7 Tools To Always Bring On A Road Trip (And 3 To Leave At Home)

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Preparing for a good road trip isn't just about remembering to wash your car and packing the right clothes. It is more about how prepared you are for unfavorable conditions down the road. Everything always feels fine for the first few hours, but things can change as soon as a warning light pops up, a tire starts losing air, or you hit a bump, knocking something loose. In such cases, your backpack won't come in handy. Instead, the important items that you have kept in the trunk will.

The stuff that you are carrying in your trunk becomes more important when you are stuck in the middle of nowhere. The good thing is that you don't need a mechanic's garage crammed inside your car to handle most of these situations. You just need to invest wisely in a handful of tools and pack them so they're easy to reach when things go south. Ticking off these item from the road trip checklist may also give you the peace of mind needed to actually enjoy your trip.

You should also know what tools aren't worth taking along and should remain at home, be it because they're unnecessary, too bulky, or hard to use during a road trip. That's why we've included some items that you may be tempted to bring along, but have no place in your car.

When you're on a road trip, one of the things that you want to keep in good shape is your car tires. Nothing ruins a road trip faster than watching your tire pressure light turn on somewhere between exits, when the nearest gas station is an hour away. I've been in situations like this several times, which is why the first thing I make sure to have in my car trunk is a portable tire inflator. I think everyone should have a tire inflator that plugs into the 12V socket and can top off a low tire in a few minutes.

With this, you won't need to limp along on a soft tire hoping you will make it to a gas station without damaging it. You will find a lot of options for tire inflators in various price ranges, but the AstroAI L7 is a nice, affordable option. Not only can it pump air fast, but it has a digital gauge that lets you know the tire's current pressure, so you are not left guessing. Plus, it has an auto shut-off feature that stops the power once it hits the desired psi. It also comes with an LED light.

Keeping good tire pressure doesn't just increase comfort, either. Underinflated tires wear faster, hurt your mileage, and make your car less stable at highway speeds. These are all serious problems, especially when you are planning on covering hundreds of miles on unfamiliar roads. There are many different kinds of tire inflators on the market, but the most important thing is that you get one from a good brand.

Dead batteries always seem to happen when you least expect them. If that happens to you when there are no cars in sight, you are stuck in a dire situation. That is exactly the gap that a portable jump starter fills. Instead of waiting on a stranger to stop or calling an expensive tow service, you clip the jump starter onto your battery terminals and (hopefully) get your engine running again in under a minute.

The Noco Boost GB40 is very popular, and for good reasons. It is small enough to toss in a glove compartment, but it still cranks a gas engine up to 6.0 liters or a diesel up to 3.0 liters. This portable jump starter also works as a phone charger and 100-lumen flashlight. You can easily power up your phone and call for help if needed. The Noco gives you the power of three devices in one, and that matters when every inch of trunk space counts. Being someone who has gone on numerous road trips, I know that a portable jump starter belongs near the top of any packing list. Of course, you may still want to pack jumper cables, since cables and portable jump starters are different things.

Not every problem on the road requires a toolbox. Sometimes, a loose screw on the fender, a stuck seatbelt buckle, or a rattling glovebox only need a simple fix. And that simple fix can be done using a good multi-tool. This pocket-sized gadget can handle any such problems, and that's why it earned a permanent spot in my glovebox rather than the trunk. Not only do they help fix car problems, but they can also help open your sandwich box or pop open a glass bottle.

The Leatherman Wingman is built exactly for this kind of unpredictability. It combines spring-action pliers, scissors, a couple of knife blades, screwdrivers, and a bottle opener into one stainless steel body that's ready for one-handed use. Multi-tools are not meant to replace a full mechanic's kit. Rather, they're meant for the kind of small fixes that pop up constantly on a long drive.

A multi-tool is only worth the money if it's durable. A cheap one with wobbly pliers and dull blades adds to the frustration and will let you down right when you need it the most. While there are a lot of good options available in the market, Leatherman consistently comes out near the top for build quality and reliability.

When you are out on a road trip, you don't know what lies ahead. Getting stuck in mud, sand, or a ditch off the shoulder isn't so rare on longer road trips, especially if your route takes you near unpaved backroads or on a scenic detour that looked better on the maps than in person. When that happens, a recovery strap is often the only thing standing between you and having to call an expensive tow truck, especially in a spot with no cell network to even make that call.

The Rhino USA Recovery Tow Strap is rated for a break strength of over 31,000 pounds, which sounds excessive until you remember that yanking a stuck vehicle out of mud puts a lot more strain on a strap than towing something on a flat pavement. It is made of triple-reinforced loop ends and heavy-duty webbing. This strap works with most trucks, SUVs, and 4x4s without needing any special attachments.

When using a recovery strap, remember that this isn't the same thing as a tow-rope. The first has little give while the second is elastic, and using one as if it was the other can be dangerous. You can check out other top-rated tow straps on Amazon, compare their break strength, materials, and prices, and choose the best one for you.

