Preparing For a Road Trip Checklist

Going on a road trip can be a fun way to explore a new place with your family or friends. Whether you’re making a short trip for a weekend away or getting ready for multiple weeks on the road, it’s important to prepare yourself and your vehicle properly for your journey. Our team at Longo Toyota created this guide to help you best prepare for your next road trip in the El Monte, California, area.

Share Your Plans

Image by kaluci is licensed with Unsplash License

Let someone know about your plans for your road trip. If possible, create an itinerary that details your plans, such as routes you plan to take, cities where you plan to stop, hotels or campsites where you plan to stay, and dates you expect to be gone. It may also be helpful to consider enabling location sharing through your smartphone so they know where you are.

Check Your Vehicle

Complete a comprehensive check of your vehicle before departing for your trip. Start by checking all the fluids, such as brake fluids, coolant, oil, and windshield fluid. If you’re not sure how long it’s been since your last oil change or you think you may be due for one while on your trip, consider scheduling an oil change before hitting the road. This helps ensure your car performs optimally and prevents you from sacrificing time on your trip to deal with repairs.

It’s also important to check your tires before your road trip. Check the tread on your tires to ensure you don’t need to replace them and the pressure to confirm they’re filled appropriately. Don’t forget to check your spare tire when completing these checks to avoid further issues if you get a flat on the road. If you have questions about your tires, it may be helpful to get a professional opinion.

Don’t forget to address small things you might not otherwise think about in your vehicle. For example, confirm the bulbs in all your headlights, taillights, and turn signals illuminate properly. Check your brakes, especially your brake pads and rotors, to confirm everything is in good condition. If you have any warning lights on, such as your check engine light, seek professional maintenance assistance and resolve the issues before your trip.

It may also be worthwhile to check your battery before leaving. Experiencing a dead battery may delay your trip significantly, and it may happen without a battery warning light illuminating first. Look for signs of a weakening battery, such as your engine struggling to turn on or dim headlights even after replacing the bulbs. Come visit us so we can check your battery and advise you about potential replacement options.

Create a Roadside Emergency Kit

Emergencies may happen during your road trip, but preparing for them can help ensure they have minimal effect on your trip. Build and pack a kit of supplies you can use to help you handle small emergencies or maintenance concerns that may happen on the road. Some important things that may be helpful to have include:

• Bungee cords or straps.
• Emergency triangle or flares.
• Extra fluids, such as oil, coolant, and wiper fluid.
• Flashlights.
• Full-sized spare tire.
• Portable gas container.
• Jumper cables.
• Road atlas.
• Supplies for changing a tire, like a car jack, lug wrench, and wheel lock key.
• Tire chains.
• Tire pressure gauge.
• Tire repair supplies, like an inflator, plug kit, and sealant.
• Toolkit with items like an adjustable wrench, a screwdriver, a socket wrench set, tow rope, work gloves, WD-40, and zip ties.
• Umbrella.

Consider researching your routes before leaving for the trip. For example, this may help you know when to anticipate driving through highly rural areas and fill up in advance. Learning more about the terrain and environment and factoring in the time of year may also help with packing appropriate supplies for the weather. For example, it may be helpful to have an ice scraper if you’re driving to Utah in the winter, but you can likely leave it at home if you’re trekking through Arizona in July.

It may also be helpful to create a general emergency kit. Include items like a first aid kit, basic cleaning supplies, drinking water, nonperishable food items, blankets, baby wipes, and trash bags. When packing, consider ensuring everyone has extra clothing and personal care items in case of trip delays.

Bring Important Documents

Make sure to pack all your important travel documents. Confirm you have the essential paperwork for driving your car, including your license, insurance, and registration. Don’t forget to pack any membership cards for roadside assistance companies and confirm you know how to contact them. It may also be helpful to keep printed copies of your routes, plans, or reservations and invest in a paper atlas as an extra resource.

Consider bringing cash and coins with you, too. Some routes may include toll roads, requiring you to pay a fee to drive on them. Toll routes often vary by state, but some accept coin and cash payments, while others may use a toll-by-plate system or only accept toll passes. Resources like TollSmart and TollGuru make it easy to research and plan for toll roads you may encounter.

Don’t Forget the Fun

Don’t let the stress of planning a road trip make you forget about having fun. Create playlists in advance to enjoy during your journey, and let people take turns playing DJ. Bring activities for the kids to do, such as card games or coloring. Think about making printouts of license plates from every state to play license plate bingo during the trip, or consider researching fun roadside attractions or landmarks to stop at throughout your drive.

We’ve reached the end of our guide about preparing for a road trip. At Longo Toyota, we’re proud to serve you and be the name you trust for everything Toyota in the El Monte area, and we hope you learned something new with our guide. Think we left something important off of our checklist? Drop us a line to share your suggestion. We may even update our guide to share your road trip preparation tips with our readers.

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