12 Helpful Tools And Gadgets Drivers Tend To Forget On Roadtrips

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Going on a road trip this summer and starting to put together a list of stuff to take with you? You're not alone; as of last year, Forbes found that around 60% of Americans planned to drive to a summer destination, whether in the comfort of their personal cars or via a rental. Planning one isn't always easy, though.

Planning for a seamless drive to your destination can be very involved, and if you're not detail-oriented, you're bound to forget some essentials for your trip. That's doubly true when these essentials are not immediately obvious to your car's needs and personal comfort. Generally speaking, it's unlikely that anyone organizing a road trip would leave items like a first-aid kit or extra engine fluids off their shopping lists (though it can happen).

However, more under-the-radar items, like toilet paper, go a long way to keeping drivers and other car occupants comfortable throughout the trip. Forgetting it could lead to riding around in mild discomfort, or biting the bullet and taking an unwanted detour. If you're lucky, you could find some of these tools at a convenience store along the way, but what happens if you're between towns and urgently need them? To prevent this from happening, we've compiled the following list of 12 items to add to your shopping list.

Even after doing all the necessary maintenance checks on your car before embarking on a road trip, you can still run into problems. In the case of your tires, specifically, you could run over loose nails and other objects on the road that could puncture the fabric and cause them to lose pressure. Or, maybe you forgot to do your due diligence, and they had low pressure before you even set out.

The last place you want to be stuck with a flat fire is on an interstate highway with nothing but road for miles. Portable air compressors (or in simpler terms, tire inflators) will fill your tires with enough pressure to get back on the road — although if they've been punctured, you'll want to quickly find the nearest repair shop along your route if you don't have a tire sealant at the ready.

If you're short on trunk space, the Noco Air AL5 could be the tool for you. It fits in a glovebox, and it's fully cordless, so there's no need to worry about detangling, either. The compressor can inflate a car tire from flat to 40 psi in about seven minutes, and a single charge can serve two fully deflated tires. If you catch any pressure leaks early and top off immediately, that number could go up to 14. You can find it on Amazon for $66.45.

Nobody wants to deal with breakdowns on a road trip. If you need a professional to come to your aid, you could spend hours parked on the shoulder of the expressway waiting for someone from the nearest town. According to a research paper from the Kentucky Transportation Center, only 1.8% of surveyed crashes directly involved vehicles on the shoulder, but it's still not a place you want to be for too long, and it can't hurt to minimize those chances even more.

Roadside triangles find their value proposition here, but since commercial vehicles are far more likely to have those in America, road flares are another tool you don't want to forget to add to your road trip shopping list. By placing as many visual cues of your emergency as possible, you should be at less risk of an accident.

If you're on the lookout for effective road flares that don't carry a residual burn risk from pyrotechnics, Marcala's LED road flares could be a solution for you. They're reusable, don't emit flames or heat, and have nine flashing modes to deploy depending on visibility constraints and the severity of the situation. You can get your hands on one for $29.99 on Amazon.

While shopping for items to take with you on your trip, there are many things you can over-prepare for. Food rations, spare clothes, and even drinks — you can go overboard with all of these and come away with considerable waste. One thing you can never have too much of, though, is toilet paper — or as we recommend, wet wipes. The reason for our preference is pretty simple: wet wipes are more versatile.

If you plan to be on the road for hours at a stretch, lots of things ca necessitate a quick clean-up in the car. Food can spill, dust can build up on your dashboard if you're driving with your windows down, and your hands can get sticky. Wet wipes clean these messes up nicely, but you're probably wondering: so can regular toilet paper.

The problem with toilet paper is that it's made of short, cellulose fibers. When it comes into contact with water, those fibers dissolve into a pulpy sludge. That's a design characteristic — toilet paper needs to break down for toilets to flush properly. However, when you're dealing with spillages and other cleaning tasks, you'll want material that doesn't break apart as easily. Wet wipes handle this; they're made of non-woven fabrics and moistened with a liquid solution, so you can clean your car surfaces, hands, and even use them to freshen up after a night stopover.

Ever been caught with a dead battery after a brief stop while traveling? Depending on the level of activity in such an area, it can be difficult to find help to get you back on the road again. While relying on the kindness of strangers is always an option — albeit a time-consuming one — a portable jump starter is perfect for this kind of scenario.

