Summer is here, and that means many families are taking to the road. Road trips are a fantastic way to see America and spend quality time with friends are family. Because you’ll be spending a lot of time in your car, staying comfortable during your summer road trip is essential. Here are our top tips to help you stay cozy during your cross-country drive.
Top Tips for Staying Comfortable During Your Summer Road Trip
1. Wear loose, comfortable clothes
While it’s tempting to want to look stylish the moment you arrive at your destination, it’s important to wear loose and comfortable clothes on a long drive. This type of clothing not only improves your comfort, it helps keep your blood circulation normal too.
2. Consider your footwear
This tip ultimately comes down to a personal preference. Slip-ons and sandals are ideal for long drives, but some people live in their sneakers. Whatever your footwear of choice might be, you’ll ideally want to avoid shoes that constrict or cut into your skin to help make your drive as comfortable as possible.
3. Adjust your seat
Seat placement is essential for long-term drives. A seat that is too close to the wheel can cause leg cramps and discomfort. A seat that is too far away can cause arm and neck strain. In both cases, you may find yourself fatigued due to the excess strain.
Grab a seat cushion if you need one to improve your seat placement. Consider a lumbar support bar if you have back trouble.
4. Keep snacks and other trip essentials within reach
By keeping snacks and other trip essentials within reach, you’ll save yourself a lot of hassle when, two hours into your trip, you realize that you need a charging cable for your phone or GPS.
Trip essentials to keep within reach include:
- Snacks
- Water
- Entertainment (mp3 players, music)
- Charging cables
- Maps
5. Stay hydrated
Staying comfortable during your summer road trip is easier when you’re hydrated. It’s easy to avoid drinking in order to reduce the number of times you have to stop for a bathroom break. In fact, staying hydrated can help you feel your best for your long drive. Dehydration can cause headaches, fatigue, dizziness, muscle aches, and more, none of which are pleasant to deal with on a long drive.
6. Stop and stretch every few hours
Stopping and stretching helps keep you alert, which is important when it comes to late-night or even overnight drives. When you push yourself past your limits on a marathon drive, your reaction time and alertness decrease, which can be a dangerous combination for yourself and other drivers on the road. Stay safe and rest when you need to; that’s what rest stops are for.
Prepare Your Car for your Summer Road Trip at T3 Atlanta
A comfortable road trip is more than just the physical elements. Peace of mind is essential to a hassle-free vacation, too.
If you’re planning on taking to the road this summer, bring your car by T3 Atlanta before you leave. We’ll be able to advise if you need any repairs before your trip to help keep you from getting stuck on the side of the road. Give us a call and book an appointment today!
Unfortunately, a VIN check doesn’t always tell you if a car has been water damaged. The previous owner could be deliberately hiding the damage or may not know that the vehicle ever experienced water damage. In addition, water damage that was not reported to the insurance company may not show up on a VIN check.
4. You Notice Rust or Corrosion on the Vehicle
The short answer about whether car airbags can be replaced is that it depends. Some vehicles have curtain or side airbags which further complicate the question. Some newer cars even have knee or rear airbags to reduce your chances of injury during a collision.
Newer vehicles are equipped with airbags that do not expire, or at least, not quite. The airbags are designed to last for the life of the vehicle.
Older vehicles generally feature airbags that work on a different system – if they have airbags at all. The first airbags appeared in the 1970’s. With the technology being so new, manufacturers at the time were uncertain how long airbags could last and still be effective.
Buying a car is an investment, so it’s important that you do your research before you buy. The more informed you are, the better equipped you are to spot problems with candidates.
In addition to these more general research points, you should also take an in-depth look at the specific vehicle you plan to purchase. A car that has a lot of repairs, especially if they appear to be for the same thing, is at an increased chance at being a potential lemon.
While you may not be able to identify mechanical problems on your own, a visual inspection can still tell you a lot about the car. Check the inside and outside of the car to look for engine, structural, and water damage that can cause long-term problems. Of these, water damage is by far the worst from a long-term cost standpoint. After all, water and mechanical parts don’t mix!
After-market accessories like mufflers, electronics, speakers, or other electrical system add-ons might sound attractive, but there are a lot of hidden dangers with these neat extras.
There’s nothing like the excitement of new car ownership crashing to a stop because of an unexpected repair bill. T3 Atlanta recommends that you have any vehicle that you are strongly considering inspected before you buy. If the dealer you’re planning to shop with refuses to let the vehicle be inspected by an independent mechanic, that’s a red flag you should not ignore.
A sun screen is an affordable and easy way to not only keep the temperature inside your vehicle cooler but prevent damage to your dashboard and electronics caused by regular exposure to heat and UV rays.
Just like keeping your car’s window open for your dog can help keep Fido cooler while you’re at the store for a few minutes, keeping your windows cracked can help keep your vehicle’s electronics from getting damaged.
While this may not always be a possibility, parking in the shade can help keep the temperature in your car cool. When combined with a sun screen or keeping your windows open a crack, your car will be a comfortable temperature when you’re ready to go.
Ethanol, also known as bioethanol, is a type of alcohol produced by certain crops. Corn, sugar beets, barley, potatoes, sunflower, grains, wheat, and many other types of crops can all be converted into ethanol.
That means manufacturers can offer consumers a cleaner-burning, cheaper fuel that doesn’t sacrifice power. However, ethanol does reduce fuel efficiency in cars that are not optimized to run on ethanol. Vehicles that are designed to run on fuel that contains ethanol will have a smaller margin of decreased fuel economy.
You may that certain gas stations also feature a standalone pump that, much like diesel, advertises its own selection of fuel. Flex fuel contains up to 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline and can only be run by certain types of vehicles.
It’s possible that an overly enthusiastic pull on your parking brake can cause it to become stuck. In this case, the parking brake has become clamped against the brake shoes too hard and may actually require a professional to unstick.
Ice can actually freeze your parking brake in place. While this isn’t a common problem in the Atlanta area, it’s a possibility to keep in mind if you’re traveling out of town during cold weather.
There are a lot of fluids in your car at a given time: transmission fluid, oil, brake fluid, and coolant, to name a few. Transmission fluid often appears dark, slick, and shiny like oil, but unlike oil, it usually has a burnt smell. Leaking transmission fluid generally appears around the front or middle of where your car is parked.
Gear slippage refers to a few different possible symptoms. These directly impact how your car performs. In turn, they can lead to safety issues if your engine performance means you cannot respond promptly to changes in traffic.
There are many types of fuel grades, but the ones most commonly seen at U.S. gas pumps are 87, 89, and 93. The numbers refer to what’s known as the ‘octane rating’ – a number that measures how much pressure fuel can withstand before igniting. The lower the rating, the more readily the fuel will combust. The higher rating, the more resistant the fuel is to ignite.
It might seem like a great idea to put Premium gas in your car, but the truth is that manufacturers have done a lot of testing and calibration to optimize engines for certain grades of gas. Putting Premium gas into an engine that runs on Regular may actually do more harm than good, and vice versa.
Air-ride suspensions can improve your car’s fuel efficiency by lowering your vehicle’s profile, which improves air displacement when you’re traveling down the road.
