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Road
Trip and Traveling Safety for the Entire Family
Are you
packing the car for a road trip with your friends or with your
family? Usually our
vehicles do not make much of a trip other than to work and to home,
with the occasional outing once in a while.
If you are looking on driving three or more hours from home,
you should do a once over safety inspection of your vehicle.
While you may not be able to catch all of the potential
problems with a vehicle when doing a safety inspection of the
vehicle, you can catch problems that could be costly after you get
so far away from home. As you are
preparing to leave for your trip you should pop the hood on your
vehicle and take a look at a few items, which include the following:
Take a look at the belts you can see.
Most likely the belts you will be able to see are the
alternator and the air conditioning belts if you car has these.
If they look good – ok, it they are frayed and looking worn
and cracked you may want to consider having them replaced before you
get on your way. Another
item you should be looking at is how much washer fluid is in your
car, for when you are traveling along the highway and you need to
wash your windows. If your car
has an air filter that you can inspect, (it would be under the big
metal lid looking thing in the middle of the engine that comes off
with just a twist of a screw with your fingers) think back to when
was the last time that you replaced it?
This inexpensive item saves you money on gas and performance
of the vehicle when it is clean or at least newer. Before you
leave on a long trip, you should always change the oil in the car,
and the oil filter while you are at it.
If you don’t know how to do this there are many gas
stations that will change your oil for about twice the price of what
you can do it for yourself. While you
are under the hood, take a look at your battery, how old is it?
You don’t want to be stranded in the ‘middle of no
where’ when your battery fails.
A good battery will last any where from seven to ten years.
Another, safety feature that you should look at while you are
in the front of the car is to make sure all your lights work and the
turn signals as well. These are very inexpensive items that you can change
yourself, but they will ensure your safety when traveling. A few other
things that you might want to check before you get packed and ready
to leave on your trip is that your tires have the proper amount of
air pressure in them, and that the tread is still usable.
Treads on your tires that are barely visible are called
‘bald’ tires and can be dangerous when driving in any type of
weather. So that you
can see in the snow and in the rain, make sure your wiper blades
look good. Do they
work? Are there pieces
missing? If you find a
piece is missing or they look as if they are ‘falling apart’ you
should replace these so you can drive safely in the rain.
Also see Safety Issues for Cars & Drivers Driving Safely – Five Safety Tips Most Forgotten -5 great tips to keep you and your family safe in your car, truck, or SUV. Everything You Need to Know about Winter Driving -Some excellent ideas for keep safe on the roads during the treacherous winter season. Important Tips about Child Restraint Seats- NHTSA requires new LATCH system. Learn more.... Most Common Car Accidents and How to Avoid Them -What causes accidents? Drinking? Jabbering on that cell phone?
This webpage is brought to you for general information purposes only and there are no warranties as to accuracy, completeness, or results obtained from any information posted on this or any linked website. | ||||
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