When shopping for one, there are a couple of variables to consider: the peak current rating and the charging ability. The higher the peak current, the more likely (and the quicker) the jump starter is to meet your battery charge specifications for you to try starting your engine again. To this end, Povasee's Jump Starter delivers 5,000 amps, which is capable of instantly starting 12V-rated EVs, 10-liter gas, and 8-liter diesel-powered engines. That's not all, though. Povasee's Jump Starter functions as an all-in-one tool: tire inflation, SOS signaling, and a backup power supply for your mobile phones –- you can get the full package for $109.99 on Amazon.

Of course, to avoid being sidelined on the road, you should research the main reasons car batteries die, but if you're in it already, a portable jump starter should get you out of a pinch.

Having handy tools in your car can be a real lifesaver; you never know when something as simple as a screwdriver can be the difference between arriving at your destination on time and a long delay. Some tools should always be in your car, like a fire extinguisher and the aforementioned jumpstarter, but sometimes all that's needed is a tool that does a bit of everything, like a Leatherman multi-tool.

The Rebar, for instance, gives you access to 17 tools for the price of $99.95. The pliers and wrenches on it can come in handy if your battery terminals need tightening on the go, although you'd want to have taken care of maintenance tasks like this before your trip. More importantly, the multi-tool is particularly essential if you're ever in an emergency. In an accident, the serrated blades can get a passenger out of a seat belt's grip, and you can also use the handles to shatter a window that won't budge in a pinch.

Now, there's a whole list of multi-tool brands out there, so picking the best one can be a bit of a headache. If you need help making a decision, SlashGear's already ranked 15 brands from worst to best.

Eating in a moving car can be messy business. With multiple passengers, meals and snacks become a recipe for a littered and stained interior. Even with all the care and etiquette in the world while eating, when the car's motion, an errant pothole here and there will make it hard to avoid spillage, depending the nature of the items being consumed.

And when food spills, it should be cleaned as quickly as possible to keep your interior clean and bug-free. While some stains and remnants can be removed with wet wipes, as we suggested earlier, others require a bit more force, literally. That's where cordless vacuums shine; they use a high-speed motor to create an airflow strong enough to suck up dust and debris. Depending on the shape of the tool vacuum you select, it should also take care of those loose food particles hiding in the nooks and crannies of your car.

The Black + Decker handheld vacuum is one such tool designed to give particles no hiding place; it comes with a dedicated crevice tool and a flip-up brush to provide extra versatility when dusting. It currently retails for $38.62 on Amazon.

Carrying lots of refreshments on your trip? Depending on the nature of your snacks, you may want to keep them cool and dry at an ideal temperature. Going on road trips in the summer can expose your snacks to a lot of heat if they're not properly stored, and that carries different risks. According to the Food Safety and Inspection Service at the United States Department of Agriculture, food shouldn't be left out for more than an hour in temperatures above 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

So, it's recommended to take a cooler packed with ice or other sources of cooling with you on your travels. This way, you don't have to worry about your favorite drinks changing taste or your chocolate bars melting — you consume them at their best. If you drive a camper, the BougeRV Car Fridge might be up your alley. You don't need to lug around bags of ice for it — it cools from 77 degrees Fahrenheit to 32 in 15 minutes, and occupies just over two cubic feet of space. This will cost you about $150 on Amazon.

For smaller cars that need to save on space, cooler bags like this one from Maelstrom might be a more viable solution. It's leakproof and designed to keep your lunch cool for up to 12 hours. Depending on your storage needs, you could opt for a capacity that holds 24, 30, or 60 11.2-ounce (330 milliliter) cans. The first two go for $30 each, with the 60-can version on sale for $38.66.

With so many perishables bound to be eaten throughout the course of your trip, especially if you're travelling with others, waste disposal is important. You could rely on one of a random plastic bag to serve as a makeshift trash bag in such a scenario, although the placement and the mechanics of consistently reaching for it (as well as a drip risk if the bag's made of something else) make this method unsavory. Of course, it goes without saying that you absolutely shouldn't be tossing things out the window — that carries legal penalties that can reach as high as $30,000 with imprisonment terms.

