{"id":1539,"date":"2013-05-21T12:51:03","date_gmt":"2013-05-21T17:51:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/?p=1539"},"modified":"2013-05-21T12:51:03","modified_gmt":"2013-05-21T17:51:03","slug":"preparing-vehicle-safe-summer-road-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/car-accident-injury\/preparing-vehicle-safe-summer-road-trip\/","title":{"rendered":"Preparing Your Vehicle for a Safe Summer Road Trip"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Road trips are relatively inexpensive and can be fun for the whole family. They can also prove dangerous if proper precautionary steps are not taken. Even if your car is relatively new, it is important that you perform a mechanical check before hitting the roadway. It is particularly important to check the fluids, hoses, belts, tires, and brakes. If you are uncomfortable with performing this type of check on your own, take your vehicle to a trusted mechanic for an inspection.<\/p>\n<p>Here is what you should look for if you perform the inspection yourself:<!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Check when you will need an      oil change. If you will need one during the first couple days of travel,      you might as well get one before you leave. You should also inspect your      vehicle&#8217;s oil levels. If you are going to pull a trailer, you may need      fully synthetic engine oil for extra protection from thermal breakdown.<\/li>\n<li>There are other fluid      reservoirs to check in your car as well. For example, you need to check      your transmission and drive axle levels.<\/li>\n<li>Look closely at the hoses.      Hard, cracked hoses can spurt fluids putting you at risk of breaking down.<\/li>\n<li>Check the belts in your      car by turning them on their side to look at the friction surface. If it      is ragged, cracked, or torn, you need new ones.<\/li>\n<li>Check your coolant levels.      Newer vehicles are designed to travel more than 100,000 miles with the      same engine coolant, but it is still advisable to make sure you have      enough.<\/li>\n<li>Your tires should have      adequate tread and pressure. A tire blowout on the highway can result in      serious injury car accidents.<\/li>\n<li>If your brakes are squishy      or squeaky, you should get them checked by a professional.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The knowledgeable Oklahoma personal injury lawyers at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/personal-injury.html\">Maples Law Firm<\/a> wish you safe summer travels. If you or a loved one is injured as the result of a negligent driver, please call our offices at (405) 705-5050 to obtain more information about pursuing your legal rights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Road trips are relatively inexpensive and can be fun for the whole family. They can also prove dangerous if proper precautionary steps are not taken. Even if your car is&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[537,617,711,989],"class_list":["post-1539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-car-accident-injury","tag-ok-auto-safety-check","tag-ok-vehicle-crash-injuries","tag-oklahoma-car-accident-law-firm","tag-oklahoma-road-trip-safety"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Preparing Your Vehicle for a Safe Summer Road Trip<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Road trips are relatively inexpensive and can be fun for the whole family. They can also prove dangerous if proper precautionary steps are not taken. Even\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/car-accident-injury\/preparing-vehicle-safe-summer-road-trip\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Preparing Your Vehicle for a Safe Summer Road Trip\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Road trips are relatively inexpensive and can be fun for the whole family. They can also prove dangerous if proper precautionary steps are not taken. Even\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/car-accident-injury\/preparing-vehicle-safe-summer-road-trip\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Oklahoma Personal Injury Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-05-21T17:51:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ray-maples-social.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ray Maples\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ray Maples\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":[\"Article\",\"BlogPosting\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mapleslawokc.com\\\/blog\\\/car-accident-injury\\\/preparing-vehicle-safe-summer-road-trip\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mapleslawokc.com\\\/blog\\\/car-accident-injury\\\/preparing-vehicle-safe-summer-road-trip\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ray Maples\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mapleslawokc.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e113bdddd3ffcb99df73ff61dd63ceb1\"},\"headline\":\"Preparing Your Vehicle for a Safe Summer Road Trip\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-05-21T17:51:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mapleslawokc.com\\\/blog\\\/car-accident-injury\\\/preparing-vehicle-safe-summer-road-trip\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":344,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mapleslawokc.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"ok auto safety check\",\"ok vehicle crash injuries\",\"oklahoma car accident law firm\",\"oklahoma road trip safety\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Car Accident Injury\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mapleslawokc.com\\\/blog\\\/car-accident-injury\\\/preparing-vehicle-safe-summer-road-trip\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mapleslawokc.com\\\/blog\\\/car-accident-injury\\\/preparing-vehicle-safe-summer-road-trip\\\/\",\"name\":\"Preparing Your Vehicle for a Safe Summer Road Trip\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mapleslawokc.