Road Trip to St Louis
 

Hey Guys,

I am doing a road trip this weekend to St Louis to visit my childhood best friend who is dying of cancer. I was going to take a flight out there but decided to take the road trip in order to clear my head before seeing him as this is painful for me.

From where I am (Bronx NY) it's a 15 Hour drive. So I am seeking information from those of you who have traveled far in our cars (X5) and tell me what should I take with me, what preventive maintenance I should do to the car. I will be leaving Friday 11pm. The most I've ever driven is 9 hours, so I know I will need to stop a few times.

Any information will be amazing...

Thank you in advance

Check tire pressures. Including the spare if you don't have runflat tires.
Check air filter.
If it's diesel, check the DEF fluid.
Other than that, have a safe drive. I've done several multi-day drives with no problems.

Max I did was 13hrs which ended with EPB failures..

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Thank you for the info.

I'm buying a new filter today, changed the oil already, new spark plugs, had all the hoses checked, tires were checked which are run flats.

I was reading about making sure I have a flash light, and other things.

Anything else?

Wow, what caused that to fail?

Have no idea. 1st long trip, failed EPB. But it did not immobilize the car thankfully. The vehicle can still function well. Have learned to ignore it [emoji2955]

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I just came back from a straight 18-20 hour trip (both ways) to West Palm Beach from NYC last month. Pretty sweet ride and all i took was my small tool box, USB cable and washer fluid. Car has been pretty much maintained by me so I didnt need to change anything aside from the Air Filter. I would say check your tires and tire pressures, take washer fluid (you can also buy on the road I guess), make sure you have an APP that can read OBD codes just in case (if you dont have a laptop with software already), Road flares and check you car insurance to see if you get road side assistance. If your car is already in good standing, just get in and enjoy the ride :thumbup:.

When I get new tires, I keep the best one or two in storage.

IF YOU HAVE ONE, toss it in the back of the car. if you get a flat on the trip the odds of thes tire store they tow you to having THE model you need is 0%... having a loose tire can save hours or days.

Imo, you've already gone overboard. 15 hour trip/ 1000ish miles, if you're willing to commute in the car all week, there's no reason it'd need anything to do this trip. I'd get in my X5 and tow across the country today on short notice if I had to (and I got my brake controller working lol)

I'm sorry to hear about your buddy. Drive safely. The hours of darkness are goign to be the worst. Get LOTS of sleep beforehand. If you're leaving at 11 you should try to fall asleep at 2pm, get up at 10pm, and eat before you head out.

Don't eat fast food. Eat real food, and you'll be way less tired. Stay hydrated, I can't stress that enough. Stopping to pee is a good stretch break every 2 hours, for me I usually hop our onto the shoulder and shamelessly just let loose. Hydration keeps you awake. Play music or audiobooks or podcasts if you're feeling tired, spoken work really helps keep me awake and gives my mind something to do.

That's really great information, thank you so much. That is my goal to try to get as much rest as I can before heading out. Unfortunately, I work that day but thank God I will be done with work at three so at least by 4pm I will get some sleep before heading out.

I'm really looking forward to this trip, today I'm going to buy some snacks like cashews and coconut water. So far I bought two quarts of oil, coolant, tape,5 gallon fuel can "just in case".

Working on the iPod playlist, I read don't play slow music...lol
I listen to every kind of music so any music road trip music suggestions would be great..

Thanks for all the great info guys, much appreciated