It can be easy to forget before the empty wrappers and containers start to pile up halfway through your road trip, but having a dedicated trash can will dramatically improve your quality of life. Add it to your list — and make sure the one you're buying is leakproof, too. This EPAuto Car Trash Can could suit your needs for $9.99; it can hold 2.5 gallons of waste, and its sealed vinyl lining will stops any liquid spillage.

If you're worried about discarded waste escaping from the bin, especially since your car's going to be navigating bends and curves, it comes with hook-and-loop fasteners and adjustable straps to keep everything in place.

Got a night stopover planned on your itinerary? Don't forget to pack a flashlight. You might think you only need one of these if you're going camping or hiking in the woods, but you'd be wrong. There's no guarantee the area you're going to spend the night in, be it a trailer park or a free overnight parking spot, is going to be well-lit.

Primarily, the reason to take a flashlight with you is for cursory maintenance checks. After a long day of driving, you should inspect your car for any possible areas where a malfunction could manifest. Check your fluid levels, tires, and battery connections to ensure everything is running as it should. Under the cover of darkness, though, running those checks can be difficult — and you can't always rely on your phone's torchlight because you could be short on battery juice.

That's the value of a flashlight: You can pull it out whenever you need it and not have to worry about it not answering your call. It's a solid backup plan for inspecting your car or lighting your path on unfamiliar terrain, and you can get one that's small enough to fit in your pocket for $9.99 on Amazon. You could also look through eight of the most popular flashlight brands if you're undecided. 

One might think that travel pillows only belong on airplanes. After all, that's where you're most likely to see them. Unless you're flying first class, where you can fully stretch out into a bed, you're going to be seated upright for the entire duration of a flight. If you think about it, driving across multiple states can the same effect on your neck.

Spending that much time can cause some serious discomfort — it can strain your spine, hips, and neck muscles, especially if you're prone to slouching forward. To counteract this, travel pillows envelop the neck; they stop it from drooping and maintain proper spinal alignment, which is essential for keeping pains away from your neck when you drift off to sleep. The same logic should apply to road trips.

Use a travel pillow to give your neck a break from all the jostling about in your cabin, and you're less likely to have soreness after a long day on the road. Napfun's travel pillow is an option to start with — it's made of memory foam, adjustable, and extends to provide chin support for $15.59 on Amazon.

If the route to your destination takes you through a lot of tolls, you're probably dreading all those long lines. There's a way you could zip through it all, though: E-ZPass. Instead of having to interface with toll workers at cash lanes, an E-ZPass uses a transponder on your windshield to transmit a signal to the toll pass equipment.

The equipment reads the signal, then directly charges the driver's E-ZPass account for the toll — no cash exchange, and hardly any waiting at all. In fact, some drivers report cruising through toll lanes equipped with E-ZPass technology at anywhere between 25 and 35 mph. You need to be careful with this, though. Some regions have specific speed limits for drivers to adhere to in these lanes, and going over them can get you a ticket. You shouldn't go so fast that you can't stop in time if a toll worker suddenly appears across the road.

Using an E-ZPass saves you the long lines of cars waiting to get past ticketing and the ticketing procedure itself. So, if you're on a tight schedule or simply prefer convenience, an E-ZPass is the way to go. The technology currently works in 19 states, including Florida, New York, and most recently, Georgia. Make sure your E-ZPass battery isn't dead before you hit the roads, though. 

It's the modern era, and if you're anything like me, you probably can't remember the last time you laid your eyes on a good old map in the flesh. Not Google Maps or Apple Maps on your car's infotainment system or on your phone — an actual map. With such reliable navigation providers available at the click of a button, you might wonder why exactly a big piece of paper is necessary to take with you on your road trips.

The answer's simply reliability. On road trips, your phone can run out of charge if you've got the screen on all day. You can also drive into digital dead zones — areas that don't have cell network coverage — and essentially be flying blind. In such cases, your best bet is likely to make a pit stop at the nearest convenience store and get directions from the locals, but that's valuable time lost, and there's always the risk of getting the wrong directions.

Having a physical road map in the car gives you a reliable backup so you don't get lost. Sure, tracing the roads might feel archaic (and maybe even alien), but it'll keep you moving long enough for your cell service to come back or software-related malfunctions to correct. They can be relatively inexpensive, too. This Rand McNally map is available on Amazon for $9.99.