When you are on the road there are so many distractions, so its easy to over look some basic steps to prevent road failures. I want to take time to give some pointers on over 40 years of bus conversion travel experience.
First lets start with the pre-trip inspection, This is where you give your rig a really good once over, I first do a 360 walk around, and be sure to look up and under as you walk around. After the walk around making sure there isn’t anything sticking up or hanging down, lose or hanging. I start to dig deeper like tire pressure, engine oil level, transmission oil level, differential oil level, and wheel hubs oil level. Once the fluids are checked and adjusted i like to look the engine compartment over. Here I’m looking for any thing leaking, rubbing, missing, belts hoses And wiring. Checking for coolant level and leaks. After the hood checks are done I’ll check my lights next including a tow trailer or toad. Making sure all lights are working.
If you do all of these checks before you leave you’ll have a good idea of what to watch for on the road, for instance, if you had to add transmission fluid, you’ll know you must have a leak and that you’ll need to monitor the oil level on your trip. Always carry extra fluids to have to make up for lost on your trip. When I’m fueling my bus I’ll walk around the entire bus looking for anything thats moves become loose or shifted, leaking or hot, I will always touch the wheel hubs they should be warm but not so hot you can’t touch them for at least a few seconds. I also touch my tires to make certain they aren’t hot.
Just use common sense and your trip will good smoothly