Auto industry brass frown upon a zealous Miata owner hoisting a 100-pound Frazier Fir on the small roof of the two-seater. Too much can go wrong. And there are fewer points on which to secure that payload.
Try to avoid higher-speed travel when carrying these trees. That holds especially true if the normal plastic twine tied under the roof and closed in the back doors is all that is holding that spiny pine to the roof.
Big-box stores and nurseries often have employees on hand to load these new tree purchases, and they generally do an adequate job with security. But when the holiday ends and the time comes to toss the tree — whether in a “December 26th” or “whenever it turns brown” household — the onus is on the owner to properly load and transport it again.
Some counties and cities offer free curbside tree pick-ups, after seeing people move them the wrong way themselves. But if someone needs to load the tree themselves to drive to a tree recycler, they need to carefully heed the advice listed above. They should make sure to have twine, or, even better, ratchet straps and long bungee cords for the big, awkward load. The owner should place a heavy blanket or some kind of covering, even that thick, brown paper the box stores use, to protect the car’s paint job. Heck, they can save the brown paper from when they brought the tree home weeks before.
Inflation has only caused the price of fresh Christmas trees to rise. But the value of that wonderful-smelling evergreen pales in comparison to the cost of improperly securing it and the damages and injuries that malfeasance causes.
Christmas trees only belong inside windshields, when they are fake, cardboard, scented, tiny, and hanging from the rearview mirror.
Doug Turnbull, the PM drive Skycopter anchor for Triple Team Traffic on 95.5 WSB, is the Gridlock Guy. Download the Triple Team Traffic Alerts App to hear reports from the WSB Traffic Team automatically when you drive near trouble spots. Contact him at Doug.Turnbull@cmg.com.
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