Hitting the road on a car or a bike for a long trip is the most thrilling experience for free souls. We see it every other time in movies and tv serials: the laughs, the amazing landmarks, and the unique experience of going on a road trip for days on end. If you are young, you should practically do at least one road trip rather than watching it in movies the whole life.
Before beginning your journey, you always do pre-trip preparation like getting your ride ready for the trip, getting all the needed gears, camping equipment along with some clothes according to the weather. Although, most of the time you will experience a smooth road trip, still when you are on road there are some mishaps you could encounter. This is why it’s better to prepare yourself for the trip of the trip. Here in this article, we will point out some problems that are most likely to occur and some advance preparations for them.
Break down in the middle of a road:
When you are road tripping on rough tracks and rugged terrain, there are more chances that your car or motorcycle may break down on the way. As there are hundreds of parts in auto machinery, so there are hundreds of problems that can occur to your vehicle. Here we are mentioning some most common problems that you can face.
- Battery issue
- Flat tire
- Brake problem
- Engine problem
The best practice is you must get your vehicle serviced before starting the trip and during the trip too if it’s a long trip. You should also have some basic tools to resolve common problems of engine, tire, battery, and brake otherwise you may find yourself in the middle of nowhere for days.
You run out of fuel
If you take a risk of getting fuel from the next gas station when you have a chance to fuel your vehicle, you are clearly a fool to take such a useless risk. To avoid this situation, first of all, you should have good detail about the mileage of your vehicle, how much your tank holds and lastly, you should use GPS and pinpoint all the gas stations on your route. After half of the tank is empty, get your vehicle refueled in the first chance. If possible, keep some gasoline in a gallon for an emergency situation.
Getting sick on the trip
If you are not fully prepared for the change in weather or eating some unhealthy foods, you are most likely to get sick and it can ruin your trip. You need to have proper clothes for change in weather, not to eat foods that are unfamiliar and have some medicines for basic ailments like diarrhea, cough, flu, and fever to prepare your self for this mishap.
Accidents and Collisions
Road accidents are the most dangerous situation you can encounter on a road trip and in most cases you did nothing wrong for this situation to happen. You can’t control other drivers and animals for not colliding with you, what you can do is be fully alert while on the road and don’t drive too fast especially through the jungle.
Getting lost because of no signals
There are three possibilities for getting lost on your road trip. The first one is you may lose signal on the way and your GPS stop working. To overcome this situation, you should have a downloaded map of the whole route. The second one is you don have a downloaded map but your phone or device breaks down due to battery. To handle this, you can keep a paper map and use that in such a situation. The last one is the route to your destination may have changed recently due to some reason. To avoid this situation, you can ask some locals to guide you through the new road.
Unpredictable Weather
It is a fact that mother nature really doesn’t care that you’re heading on a road trip, so, the weather can change anytime. Every region deals with different inclement weather, make sure you know exactly what you may expect on the road and you should be ready for that. Bad weather can become extremely inconvenient and dangerous for you. Tornados and floods are the worst forms of bad weather. Many times you see in the news that some people in cars caught in high water and in many cases, the outcome can be fatal or require the help of emergency services and airlifts to safety. Your vehicle can face an accident in such weather, so, you should either not drive in bad weather or drive with caution and maintain lower speeds.
Countering with wildlife & animals
When you are going through countrysides and forests, there is a great chance of some animal roaming on the road if there is no fencing. Drive carefully especially at dusk because this is one of the dangerous times for hitting animals and wildlife. Imagine that during nighttime, you are driving long on a country road at 100mph absorbed in some rock music, and without any warning, a fox jumps out in front of the car.
You will have no time to avoid hitting it, and if you try to save her, you stuck a tree grown along the tree which can be really dangerous. So, drive slower than normal especially from dusk till morning and if there are no approaching vehicles, keep your lights on high beam. In the event of an animal suddenly appearing before your vehicle, the best course of action is to put on the brakes, sound your horn and flash the lights.
Final Words
Road tripping is the most adventurous thing you can do in your life. And doing a road trip on a two-wheeler is far electrifying, given that you have a good saddlebag attached to your bike for securing your luggage, then doing it on a four-wheeler. Viking Bag is a big name in making motorcycle accessories including saddlebags. However, there are some problems like a car break down, road accident, getting sick, out of fuel, etc that you may incur on the road and you need to prepare yourself in advance to tackle them.
