6 Tips by our Mechanics for Your New Zealand Road Trip

Ready for your road trip? Got your car or campervan ready? New Zealand, here we come… but not before reading some vital tips from our mechanics to ensure a safe trip!

5000 KM SERVICE

An obvious one – but so often forgotten due to vehicle owners wanting to save money. A basic service will often cost you anywhere between $75 to $150 and will check the basic needs of each vehicle – oil, filters, tyres and so on. If you were to have a breakdown, towing and mechanical costs would outweigh the service costs greatly! Get a service regularly and don’t risk having to get towed!

HEALTHY BATTERY

Check your battery before heading onto a long trip – most batteries have nowadays an indicator that will advise of the stage of the battery. A pair of jump starters are also quite useful to have for your trip. When travelling in a van or campervan remember that most campers have 2 batteries these days – one for the engine (vital for you to drive) – and one for lights, fridge & USB plug-ins!

TYRE PRESSURE & SPARE TYRE

For most cars, we recommend 32 psi – for a Van/Campervan around 45 psi. Any inflatable tyre can lead to an explosion as well as using up more petrol! We recommend checking your tyres every 1000 km to be on the safe side…

One thing we all like to forget is our spare tyre – before going on a long road trip check your spare tyre – check the tyre pressure as well as the overall quality of the spare tyre! And in case you need to change a tyre on the road feel free to check out our video below…

ROADSIDE ASSISTANCE

Having a valid membership for roadside assistance is vital for any long road trip. It will allow you to have access to a mechanics network all over New Zealand for as little $89/year – full covered. For New Zealand, we recommend joining the AA Roadside Assistance! Feel free to give them a call today…

OIL & WATER

Depending on how much you drive, you should typically check all your oil/water on a weekly basis. Running out of oil & water is just so unnecessary and often requires a brand new engine… there goes the party money! A 2nd hand-engine can cost you around $2000 for a car and around $5000 for a campervan – OUCH!!!

To make life easy we have created a few videos on how to check your oil & water in cars as well as campervans!

For more video check out our HOW TO VIDEO library on YouTube!

TAKE A BREAK

Most important – if you start to feel tired or have been driving for more than 2 hours – take a break…you never have far to go between cities or petrol stations. Take a break, have a coffee & re-energise yourself!

If you are after buying a car or some basic information feel free to contact Travellers Autobarn – your car, campervan rental & campervan sales specialist ;)

Planning to buy a camper to explore New Zealand? We are offering a variety of Toyota Hiace Campervans for Sales – check them out today…