Hey Everyone,
I finally got home after driving across the US! I had an amazing time and made some incredible memories. I also learned a lot along the way, and figured that those of you wanting to do a similar trip might find my experiences useful!
Tips
-Get AAA. You’ll never have the spare part that you need while you’re sitting on the side of the road. This is it the most important tip I have.
-That being said, carry a spare coil and spare belts, or at least know the size of your belts because when they get thrown off in the middle of the highway, you won’t be able to find them to check the part number.
-Carry regular tools so you don’t have to buy them at a random autoparts store.
-Bring a fire extinguisher. You never know.
-Have a pair of gloves, an adjustable wrench, and a pair of adjustable pliers behind your seat at all times. If anything needs to be unbolted/removed NOW (due to fire, shorting, emergency, ect.), those tools will enable you to do it without rummaging through your trunk for the actual right tool, at which point it may be too late.
-Have a way to play music/audiobooks while you drive. Whether that’s an awesome sound system that you installed or a Bluetooth speaker you throw on the dashboard, you’re going to want it. Bluetooth is preferred so you can charge your phone while still playing music. A subscription to Spotify, which gives you access to music, podcast, and audiobooks, kept me entertained over 11K+ miles of driving.
-Have a way to charge your phone on the road. You will be using it for music and maps, so either wire a power converter into your cabin or bring a large battery pack that is capable of charging your phone from dead to full at least 2 times, but preferably larger. This is especially true if you are camping. I used a jump-start battery pack that also had USB ports in it. I could not have done the trip without this piece of equipment.
-If you fill your car with a strange/uncommon oil, bring a lot with you because finding it will be a pain, especially in the more sparsely populated areas of our country.
-Bring a good funnel that can reach and fit in anything that you might need filled. Test the fit and reach.
-Empty your trash at every gas stop. You’ll create a lot more than you think you will, I promise.
-If you’re roadtripping alone, make sure all the things you need are within easy reach and don’t involve you turning around. I kept my backpack in the passenger footwell with some snacks, my phone charging cords, earbuds for making phone calls (you’ll need them to talk on the phone while you drive if your car is even moderately loud), and some floss
in it. I then put a small cooler on the passenger seat that I filled with ice at the beginning of every day and kept my water bottles in. Even with air conditioning, having ice cold water all day long is amazing. Bring multiple water bottles to; I had three 1qt bottles and would sometimes empty one and be most of the way through another by the time I stopped for gas. It never hurts to have extra.
-Drink coffee/caffeine before you need it. If you’ve got a long driving day, don’t wait until you’re drowsy to grab a coffee. Be preemptive and pick one up at a gas stop when you have about 4 hours left. This should get you there safely and still let you actually fall asleep once you get to your destination.
Tricks
-AutoZone/O’Reilly’s/AdvancedAuto will generally let you work in there parking lots as long as you don’t ask for permission and you buy your parts from them.
-Lucas Heavy Duty Oil Stabilizer noticeably cuts down on most forms of oil consumption.
-If your car is a rolling oil change like mine is, you can skip the regular oil change and just replace the oil filter without draining the oil with minimal spillage. Not recommended for normal use, but it works in a pinch. (I was burning about 2-3 quarts of oil per day, so I don’t feel too bad about doing this.)
-Buy gallons of water at gas stations/supermarkets instead of individual water bottles. This will save you a ton of money and also waste less plastic/create less garbage in your car.
-Plan out your meals. Google good local places to eat in a town somewhere far down your route, and then call them when you are about 40 mins out so you can pick it up and eat on the road if you are in a hurry/have a long drive. COVID made this a lot more normal than it would have been traditionally. Bonus points for syncing it up with a gas stop to save time.
-Figure out which one of your credit cards is best for buying gas/food. You might even want to consider applying for a new card that gives you nice rewards points for either one of those categories because you are going to be spending a ton on both of those categories no matter what.
-If you’re staying in hotels and you have any type of travel oriented credit card, try giving their travel/concierge number a call and try booking a hotel through them. They can generally get competitive prices and helped me find interesting places to stay that I would not have considered otherwise. Most can book same day (Amex), some can not (Chase). Because my plans were so fluid I mostly booked hotels same-day, which meant calling Amex travel services while I was driving and setting up a reservation on the phone. It was very convenient, broke up the monotony, and I was always satisfied with the results!
-If you didn’t know, your heater uses engine coolant to heat the air it blows into the cabin, so if you are dangerously close to overheating, turn the heater on to buy you some time or possibly even temporarily solve the issue.
Lessons Learned
-It can be done, and you don’t have to be crazy/rich/super-talented to do it.
-Have enough saved up that you could afford to ship your car back home and buy a plane ticket for yourself from the furthest location you plan to be in. Even just having the credit to take out a small loan to cover those costs will be enough to settle your nerves and make the entire trip so much more enjoyable.
-Budget a lot more for food than you think you need. $10 a meal, plus ~$3-6 a day for coffee depending on what and how often you drink is pretty much bare minimum. That’s about $35 a day. Realistically, you’re going to end up spending more than that, especially if you go out with friends/family that you meet up with along the way. Eating crappy fast food will make you feel gross and make your trip much less enjoyable. Look for the healthier options, such as stuff from local delis and sandwich shops. Even Starbucks has some healthy breakfast sandwiches, but they are a little pricier than most other options.