Car trouble at night brings another level of frustration and stress than trouble in daylight. Changing a tire or checking what's wrong under the hood is hard enough without also fumbling around trying to hold a light while you work. This is when a flashlight on a head strap earns its place, since it frees both of your hands to work on the car.

The Blukar LED Rechargeable Headlamp puts out up to 2,000 lumens with stepless dimming, so you can go from a wide floodlight to a focused spotlight depending on whether you're lighting up the whole engine bay or hunting for a dropped bolt. It has an IPX5 rating, so a bit of rain during a roadside fix shouldn't be an issue, and the built-in 1,200 mAh battery charges over USB-C. This means you can top it off from any powerbank or your car's charging port. It even has motion sensors, letting you turn the light on with a wave of your hand without touching it with greasy fingers.

A flashlight sounds like a secondary tool until you actually need one at 11 PM on a lonely road. You should invest in a good flashlight from a popular brands, because a cheap one may die fast or not work when you need it.

When you are on the road, you don't want to pause the journey just because a few screws have come off or your bumper is wiggling when you hit a rough patch. Duct tape may be treated like a joke sometimes, but it's one of the easiest way to fix something temporarily. You can use it to hold a cracked bumper together, patch a torn hose, or seal a leaking coolant line long enough to reach a mechanic. It's also one of the cheapest and lightest tool that you can throw into your car trunk.

Gorilla All Weather Outdoor tape is a step up from the regular stuff, because it is built to handle rain, temperature swings, and UV exposure without peeling off. It is thicker than standard duct tape too, which means it will hold up well against vibrations and heat, instead of loosening up after a few hours on rough roads.

A roll costs about $10, but it can genuinely be a huge boon for your trip. Tape is not usually the kind of item that gets its own shopping trip, but when you are prepping for the road, including this in your list is a must.

A flat tire from a nail or a screw is one of the most common issues one can face while driving. This isn't even about road trips: A flat tire can happen anywhere and anytime. But a flat tire also doesn't always mean you need to tow. In a lot of cases, it just takes five minutes and a tire repair kit to get back on the road. Doing this is much easier than swapping to a small spare tire, which is not meant for long-distance driving in the first place.

The Slime 1034-A Tire Repair Kit comes with everything you will need for the job. It includes a reamer to clean the hole, a T-handle tool to insert the plug, heavy-duty plug strings, and glue to seal it in one place. It's built exactly for the kind of puncture road trips tend to produce, and it works on both cars and trucks. With this tool kit, you won't need to immediately head over to a mechanic, use a jack, or have any real mechanical experience.

Not every flat can be plugged safely, though. A puncture on the tread is usually fine, but damage to the sidewall should warrant a visit to a professional. You should also understand the difference between tire plugs and patches and when you need to use which one.

If you tend to overthink your choices, your brain might tell you to pack a full socket and wrench set in your trunk. However, when you are packing for a long road trip you have to be smart and think about space management. A full mechanic's socket and wrench set is heavy, bulky, and designed for full engine and car repairs. Such work shouldn't be attempted on the highway shoulder, no matter how many sockets you have.

If something breaks badly enough to need professional help, you should go to a mechanic, and not rely on a trunk full of tools you are probably not trained to use. Trying to fix a serious issue with a socket set might give rise to a new issue. You might end up wasting hours in the middle of nowhere. What actually matters during a trip is being able to quickly fix problems so you can take the car to a mechanic instead of calling a tow truck, not becoming the mechanic yourself.

Another type of tool that you should leave at home when going on a road trip, corded power tools are obviously a bad choice. You may think you could need that corded drill on the road, but if you really did, that would be an indication that you need to see a mechanic. Besides, it would be pretty hard to get to a power socket to run your corded tools. On top of this, power tools take up space you could use for other important stuff like luggage, camping gear, or coolers.

Even if you had an inverter with you (another thing that will take a lot of space), you will be draining power from your car battery, which you'll need later to start your engine. If you think cordless tools are a good alternative, they might be, until the battery goes dead. Besides, you will probably not need them anyway. You need tools that are compact, reliable, and don't need to be charged beforehand (or, worse, to be connected to an outlet).

A heavy-duty floor jack may sound like a good addition to your trunk, especially when compared to the flimsy scissor jack that comes with your car and feels like it might snap under pressure. The problem with it is its size and weight. Floor jacks are built for garage floors, not trunks, and hauling one on a family road trip means giving up serious cargo space for something that you will likely never use.

Your car already comes with a jack for a reason, and while it is not that fancy, it does exactly what it is supposed to do. You can use it for changing tires and making quick fixes. Apart from that, if any serious issue appears, you should try to get a mechanic's help instead of trying to fix it yourself.

If you are really reluctant to use a scissor jack, you may want to read up on the difference between different types of automatic jacks and how they can be used in different situations. In short, a good scissor jack can safely lift one side of a mid-sized car for a short time. If you want, however, there are other jacks you can bring along on a car trip.