Inspect your vehicle regularly. When you go on a road trip, you should have a great time exploring the beautiful sites and taking in the sensations of an adventure instead of changing car tires or engine oil. Your car should offer you a smooth driving experience. Dealing with car maintenance issues when driving across towns is frustrating. Therefore, you must prepare your car for whatever road trip you have – a long or short one.
Inspect Your Vehicle for Road Trips
You can do some inspections easily to prepare your car for a road trip. However, for others, you may need the help of a professional technician. You must check:
Tires
You must check the tires before you allow them to contact the road. Driving across cities with bad tires is not an ideal option. Start by checking the tread of your tires and move on to the air pressure. You will need a coin to check the tread of your tires.
Apart from the tire treads, you want to make sure that they have optimum air pressure in tires. You will need the use of a gauge for this; remove the tire cap, insert the gauge and mark the readings. Make sure that each tire has the factory-recommended air pressure.
Brake Pads
For many folks, this prepping measure may be beyond their comfort or skill level. However, you must check whether your brake pads are at the minimum thickness that they need to be. If you hit the brakes and they tend to make a squeaky sound, this is an indication that your car needs new pads.
Oil
Checking oil before you head out for a road trip should be a no-brainer. Make sure that your oil levels are optimum before you take your car out for a long trip. Think of the engine oil as a hydration drink for the engine. It needs enough of it to run, not too much and not too little.
Inspect the Belts
Belts are incredibly important, as not maintaining the belt will likely strand you in the middle of the freeway. Most cars today have a serpentine belt, and it connects to every working of an engine. This single belt drives your alternator to charge your battery, your air conditioning compressor, the water pump that cools your engine, and the power-steering pump.
Therefore, you do not want to ignore this part if you plan on going for a long driving trip. To keep the belts in shape, make sure that there are no cracks inside the ribs of the belt. Other red flags show that pieces are missing in those ribs.
Conclusion
Lastly, make sure that you are not carrying unnecessary weight in your car before you head over to a road trip. Also, do not forget to carry an emergency tool kit and a spare wheel. Try to put everything in the car without having to latch it on top of the roof. This tampers the aerodynamics of the car and lowers down the MPG.