-Budget about 30 minutes per gas stop, even if you’re only getting gas and using the restroom. I always opened my hood, checked (and added) oil, and made sure that nothing had rattled loose in the last ~200 miles. Then you’ll end up buying some water, standing in line, filling up your water bottles, ect… If you make 2-3 gas stops in a day, that can easily add 1-2 hours to your total trip time. Trust me on this one; I wasn’t moving slowly when I stopped and this was true almost every time, but especially on the longer days.
-On that note, my general rule was to add about 20% to whatever total time Google Maps was telling me for drives in excess of 4hrs. Gas and food stops, even though I drove quickly and ate on the road almost every time, still more than took up that extra 20%.
-750 miles is about as far as you can drive in a day without waking up really early or going to bed really late. Getting up around 7:30 and getting out of the hotel by 8:00 meant that I would generally arrive around 7pm on those days. That gives you enough time to show up for dinner at a friends place, or get settled in at a hotel and order food. I did several 750 miles days in multiple parts of the country, and this held pretty true for all of those days.
-Budget for about $2.8 per gallon of gas if you’re travelling all over the country, but add 20% to the mileage you think you’re going to cover. (This is probably the only advice that may not hold true in the future.)
Gas Station Observations: This applies to the mini-marts/attached stores at the gas stations. I did not get bad gas during my trip. These are also only MY observations from the stations I personally stopped at.
-Sunoco - Almost always clean and presentable.
-Shell - Some are nice, some are really bad. They were pretty evenly distributed along that scale.
-Conoco - Almost always nice.
-Exxon/Mobil - Huge variance, from really nice all the way down to ‘hold your breath and your wallet.’
-Love’s - These places are awesome. Go here.
-Pilot - 90% as good as Love’s. Go here as well.
-Sheetz - Same comment as Pilot.
-Chevron - Didn’t see a really nice one, but most were average to slightly below average.
-Marathon - Pretty nice generally, most were slightly above average to very nice.
-BP - Generally either REALLY nice or REALLY bad.
-Valero - Saw one nice one, all the others ones were very below average.
Car Prep: This depends so much on the condition of your car that I am only going to cover people in situations similar to mine. I would describe my car as a consistent driver that has, for most of it’s life, had a ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ approach taken to maintenance. No major restoration has been completed. I’m also assuming you are taking a 5000+ mile journey.
Must
-Replace any brake lines that have cracks or are older than 15 years.
-Inspect entire brake system for leaks and excessive corrosion. Also check brake pad/shoe thickness.
-Replace any v-belts that have cracks or are older than 10 years. Do this a few weeks before you leave so they have time to stretch so that you can get a final tightening before you leave.
-Check/replace rear diff oil and transmission oil (if manual trans). Original Ford owner’s manual recommends a change to both after every 20,000 miles (and I would change it if it’s older than 5 years). Lube tech has greatly improved since the 1960s, but it never hurt to be too careful.
-Replace any tires older than 8 years or that are below minimum tread depth.
-Check PS fluid level, replace if over 40,000 miles/5 years.
-Check full wiper operation in all speeds. Fix any issues.
-Change your wiper blades if they are older than 5 years. You will use them, I promise.
-Track down disturbing sounds/clunks and figure out if they require action.
-Replace any bushing that has degraded to the point that it is brittle. If you stab it with a screwdriver and it starts coming off in chunks, that should probably be replaced.
Should
-Daily drive the car for a week or two beforehand in the hope that anything that is going to break does.
-Replace any original (as in 50+ years old) brake calipers and brake cylinders. Blowing one on the highway is not a fun experience (ask me how I know).
-Replace any rubber hoses/lines with visible cracking.
-Clean and repack front wheel bearings.
-Change brake fluid if over 40,000 miles/2 years.
-Grease all ball joints and steering links. Check for excessive play while you’re at it.
-Mount the fire extinguisher you bought in an easy to access location.
-Rain-X your windshield.
-Tape up/replace highly questionable wiring.
-Make sure all your lights (hazards, brake, turn signals, head/tail lights) work.
-Check timing.
If You’re Really Bored and Have Extra Cash
-Replace all wheel bearings
-Change automatic trans fluid and filter.
-Change spark plugs and cap/rotor/points.
-Replace idler arm if over 40,000miles/10 years.
-Lube up your locks and hinges (locks use dry graphite).
-Get spare keys made.
-Get an alignment.
-Check battery and alternator health.
-Install headlight relays and switch to halogens.
-Replace windshield. Your old one is probably messed up enough to cause some big glare issues at night, and your sealing is probably cracked.
-Install new weatherstripping.
-Install DynaMat.
-Fix slow leaks.
What Won’t (and Shouldn’t) Stop You
-Slow leaks/weeping seals/gaskets.
-Moderate blow-by.
-Oil consumption (I added about 2/3 of a quart at every gas stop for 11K miles.)
-Worn out shocks/springs.
-Lack of air conditioning.
-Moderate holes in firewall/floor.
-Leaky cowl.
-Crappy/lack of weatherstripping.
-Lack of passenger side mirror.
-Lack of overdrive/efi. On that note, lack of any upgrades. Any completely stock 1960-70’s car is fully capable of doing any roadtrip you can dream up. Most upgrades enhance this experience, but are certainly not a necessity.
That’s all I can think of. Hopefully some of you found this useful, or at least interesting. Please feel free to add any tips/tricks that you have picked up on your own trips!
If anyone has any questions, please let me know!
Ken
