How to Prepare your Car for a Road Trip

How to Prepare your Car for a Road Trip

If you’re about to go on an exciting road trip to a far off destination with nothing but your trusty four-wheeler to get you there, you may want to take a couple of things into consideration lest you end up stranded with an overcooked engine or a flat tire in the middle of nowhere.

Now, while replacing a flat tire doesn’t represent that much of a difficulty; fixing a ruined engine in the middle of nowhere can be quite a tough prospect. So, you might be better off not even trying to pull something like that off in the first place. Instead, proper preparation for the road trip should be your number one anti-disaster move when it comes to road trips.

This would, of course, also include thinking ahead of what to do in case you experience an accident. Being able to access a smash repairs mechanic’s shop quickly in case you bang up your car can mean the difference between continuing your road trip and being forced to abandon it.

In this article, we’re going to give you a couple of tips on how you can prepare your vehicle for a long road trip. As you are probably well aware, the more thoroughly you perform the preparatory process, so to speak, the less trouble you’ll have when you hit the road.

Check Your Tires

While tires are not a car part you have to buy every couple of months. They do represent one of the parts of a car that tends to wear down over time; no matter how well you take care of them.

The thing is, tires are only made out of rubber, and rubber is a material that although tough, isn’t impervious to damage. The ordinary wear ‘n’ tear of constantly being in contact with the tarmac and other surfaces you drive your car on.

For a longer road trip, the word of advice would be to set up a new set of tires; if you can afford it, of course. This will be the surest way that they won’t tear too quickly or be too thin to tackle some of the common sharp obstacles; such as glass shards on the road or some tacks maybe.

Another thing about the tires would be the pressure. Most tires should be inflated to pressure from 30 to 35 PSI, so check that before you set off.

Oil Level

Car engines, as any sort of engine, needs lubrication to run smoothly. In fact, not only to run smoothly – but without lubrication, an engine can’t run at all.

While checking the oil levels on your car’s engine is important all year round, it’s especially important you do it before you go on a long voyage such as a road trip.

If the oil level in your engine is low; you run the risk of having your engine fail you gloriously while en route to your destination. If an engine failure happens due to a lack of oil; you can rest assured it’s a failure that you won’t be able to fix by the side of the road.

Battery Checkup

A faulty car battery can be just as big of a problem as a dead engine in the sense that you won’t be able to turn your car on and get going. Of course, when it comes to the price of fixing a battery, it’s not nearly as expensive as fixing a motor, but that’s not much use if you’re stuck in the middle of nowhere without a tool kit.

So, ensuring your battery has no corrosion on it and that it’s always full of electricity is an absolute must if you mean to be able to go on a road trip worry-free.

Check Gas Prices Ahead

To save some money while on the road, you may want to take some time to check for the oil prices on the petrol stations along the way. This may only take you ten minutes or so, but can be a great solution that you can use to plan out your route.

Plus, you can save some money on petrol along the way.

All in all, embarking on a road trip can be an interesting idea that you can turn into a once-in-a-lifetime experience you’ll never forget. That said, if you hold the reins of the entire ‘operation’ and you’re the driver, you need to make sure that the car and everything related to it is in perfect working order before you set off. So, if you perform a complete car checkup before you drive off into the distance, you can rest assured the chances of something spoiling your road trip are minimal.

Featured photo by averie woodard on Unsplash