Road Trip Checklist

[veinbar]

I'm taking my '79 SWB Bonanza on a 600+ mile road trip this weekend. For those of you who do longer distance drives with your trucks, please suggest a maintenance/supplies checklist.... How would you prepare your truck for long distance driving, and what would you bring with you?

I'm not completely braindead. I do follow a regular maintenance schedule with all of my vehicles, but I didn't want overlook anything vital.

Thank you in advance.

[jitteryguy]

a spare tire, Jack, good lug wrench, small tool box, anti freeze mix, a gallon of good sweet tea and a cooler full of ice ! oh and my collection of Celine Dion CD's .
I'm ready for a "good" road trip.

[tucsonjwt]

X2 - but most important get road service if you don't have it. The best deals on road service can be had from non-insurance company offers - like credit card offers and the like. Make sure the coverage includes some significant distance, not just 10 mile tow limit. Even AAA road service can be worth it if you have one breakdown.
Just bring water to drink and you can also use it in your radiator if you have a leak. Keep your extra belts and hoses/clamps when you change them out so you can use them in an emergency - same for plugs and plug wires if you change them. A few extra quarts of oil is a good idea, especially if you have an oil leak like most of us do - sustained high speeds cause more oil to leak out. A set of sockets and screwdrivers is handy to have all the time. I would check the bolts on your crank pulley - I had mine loosen up and had the pulley fly off on a long trip - lots of potential damage there. A set of long jumper cables and maybe a jump start battery pack wouldn't hurt. I keep a bottle jack and wood blocks for chocks/jack assist even though I have all the stock jack parts since I think the bottle jack is safer to use.
An extra cell phone with charged battery is not a bad idea, in case you lose your regular phone or it goes dead or is out of range. I have a pay as you go cheap phone which you can get for $20-$50 which I actually use as a primary phone, since I don't make many phone calls - I use the net for most communication. You can use that second phone periodically to use up the minutes before they expire, or just add $10 to it when you need it.
Some high energy snack food that won't melt or go bad will be good.
Bring $200-$300 extra cash - not every place takes credit cards and if you break down cash might help encourage someone to help you.

[veinbar]

Originally Posted by jitteryguy

oh and my collection of Celine Dion CD's.

Greatest hits? You really can't go wrong with "Cel-Di". That's what I've always called her.

[veinbar]

Road trip accomplished, but not without failure...

Drive from Austin, TX to Lubbock, TX = 390ish miles (16.9 mpg average)
Drive from Lubbock to Austin = Same distance (14.25 mpg avg. w/ helacious head-wind)
The failure came late last night on my return trip to Austin. 20 or so miles outside of Eden, TX my headlights and taillights went out around midnight. I used my hazards and a flashlight to navigate my way to a safe area to problem solve. I found a gravel driveway. Armed only with basic tools I chased every wire from the light switch looking for power. My truck is a wiring nightmare and I hate the prior owner now... LOL. I ran a wire from the battery, through the fire wall, and crammed it into the back of the light switch. This fixed the issue but made me very nervous due to no inline fuse. I wasn't sure if the gauge of wire was stout enough, but it lasted the necessary 3 hours to get me home. Just terrible. Painless Wiring time??? Perhaps.

[West Texas Z]

dude? you came to Lubbock?!! should have had lunch or something.

[veinbar]

Originally Posted by West Texas Z

dude? you came to Lubbock?!! should have had lunch or something.

I'm sorry, man. I will have to get better about making more connections on this forum. There are a lot of good people on this site... But not a lot... And not even any... Only Kidding

[West Texas Z]

Originally Posted by veinbar

I'm sorry, man. I will have to get better about making more connections on this forum. There are a lot of good people on this site... But not a lot... And not even any... Only Kidding

[tucsonjwt]

You get the MacGyver old square award for improvised repair. I never would have thought to carry and extra roll of wiring and fittings for an emergency.

[mooseknuckles]

lotsa money for gas!!

[GmtGmt]

1 a good but small jack,
2 Decent spare tire
3 a tool box with a set cheapo wrenches screw drivers and ratchet with sockets
4 a box with some diffrent size hoses and upper and lower radiator hose, hose clamps
5 good spirit
6 jumper cables
7 a quart or 2 of engine oil, tranny oil and a gallon of 4 water
8 spare gas can with like a gallon of gas in it Remmber to fill it up before you leave!
9 a blanket for the nights if your stranded somewere
Last but very importend Duck tape and bayling wire!

i drive a 25 year old car on long trips towing trailers and dayli driver allways have this with me !

[Cherub]

good thinking im about to make a 1700 mile trip. ill let ya know what i take.

[mdb]

My drive to college was 850 miles on the Trans Canada highway along the north shore of Lake superior. This last school year I made that drive 8 times (6800 miles total), many of those were made in the middle of winter, -30 degrees and snowstorms. If you've ever driven along there you know you can go hours between any sort of town and there's no such thing as cell coverage.