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-05-21T17:51:03+00:00\",\"description\":\"Road trips are relatively inexpensive and can be fun for the whole family. They can also prove dangerous if proper precautionary steps are not taken. Even\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mapleslawokc.com\\\/blog\\\/car-accident-injury\\\/preparing-vehicle-safe-summer-road-trip\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mapleslawokc.com\\\/blog\\\/car-accident-injury\\\/preparing-vehicle-safe-summer-road-trip\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mapleslawokc.com\\\/blog\\\/car-accident-injury\\\/preparing-vehicle-safe-summer-road-trip\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mapleslawokc.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Preparing Your Vehicle for a Safe Summer Road Trip\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mapleslawokc.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mapleslawokc.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Oklahoma Personal Injury Blog\",\"description\":\"Oklahoma Personal Injury Legal Blog\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mapleslawokc.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"alternateName\":\"Oklahoma Personal Injury Legal Blog\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mapleslawokc.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mapleslawokc.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Maples Harrison Zeaman PLLC\",\"alternateName\":\"Maples Harrison Zeaman\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mapleslawokc.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mapleslawokc.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mapleslawokc.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/maples-harrison-zeaman-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mapleslawokc.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/maples-harrison-zeaman-logo.png\",\"width\":1536,\"height\":1024,\"caption\":\"Maples Harrison Zeaman PLLC\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mapleslawokc.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mapleslawokc.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e113bdddd3ffcb99df73ff61dd63ceb1\",\"name\":\"Ray Maples\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mapleslawokc.com\\\/\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Preparing Your Vehicle for a Safe Summer Road Trip","description":"Road trips are relatively inexpensive and can be fun for the whole family. They can also prove dangerous if proper precautionary steps are not taken. Even","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/car-accident-injury\/preparing-vehicle-safe-summer-road-trip\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Preparing Your Vehicle for a Safe Summer Road Trip","og_description":"Road trips are relatively inexpensive and can be fun for the whole family. They can also prove dangerous if proper precautionary steps are not taken. Even","og_url":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/car-accident-injury\/preparing-vehicle-safe-summer-road-trip\/","og_site_name":"Oklahoma Personal Injury Blog","article_published_time":"2013-05-21T17:51:03+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":675,"url":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ray-maples-social.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Ray Maples","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ray Maples","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":["Article","BlogPosting"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/car-accident-injury\/preparing-vehicle-safe-summer-road-trip\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/car-accident-injury\/preparing-vehicle-safe-summer-road-trip\/"},"author":{"name":"Ray Maples","@id":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e113bdddd3ffcb99df73ff61dd63ceb1"},"headline":"Preparing Your Vehicle for a Safe Summer Road Trip","datePublished":"2013-05-21T17:51:03+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/car-accident-injury\/preparing-vehicle-safe-summer-road-trip\/"},"wordCount":344,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/#organization"},"keywords":["ok auto safety check","ok vehicle crash injuries","oklahoma car accident law firm","oklahoma road trip safety"],"articleSection":["Car Accident Injury"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/car-accident-injury\/preparing-vehicle-safe-summer-road-trip\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/car-accident-injury\/preparing-vehicle-safe-summer-road-trip\/","name":"Preparing Your Vehicle for a Safe Summer Road Trip","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-05-21T17:51:03+00:00","description":"Road trips are relatively inexpensive and can be fun for the whole family. They can also prove dangerous if proper precautionary steps are not taken. Even","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/car-accident-injury\/preparing-vehicle-safe-summer-road-trip\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/car-accident-injury\/preparing-vehicle-safe-summer-road-trip\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/car-accident-injury\/preparing-vehicle-safe-summer-road-trip\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Preparing Your Vehicle for a Safe Summer Road Trip"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/","name":"Oklahoma Personal Injury Blog","description":"Oklahoma Personal Injury Legal Blog","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/#organization"},"alternateName":"Oklahoma Personal Injury Legal Blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Maples Harrison Zeaman PLLC","alternateName":"Maples Harrison Zeaman","url":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/maples-harrison-zeaman-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/maples-harrison-zeaman-logo.png","width":1536,"height":1024,"caption":"Maples Harrison Zeaman PLLC"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e113bdddd3ffcb99df73ff61dd63ceb1","name":"Ray Maples","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1539\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapleslawokc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}