Check the car a week ahead
A week, because the morning of departure leaves no time to fix what you find. Set the tire pressures to the figure on the driver's door-jamb placard, not the maximum molded into the sidewall, and include the spare. Put a penny into the tread with Lincoln's head pointing down. If you can see all of his head, the tread is at or below two thirty-seconds of an inch and the tire needs replacing. Check the oil, coolant and washer fluid, the wiper blades and every light. Confirm that the registration, insurance card and roadside assistance number are in the glove box.
The honest arithmetic
Navigation estimates assume that you never stop. Add about a quarter, so that a six-hour estimate becomes a day of seven and a half hours. Cap each day at about eight hours of driving or five hundred miles, and at less with a single driver. Safety agencies advise a break every two hours or one hundred miles. Open windows and a loud radio do not fix drowsiness. Pulling over somewhere safe and well lit for a twenty-minute nap does, and so does changing drivers. Avoid driving through the hours when you would normally be asleep.
Fuel, maps and tolls
Refuel at a quarter tank, and at half a tank in the rural West, where stations can be a hundred miles apart. Electric car drivers should plan each charging stop with a backup, since chargers break and range falls in cold weather and at highway speed. Download offline maps for the whole route, because signal disappears in mountains and deserts. Many toll roads are now cashless and bill by license plate, so check whether your transponder works in the states you will cross. Rental companies add a daily fee for their toll programs.
The kit in the trunk
- Jumper cables or a jump pack belong in every car, along with a tire gauge and a confirmed spare, jack and lug wrench.
- A gallon of water per person and some food that keeps will cover a long wait.
- A flashlight, a first aid kit and reflective triangles handle a breakdown after dark.
- A phone cable, a power bank and a blanket round it out, and winter adds an ice scraper, a small shovel and warm layers.
Tip Plan to be parked by dusk in deer country. Collisions with animals peak at dawn and dusk, most of all in autumn, and a tired driver in fading light is the worst combination on the road.
