
Here are some handy tips from the team at CarCheckup to keep in mind as you prepare for your holiday travels.
Check your tire pressure before you leave – Check your owners manual for proper tire pressure and make sure your tires are properly inflated. A blowout is a horrible way to delay your travels
Double check your spare tire – Make sure your spare tire is accessible and aired up. Should you need it, you won’t want to have to take everything out of the trunk in the cold to get to your spare…and you absolutely don’t want to find out it’s flat.
Belt Check – In the old days, braking a belt would mean you were stranded on the side of the road. Today’s modern car are likely to suffer major engine damage if a belt breaks. On newer engines the engines are timed so that the heads and valves can actually occupy the same space at different times. Should a belt fail, these components can crash into each other causing catastrophic damage.
Check Radiator and Radiator Reservoir – Make sure you’re coolant levels are full. Check both the radiator itself as well as the overflow reservoir. The overflow is normally located close to the firewall in the engine component. Safety Note: Never remove the radiator cap from a hot radiator. Hot liquid and steam that is pressurized in the radiator can escape when the cap is removed causing severe burns.
If you’re car begins to overheat during your trip…turn you heat to to full and turn the full to maximum. It will get uncomfortable, but it will buy you time to pull off to the side of the road (or to a service station) before the car boils over.
Have an emergency kit – Keep a prepaid phone card and a prepaid debit card in your emergency kit in addition to the “standard” items like flares/triangle, flashlight, first aid kit, and tire jack. With cold weather approaching you should also keep a blanket, coat, hat, and other items to keep you and your traveling companions warm. It’s also a good idea to keep cat litter and a shovel in your trunk if space permits so that you have a way to dig out and get traction should you get stuck.
Take Your Account Numbers – Have an AAA, OnStar or other service that can get you help in a roadside emergency? Make sure you have the phone numbers, account numbers, and any other pieces of information you may need to use those services.
Take some cash! – We all rely on credit and debit cards as a convenient way to pay for our everyday purchases. Be sure to also have some cash incase there is a problem with your card.
If you are a user of the CarCheckup system, take a minute to check your car for Pending Trouble codes before your trip. Pending trouble codes are the precursor to something going wrong and your check engine light coming on. If you are a user of our system, you owe it to yourself to get a clean bill of health for your car before you go. As we say here at CarCheckup, “Know Before You Go!”
Photo credit: HunterJumper on Flicker
Do you have tips to share with our readers? Share them in the comments below!


![buy_it_now[1] buy it now Tips for Safer Thanksgiving Travel](http://s4.carcheckup.com/templates/images/buy_it_now.jpg)
![TeenWithSign[1] TeenWithSign Tips for Safer Thanksgiving Travel](http://s1.carcheckup.com/templates/images/TeenWithSign.jpg)

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