What to do / take on a long trip with an old car?

[White Lincoln]

We are going on a long trip and taking the Cougar. I wanted to know what I should do to the car and what I should take. I used to take a full tool kit when we drove 800 miles to Vegas, quart of oil, serpentine belt and a good spare tire.

Now that the car is MUCH MUCH older than when we used to take it for long trips, is there anything else I should include? I have AAA for towing up to 200 miles. I also thought I would take an extra fuel pump and my Snap-On scanner, just in case.

I already checked all the basic fluides, tire pressure, etc for the trip and the car is running great except for a rattle under the car that I can't find.

Any thoughts on what else might be important to do or take?

 

[Kenz]

I've had the alternator die and leave me SOL multiple times. Mostly when I was younger and driving less maintained cars. Might be a good idea to have a lithium jump pack with you incase that happens. Between It and the battery the the car will run long enough to hopefully get you to a parts store.

 

[KevinVarnes]

We road trip in "old" cars all the time. In the end there is only so much you can plan for and carry in terms of parts and tools. You can psyche yourself out into thinking you need to take every nut and bolt. If there anything that might be failure prone and nearly impossible to find on the road (thinking 89-93 SC crank position sensor) or tools (old Ford TFI module wrench) then grab that. I prefer to take a car that is regularly driven so you know its quirks and you have confidence in it.

In addition to your stuff I might add coolant/water, various sizes of hose clamps, and maybe a coil of heater hose.

Whenever I do a full inspection on a car, one of the most common things I see is a deflated/underinflated spare tire. Nothing worse then going to change a flat and realizing your spare is flat too.

 

[1997ThunderbirdLXV6]

I always carry a bottle of coolant. Came in very handy when my heater core failed.

 

[White Lincoln]

Excellent suggestions! I was going to take a gallon of water (we are no longer getting freezing nights or days here), but taking an extra hose or two is very sound.

This is my daily driver and as I had mentioned in a past post, I was driving home with the wife and the distributor blew up. Get the F#$% out! How weird is that? The spare is on my list to check as well as the current tires. I have new Michelen's on the car, so I should be good there.

As for the altenator, yep, was going to check that today. I don't know if my gauge is wacky or the altenator has a bad regulator, but the gauge wiggles at idle, back and forth, back and forth.

Anything else you think of, let me know! I appreciate the feedback. Thanks guys (and gals?)!