Many people take the time to prepare and plan for a road trip and forget to do something that is critical to both the success of your trip and the safety of your family. Take about 30 minutes and follow some simple car care tips before your trip. I’ve mapped out how to prepare your car for a road trip. Follow these tips and you’ll have a safe and fun road trip.
This car is ready for a road trip!
Road Trip Planner: How to Prepare your Car before taking a Road Trip
Check Your Tire Pressure
Check Your Tread Depth
While you’re putting air in the tires take a minute to look at the tread wear on your tire. If you see any uneven wear you should have them checked out before venturing on a long road trip. You also want to check the tread depth to make sure the tires aren’t worn out, you can use a tread depth tool to make sure you have more than 3/32, or use a penny and make sure the tread goes past Lincoln’s head.
Check Your Service Record
See when you are due for an oil change or factory service. If you are within 500 miles of your next service go ahead and get it done before the trip. Normally, when you are completing a full service oil change, most services will check the rest of the fluids for you. Tip: if you recently paid for service on your vehicle, many national chains, will top off and check your fluids for free in between service intervals.
Check Your License, Insurance, and Registration
I don’t really think you’ll plan for a road trip without any of these things, but it will help to find them so you will have them all in one place if needed (you don’t want to be scrambling to find these things as “Officer McSpeed-Trap” stands by waiting). It’s also important to check when your insurance policy expires since it may expire while you are on an extended road trip.
Check Your Wiper Blades and Lights
Take a moment to look over and clean off your wiper blades. If you notice the rubber is dry, cracked, or rough and brittle, or you see streaks on the windshield when using them, it may be time to change them. This is especially important if you are driving into a wet climate like Florida or Washington from somewhere arid and dry like Texas or Arizona. Many westerners aren’t prepared for a flash rain storm that can bring visibility to a very low level if your wipers aren’t up to par.
Check Your Lights and Indicators
Turn on your lights and walk around the car to ensure they are all working. Then turn on each turn signal and do the same. If you have someone with you also take a minute to have them press your brake pedal to make sure all your brake lights are working. You don’t want to get pulled over for having any lights out, or worse end up in an accident because of poor lighting.
Check the Inside of Your Vehicle
Take a few minutes to clean out the vehicle and check that everything in the car is something you’re going to need for the trip. When taking long trips every inch of space will matter and you’ll be glad you took that extra stuff out of your trunk. If you’re traveling with pets make sure the area they will be occupying is free of any harmful chemicals or chew hazards, and give them some clean bedding to sleep on.
Wash and Wax Your Car
Many people plan on cleaning their car after a road trip, but dont’ realize how helpful it can be to wash the car before the trip. It’s one of the most important long term car care tips on the list. In addition to ensuring good visibility through all the windows you’ll be adding a protective layer of wax to the car to protect it from all the road grime that will build up throughout your trip. The first time I drove through a desert I was shocked to see how much dust built up on the car and waxing it first prevented damage to the clear coat.
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While on a road trip, many problems can be occurred if the car is not checked properly. I am sure your article will help people go about maintaining their car for a road trip.
Great post!!Family road trips are a great opportunity to have some much-needed bonding time and share some amazing experiences. But planning is key to any successful trip! Thankfully, there are many simple things we can do to make trip goes smoothly.
you are right planning is key to any successful trip. We do a lot of road trips in our family, we use packing checklist to make sure we don’t forget anything for the journey! We’re just planning a mini-road trip very soon so this post is perfect for me. Thank you!
Happy to help. It’s always better to spend a little time before a vacation to make sure everything is a-ok, than having something ruin your trip.
Road trips are truly unforgettable.My husband and I are taking a road trip. We’re excited and have been planning our trip. Although we’re not traveling with kids, the rest of your tips were pretty helpful. Thanks for sharing!
Don’t forget a constant supply of water for emergency purposes, wouldnt want to leave an overheating car in the middle of nowhere, my 2 cents on that.
These are such great tips! My husband and I like to hit the road very often and our last road trip was a disaster. We got stopped by cops 3 different times and got tickets 2 out of the 3 times. One was because our registration has expired, the second was because one of our blinkers had gone out, and the last time was because we were speeding. It saves you money to inspect your car before you go on the road.
It’s often the little maintenance things that escape our mind when preparing for a big road trip. Usually, I don’t think about my tire pressure or spare availability until I am in desperate need of it, like you say. Keeping a checklist like this would be a great way to ensure that these issues are taken care of before you even get going, though.
Over the years my wife and I have learned that having a “fresh” driver is valuable. We trade off every two hours. You might not think you’ll ever fall asleep at the wheel, but it happens too often and the results are bad.
Great advice, it’s so important to make sure your car is in working order before a road trip, and definitely don’t wait until the morning of! You want to check at least a week in advance so you can be sure you have time to fix or replace if you need to. Thanks for sharing!
Hi i agree with you Great advice for people Thank you for sharing
These are all great advice for road trip planning! I use to have to drive a lot for my job and I would go through a checklist like this all the time right before I had a long driving trip. Thanks for sharing!
Very basic yet crucial tips! I always make it a good practice to remember to check my wheels and brakes before going to a road trip.. heck, before driving for that matter. Lol. Great article. Cheers!