My truck has the following stuffed behind the seat;
-tire iron, stubby wrenches and socket set
-red Tuck tape (so much better then duct tape!!!), I think the real name is Sheathing Tape
-plenty of oil
-spare belts
-spare headlight
-fuses
-gallon of antifreeze
-qt. power steering, tranny, and brake fluids
-emergency kit with tow rope, candles, hot pads, collapsible shovel
-couple flashlights
-lighters, matches
-knife, axe, machete
-!!rivet gun and all sizes of rivets!! (if your chrome trim has ever come loose at highway speed you'll understand the exclamation points, mine nearly took out a cop car coming the other way)
-Most important, go to the ATM before leaving and have a few hundred dollars cash

Luckily I've never been in a situation that I really needed any of that stuff (other then oil and lots of money for gas... and the rivet gun). The worst mechanical problem that hit me on the road was a leak in the radiator that caused some interesting engine temps and left me without cab heat.

As you can imagine, driving for 14 hours gives plenty of opportunities to glare at your gauges and listen engine noises.

EDIT: also have jumper cables, some hose clamps and a chunk of rad hose. Always regret not having a jerry can but for some reason never remember. I hate to stop for gas unless absolutely necessary, and have had a few close calls coming into the next station on fumes.

2ND EDIT: got 50' of 3/8" rope. Lots of this stuff I listed is something I saw on sale and said "I need that in my truck!!!"

[mdb]

Nearly forgot the most important item for the road trip; an inverter. I can plug in computer speakers, my laptop, and have the cell phone on the charger. This way I have all my music and if I decide to sleep at a truck stop I can watch movies and play games. Sure beats AM radio (I can't even pick up any stations for most of the trip anyway)

[SBTork]

Something I have that I've noticed was not on anyone else's list is a good fire extinguisher. I've heard a lot of horror stories about trucks burning to the ground for stupid reasons that a simple fire extinguisher could cure. This goes for both old and new. Basically anything modified.

[VegasBruce]

one thing I do weather I need to or not, and not on anyone's list. Pack the front wheel bearings. Its often overlooked and can cause a lot of grief.

[dmartin1]

i haventy made any long trips yet,but this thread gave me an excellent list of items to put together a road trip kit for behind seat/ a little box in the bed.

excellent thread thanks!

[tucsonjwt]

dmartin1 - Once you settle on exactly what you want to carry you should get a behind the seat storage box for those items. I made my own which is less expensive and works out better because you can configure the box for the specific items you have. See pics

[West Texas Z]

this should be stickied.

[HTX86chevy]

Originally Posted by VegasBruce

one thing I do weather I need to or not, and not on anyone's list. Pack the front wheel bearings. Its often overlooked and can cause a lot of grief.

I found this out the hard way a few months back.
luckily, I was still near home and was able to get some help from my father. we swapped out the bearing right there on the freeway shoulder and got her home.

[rayfinseats]

CASH, debit card, lots of treen tea, water, GPS, food, spare, jack,cell phone, warm clothes, lighter. I drove 120,000 MILES LAST YEAR in 9 months.
Any auto repairs can be made at a mechanic shop since you can't pack enough parts to repair everything.

[veinbar]

Originally Posted by mdb

My truck has the following stuffed behind the seat;
-tire iron, stubby wrenches and socket set
-red Tuck tape (so much better then duct tape!!!), I think the real name is Sheathing Tape
-plenty of oil
-spare belts
-spare headlight
-fuses
-gallon of antifreeze
-qt. power steering, tranny, and brake fluids
-emergency kit with tow rope, candles, hot pads, collapsible shovel
-couple flashlights
-lighters, matches
-knife, axe, machete
-!!rivet gun and all sizes of rivets!! (if your chrome trim has ever come loose at highway speed you'll understand the exclamation points, mine nearly took out a cop car coming the other way)
-Most important, go to the ATM before leaving and have a few hundred dollars cash

EDIT: also have jumper cables, some hose clamps and a chunk of rad hose. Always regret not having a jerry can but for some reason never remember. I hate to stop for gas unless absolutely necessary, and have had a few close calls coming into the next station on fumes.

2ND EDIT: got 50' of 3/8" rope. Lots of this stuff I listed is something I saw on sale and said "I need that in my truck!!!"

This is the most ridiculous list of stuff to carry that I have ever seen, YET as I was reading I kept thinking... "I need that, that's a good idea, that would be useful, need one of those." Ridiculous but genius. Thank you.

On a side not, I rode my bicycle from Austin, TX to Anchorage, AK during the summer of '09. I rode the entire Old Alaskan Hwy on a bicycle. Since half of that hwy isn't paved, I prepared for everything because everything happened...

[motornut]

nobody mentioned distributer cap,maybe points?
they can be hard to get @ the wrong time
any parts you bring may wana bring tools for a install
spare alt? maybe return the $$ parts after the trip
my alt went on the gold burb
with wife ,kid,mom inlaw in it
was after dark and hours from home
no phone reception walked to a house
dude gave me a "charger" pack
went back he boosted/charged me and i drove till it died and put the pack on to get enough juice to get home
drove back days after to return the pack