5 ways to prepare your car for the summer holidays
Roof boxes and bike racks are brilliant for freeing up interior space, but they also change how your car handles, particularly in crosswinds, and they increase fuel or energy consumption more than most people expect. If you’re using one, distribute weight evenly and keep heavier items low and central where possible, both inside the car and up top.
It’s also worth having a plan for the unexpected: a charged phone, a basic breakdown kit and a note of your cover provider’s number will make any hold-up far less stressful, especially with children counting down the miles to the caravan site.
A fully loaded car behaves differently to the one you’re used to driving on the commute or school run, so it’s worth a few minutes to think about what’s going in, where, and how much it all weighs. It’s a simple habit, but one that pays off the moment the road gets twisty or the weather turns – which brings us to the part of the car that has to cope with all that extra weight, in all conditions, using nothing but four small contact patches with the road.
#5 Check your tyres – the single most important job on this list
Everything else on this list matters, but nothing affects how safely your car handles a long summer drive quite like its tyres. They’re the only part of the car actually touching the road, and with a fully loaded boot, higher speeds and hotter tarmac all working against them, summer is exactly when tyres are put under the most strain. In fact, Kwik Fit’s research has found that one in eight drivers have suffered tyre problems on summer holiday journeys.
Heat is a genuine factor here, not just a talking point. Hot road surfaces increase the operating temperature of a tyre that’s already working harder because of extra weight and longer journeys, and that combination accelerates wear on tyres that are already close to the legal limit. The legal minimum tread depth in the UK is 1.6mm, but braking performance – especially in the wet, which UK summers still have no shortage of – drops off noticeably well before you reach that limit.
It’s worth checking tread depth (a 20p coin pushed into the main grooves is the classic test: if you can see the outer band of the coin, it’s time for new tyres), tyre pressures, which change with temperature and load, and the sidewalls for any cracking, bulges or damage that could turn into a blowout at motorway speed. Recent research for Kwik Fit found that almost one in ten drivers had set off on a summer holiday knowing there was a problem with their car, but they just hoped it would be OK until they got home again. If you’ve been living with a tyre with a slow puncture, never head out on a long motorway trip before having it inspected to find out what the cause is, and if it can be safely repaired or needs to be replaced.
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