Road trips are an exciting way of traveling, giving you the freedom to roam wherever you choose and explore places which you may never previously have thought about going to. Whilst a road trip should offer all of this adventure, it can turn sour if you have not properly prepared your car for the journey.
A brea-down is bad news at the best of times, but more so when you are on a road trip, as it can potentially halt the entire journey, and make you lose time on your trip. In line with the Kwik Fit campaign #RoadTripsofEurope, here is a quick checklist for you when it comes to ensuring your car is ready to take on the journey.
Tyres
Ensuring that your tyres are properly inflated, have sufficient tread and don’t have any damage, is incredibly important to making sure that the road trip goes without a hitch. Balding tyres makes control of the car much more difficult, it can affect braking distances and can also make cornering very difficult. Equally if your tyres aren’t properly inflated, this too can affect the handling of the car, as well as costing you more money in gas as the more power is needed to get the tyres going. Be sure to check that your tyres are in perfect order before heading off.
Fluids
Before you depart you should check that all essential fluids in your car are filled up. This includes having enough oil, enough water in the radiator, sufficient screen wash, brake fluid and power steering fluid if your car operates like that. If you are in any doubt as to how to check and fill your fluids, you can consult the owners manual, or take it to your nearby mechanic for the once over.
Lights
All of the car’s lights play an important part of operating the vehicle and you must ensure that none are faulty, broke or missing. Firstly it is worth remembering that a light which isn’t working could result in you getting a fine from the police. The reason for the importance of your lights is so that you can see and so that other drivers can see you, as well as your warning of braking and manoeuvring such as indicators and brake lights. Lights are easy to test, cheap to buy and very easy to replace, so make sure that you check them before you leave.
Windscreen and Windows
The last safety check to make is that none of the windows or the windscreen has cracks or chips in them. If you do have some damage, regardless of how small, this can easily cause the whole glass to break. The reason for this is that the fitted glass is tempered, which means that it is tight and pressurised. Once you have a chip or a crack, a simple bump in the road could result in the glass shattering, and ruining your trip in the process. Review the glass in the car and replace anything which has even the slightest amount of damage.
If you are in any doubt about the car, its parts, or any of the above items, make sure that you take your car to the garage for a review by professionals.
