"Must Have" before your next Corvette road trip

Video Transcript:

[Music] hello everybody welcome back to C&S corvettes in Sarasota Florida i'm Lyle and this is my weekly podcast as we roll into spring and people are starting to bring their cars out of mothballs up north and people down south are looking forward to traveling up north now that it's not the great white north anymore we are talking about some things that you can do a kit you can assemble to take with you if you're going to take your corvette on a road trip now a lot of these things are going to be common sense that you probably already have anyway but i guarantee you one of these things whatever it may be is going to be like oh yeah that's a good idea so today's topic what is the roadside kit your travel kit you need to have back in the trunk of your corvette when you go on your trip first item have a triple a card if you're going to do an 800 1200 3500 mile trip join aaa and have that card with you there is no single thing that is more useful when you're on the road and something bad happens than having that card because if you break down if all four wheels fall off the car if a pterodactyl hits your windshield you can pull over call aaa and someone's going to come out and help you so don't even think of taking a road trip without having that in your pocket that said let's talk about some things that you can put in your car that will help you either while you're waiting for aaa or maybe that you will be able to mitigate whatever has occurred so you can get back on the road without having to wait for aaa first of all carry a can of fix-a-flat and a small air pump that'll plug into your 12-volt outlet in your car now gm included those with all c5 corvettes starting in 2001 because those cars did not have run flat tires so they automatically from the factory in the right rear compartment came with a fix a flat can and an air pump really good to have especially if you don't have run flats which if you're smart and you enjoy driving you probably don't go ahead and have a can of fix a flattened air pump at the very least it'll get you out of that position when you're in the middle of nowhere and get you to a tire store or a city where you can take care of the problem writ large in that idea make sure you have a set of actual mechanics gloves or work gloves the mittens that grandma knitted for you last Christmas do not count you need something that is going to resist uh wires poking through it uh getting cut and especially if you're going to be having to touch something on your car after you've been driving for two hours something that resists heat any home depot any auto parts store is going to have gloves that can do that for you make sure you have at least one set in the back of your car along with that you're also going to want some wet wipes so you can clean up your hands when you're done and some gojo hand cleaner paper towels just that stuff in back in case you need to get your hands dirty i also highly recommend you bring a towel and or a blanket not only for your broken down and the car quit running and it's 40 degrees in the badlands in south Dakota and you're freezing to use as a blanket but also if you need to go outside around your car and kneel down anywhere to get a look at a tire to get a look at a tire valve to see oh you ran over some debris and it's stuck up in your grill whatever it's nice to kneel down on something that isn't broken glass gravel or rough tarmac so just good to have that around no matter what just keep it in the back you'll use it for something make sure to have a flashlight with you i know this seems like something that is like well dull of course i have a flashlight a lot of people don't kid out their corvette with this kind of thing because their corvette tends to be their weekend go to the beach go to the lake go on a drive through the country and come home car it's not the extended point a to point b across the nation cars so oftentimes people don't have this kind of basic stuff in their corvette they may in their truck they may in their Buick they don't put it in their corvette so put it in your corvette along with that flashlight make sure to get what they call a safety triangle you know the reflective ones now they have the led ones that actually flash they break down into a flat stick so they don't take up a lot of room if you end up on a poorly lit road with a tire that's bad or you're through a belt or whatever and it's nighttime having that safety triangle is going to save you a lot of potential trouble because you can have your hazard flashers on but people aren't going to see those until they're right up on you that said if you have a safety safety triangle make sure to set it back from the car 50 to 100 feet so that it gives a buffer zone between when people who are coming at you see it and where your car is actually located if you just put it right at the back of your bumper it's not helping you so walk it back a good 50 100 feet set it up there and stay in the car and be safe a couple other things i'd recommend you have with you bring a couple extra quarts of oil if your low oil light comes on when you're driving through i-10 in the middle of nowhere in the panhandle of Florida it should be nice to pull into a rest stop and just put a cord in until you can get somewhere that's going to have more amenities and more retail outlets to get the things that you need or a mechanic to see why you're low on oil i would also recommend you carry a spare serpentine belt now i know i know you're not going to be changing a serpentine belt on the side of the road okay unless you really have a big tool kit you know a proper tool kit in the back of the car you're not going to be able to do that however if you happen to be in ottumwa iowa and throw a belt and it's Sunday and aaa comes and gets you they may not be able to find a belt for your corvette in that town on that day it may be we'll have delivery coming in Tuesday but that's going to force you to lose days off your trip extra expense all that i recommend you carry a spare serpentine belt so that almost anybody with basic mechanical knowledge can replace a serpentine belt especially in a professional setting sure would be nice to be able to go here you go and hand them a serpentine belt that you know is correct for your car and then you're done you're gone you're back on your trip last thing have a basic tool kit basic meaning pliers a screwdriver or two a utility knife now no one's going to be fixing their car on the side of the road with this tool kit what it's for is oh you run over a remnant of a tire and it gets wound up in your rim or it gets i had somebody come in last week they had hit a what we call a road gator the tire remnant and it had stuffed itself into the brake duct at the front of the c their c5 z06 and they had cut their hands trying to pull it out that's where the gloves the pliers the screwdriver to apply it's to get that stuff out without making you bleed you don't need diagnostic tools you don't need sockets you don't need any of that just make sure you have something other than your naked hands to pull or pry debris out that gets stuck under your car because that's the most common problem with these low cars you're not going to get under them there beyond that in the c5 and the c6 you have wells under this under the rear floor boards that all of this stuff will fit in quite neatly just make sure you have it all together in a little duffel or something so you know where it is all the time and if you use it make sure to immediately put it back so that the next time you need it it's there so just to review this is a handful of things i recommend having in your possession if you're going to go on an extended road trip in your corvette or any car for that matter but specifically a corvette these are things i would recommend you have on that note i hope you have a wonderful spring and summer i hope you do take a bunch of cool trips in your corvette and as you have questions or you have parts needs or you need somebody to do work on your car that you trust feel free to email me at Lyle@corvettepartscenter.com i will help you however i can and happy motoring