5 Tips To Get Your Car Road-Trip Ready This Summer

Road Trip! Who’s ready to take one this summer?

Whether your summer travels will take you cross county or just across the state, it is essential to make sure your car is in tip-top shape before you pull out of the driveway. To help you prepare for your summer road trips, I partnered with Hankook tires to bring you five tips to get your car road-trip ready. Just like you wouldn’t leave town without making sure your tank was full of gas, make sure you add these tips to your road trip check list so can you ensure that your car is ready to get you to your destination near or far. 

5 Tips To Get Your Car Road-Trip Ready

5 Tips To Get Your Car Road-Trip Ready

Check Your Tires – How is the wear on your tires? Not sure? Before you get on the road, get sure. It is easy to check to see if you need new tires with the penny test. Take a penny and place it in the tire tread of the tire with Lincoln upside down. If Lincoln’s head is completely hidden below the level of the tread, your tires are good. If Lincoln’s head is visible when looking level at the tread, then your tires need replacing. Bald spots + summer rain = bad. (Rebate deal below = good.)

Check Your Wiper Blades – The hot summer sun can degrade wiper blades fast. If you haven’t used your wipers in a while it’s a good idea to take a look at them and flip them on to make sure they are running smoothly. The last thing you want to do is get stuck in the middle of a rainstorm with bad blades. (While you are there, make sure your wiper fluid is topped off too.)

Check Your Oil – When are you due for your next oil change? If it is coming up, consider changing your oil before your big trip. Sure it might be a little early, but no car ever suffered from having its oil changed early. On the other hand, those extra road trip miles could put you in need of an oil change sooner than you anticipated.

Check Your Air Filter – Breathe easy on your road trip with fresh cabin air. Check your cabin air filter (most likely located behind your glovebox) to make sure it is clean. If it looks dirty, or you just don’t know when the last time you changed it was, get a new one.

Check For Recalls – Are there any recalls outstanding on your car? Are you sure? I just took my car in and there was a recall notice on it for a bad seat belt part! (Luckily, my car did not have the bad part.) Make sure there are no recalls outstanding on your car, and if there are, get them checked out before the big trip.

If after checking your tires for wear you discover they need replace, consider Hankook Tire’s newest tire the Ventus S1 Noble2. I admit that I don’t know much about tires, but these features sound like ones I would want in my tires especially efficient wet breaking!

  • Asymmetric tread pattern that incorporates a Four Channel Rib Design for efficient water evacuation
  • An advanced silica rubber compound for better wet handling and braking
  • A straight Rib Block design to help prevent unwanted road noise and increase cornering grip
  • Multiple 3D Kerfs and Carving Edges provide improved winter condition traction
  • Positive Aqua Hydro Block provides highly efficient wet braking
  • A 50,000 mile limited treadwear warranty

Hankook Tires $80 Rebate

To help you prepare for your summer road trip, Hankook Tires is offering an $80 rebate with the purchase of four included tires from now through June 30, 2013. The tires included in the rebate program are: 

  • Ultra-High Performance Summer:  Ventus V12 evo
  • Ultra-High Performance All-Season: Ventus S1 noble2
  • Premium Touring All-Season:  Optimo H727 
  • Premium Highway All-Season Light Truck/SUV:  Dynapro HT 

Learn more about the specifics of tires included in this promo and which set is best for your car, and then download the $80 rebate coupon to save on new tires for you road trip this summer.

What are you summer plans? Do they include a road trip?

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Hankook Tires. The opinions and text are all mine.