Planning a Long Drive - What should I take with me?

[stamp11127]

Since the Expy is 4 years old, how old is the battery and how accessible are they on your route back?

 

[nottmbantam]

No idea on age of battery, but that would be one of the things to replace with a new one prior to departure date. Not sure how accessible they would on the way back- not that many V8 engines in Europe, but loads in the Middle East!

 

[1955moose]

Most batteries have a date code on the side of them. They use a letter for month, and number for year. Example b10 would be February 2010. Anything over four years gets questionable and should be considered changing. A little tip, I used to manage Oreillys, ask them to pull battery from back not front. Freshest ones are loaded from rear. Let someone else get a 3-9 month old battery. The newest battery usually has the least issues down the road.


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[nottmbantam]

Thanks for another tip!Will have a lookie at the battery tomorrow - almost bed time here now.

Looked just now at tyre profile sizes and reckon the biggest profile I can go to is 60 but would have to reduce the width so new tyre would be 265/60/20. This is an overall increase of 1.9%

Current size is 275/55/20.

Slight increase in side wall, might just reduce the hard ride a touch.I guess the other option is to go down to 18" wheel size but with a larger profile tyre.

 

[1955moose]

255/60r20 would be closer, but I don't know if their available. Short of going to a 17 or 18 inch higher profile tire, you'll never get the cushy ride of the high profile stock tire.


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[nottmbantam]

Yeah, considering that the road trip will be long stretches of highway, I'd rather go for nice cushy ride so thinking seriously of dropping down to 18's. Not going to do it straight away, I do like the look of the 20s so will keep them on for now. Cheers.

 

[nottmbantam]

Have spent some time looking through the conversion / comparison cahrts, I'm seriously thinking of dropping down to an 18" wheel and also thinking about going down to 16s with a high profile tyre.

Anyone done this before - recommended or not? Looking for a softer ride but also, I'm thinking of when I get the truck through Europe and eventually back to the UK - I suspect the bigger tyres will be harder to source in the the UK so 16's might be more / easily available than either an 18 or 20?

 

[tcwaltz]

So aside from the items everyone else listed previously. I would carry 2 gallons of premixed coolant, extra transmission fluid, 2 rolls of duct tape (gorilla tape is even better), 2 rolls of electrical tape, an assortment of hose clamps, can of carb cleaner, can of electrical cleaner. Lets be honest, you can temp fix alot of stuff with duct tape. If you have a coolant leak carb cleaner or electrical cleaner can get rid of the coolant off a hose good enough to tape the crap out of it then you can put a clamp on it. That may be a good enough fix to get you someplace vs being stranded. Premix coolant because its just easier. When I was a kid and we were stationed in Germany we camped all over Europe. Kind of envying your trip..

 

[Adieu]

Thanks guys for the advice. Again, I have a good quality air compressor (ARB) for when I used to take the Wrangler and Xterra out into the desert. Will add the list of items to take with me.

Another question: the truck is currently on 20" wheels, but I noticed the spare is on an 18. Will the spare wheel holder accommodate a 20" ? Not checked that bit so far. Thanks.

It's the outer diameter (so tire size) that matters not the rim size

Like I've gone down from 19" that fit well to 18" that rubbed and needed new tires (different vehicle)

 

[Adieu]

Thanks for the advice Flex, makes sense to me, I'm all for travelling light!

I did think of trying to get hold of a 20" steel wheel ( is there such a thing these days) and keeping that as the spare, with same size aspect tyres. I'd look at fitting new tyres all round anyway before the journey.

Just get a "fatter" tire on the 18 to match your 20"s radius with tires on

Height of a tire (in mm) is measured by multiplying the width by the percentage

So for example:
265/75 r17
= 265mm * 0.75 tire + 0.5 * 17" wheel ~= 199mm + 8.5" ~= 199 + 216 = 415mm radius

245/45r18
= 245mm*0.45 tire + 0.5 * 18" wheel = 110mm tire + 229mm wheel = 339mm radius


...which is why my 'bigger' 18" wheels on my bimmer are so much smaller than the 17"s on my Expy

 

[nottmbantam]

Just picking up again on this thread, looks like the road trip has a green light. Revised plan is to leave Saudi Arabia late October and make the trip through Europe and back home to the UK.

Did eventually drop down to 18s, and downsized from the 20's. Also has the battery replaced, now shocks, brakes, full service from the main dealer and also had a new spare key done by the dealers ( not cheap - around $320 ) . On the plus side of having to go to the dealers, I did manage to get them to tell me the door entry code for the truck.

Will start a blog for the drive / road trip, so will keep you guys posted. Thanks again for all teh help and advice.