this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2025
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Road trip tips (lemmy.zip)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 6 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

I'm going on a 8 hour drive in a 2012 equinox for the first time, longest drive before was 2 hours back when I was a newer driver.

The car does not have any smart phone type features like the newer cars, it will connect the phone for calls but that is it, there is a charging port but I'm guessing its usb2 so it won't be all that fast and may not keep up with the phone, I have a battery bank and plenty of cables though, I won't be stopping for those Bluetooth FM cigarette plug things because I'll just being doing this the one time and it doesn't seem useful enough to me.

I am very confident behind the wheel but just curious if anyone has any tips I haven't thought about before.

I don't think I'll get very tired driving but I am known to get a slump of energy a couple hours after lunch but I don't think I'll eat a very big lunch so I may not have much of a slump.

I am driving this car back, I came here in a truck with another driver, something interesting I noticed between trucks vs small cars is that the taller trucks leave you less exhausted and so you can drive longer with an easier time because there is a perceived slower speed of things moving in and out past your field of vision.

Thankyou in advance!

Update after the trip: I had to drive through the literal worst possible conditions, late night and with heavy rain, but it went super good, the car I was driving handled the rain no problem and I had loads of fun driving, I did not use the radio at all because I figured if driving tiredness was about stamina then less stimulation should keep my going longer, tiredness was not an issue and I did sip some mountain dew the whole time I realized that I could just not have a energy drop after the caffeine weara off by just drip feeding the drink basically lol, that was a great idea as I had plenty of energy the whole time and slept well after. Basically I just enjoyed babbling to myself and playing my mind radio. I think in hr future I am going to drive more because this was actually more fun than being a passenger in the car. I did stop about every 2 hours as I was coordinating dinner and stops for the other car I was following which had a dog and grandma and dad.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago (2 children)
  • Check all the fluids in your car, and change em / top em up if it's been a while.
  • Pack an emergency car kit. I'm sure there are loads of recommendations online, but I usually have:
    • Flashlight
    • Battery bank + charging cable for phone
    • Spare tire and wrenches (if you've got a charged phone, you could instead call for a tow if needed)
    • Blanket (it can get surprisingly cold at night, even in the summer)
    • Spare oil / coolant (water works as well for coolant in a pinch)
  • For misc stuff I like to bring on trips:
    • A pack of water. If there's long stretches with no towns, water is always nice
    • Sunglasses
    • If you're going to play stuff off your phone, I'd recommend downloading music and a variety of podcasts to go. Don't just download 10 episodes from the same channel; mix it up. And mix up the genre too. I usually will have a mix of world news, tech news, stories, and self improvement stuff
    • Snacks & other drinks
[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Seconding this. I'm a native of the upper Midwest so I'm a big fan of the seasonal emergency kits. I would add sunscreen or a long sleeved shirt to the list though. Can't count the number of times I've been on a long drive that happened to keep the sun in the driver's side for several hours and ended up with a pretty bad sunburn on my left arm.

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