At our annual concours at Little Switzerland in July, I was asked to present a technical discussion on Thursday night. Being aware that this would be a mixed audience from an interest and skills level, I decided on a format where I encouraged folks in attendance to tell their Jaguar breakdown stories. Being a little worried that I might not get much audience participation, I had some talking points prepared about Road Trip Prep. Well, I shouldn’t have bothered. The audience came through with many many breakdown stories! I think after 2 hours or so, we finally ran out. Some great stories were presented. Lorraine M’s story about an evil ignition key cylinder gained Best Story, based on my very rough applause meter. Anyway, not wanting my prep to go to waste, I thought I’d write down a few of my thoughts about Road Trip Prep.
As I look back on my 50 years with cars, I can only think of a few breakdown stories. From personal interest and financial necessity, I have always been able to work on my cars and as a consequence have been able to perform many “self rescues”. Not all of us are so fortunate but here are some strategies that we can all employ.
Probably the most common advice that I hear is to be signed up with a towing service. Most insurance policies offer coverage for towing costs. My classic cars are insured through Hagerty and they offer a standard towing coverage. AAA is a long standing provider of roadside assistance. My one experience with Hagerty involved a breakdown 5 miles from my house with my Porsche 944. I waited a very long time for the flatbed to arrive. My contact at Hagerty basically said, as I had to call them several times, that when a Porsche was involved, they were somewhat selective as to what type of recovery equipment they would send out. I appreciate that but keep in mind, if you are calling in about your Jaguar, you may want to have a discussion about recovery options, especially as to whether speed or care to your vehicle are of higher importance to you.
Of course, it may be obvious, but your cell phone needs to be up and running. It is not a bad idea to keep your cellphone plugged into your car’s charge port. I have found that apps such as Google Maps really can drain a cellphone battery in a hurry. Maybe it would be a good idea to have a supplemental battery for your cellphone with you when you drive out of town. Make sure that some key “rescue numbers” for AAA or whatever are stored in your contacts.
Speaking of supplemental batteries, a nifty device that is on the market is car battery Boost Jump Starter. These are based on lithium battery technology and as a consequence are quite compact. They are simple to use and many have a supplemental USB port to power your phone. I like the NOCO Boost Plus. It comes in several power ranges. Mine is the 1000 amp version. It is small enough to fit in most glove boxes. Having one of these on-board can get you going in a dead battery situation.
Another thing to think about is lockouts. On my older cars that actually use a physical key, I have a separate key made that is hidden somewhere externally on my vehicle. With newer keys, this becomes problematic. I’m sure there are options out there which I’m not qualified to address in this article.
If you are driving an older car that enjoys a following on a marque specific forum, always keep those forums in mind as sources of roadside rescue. Don’t be afraid to post on your marque specific forum that you are in trouble with a breakdown. Help may be closer than you think. Also, if you are in the habit of ordering parts for your older classic, say from SNG or Moss, you might consider calling their order desk and see if they know of a good marque specific mechanic in the area of your breakdown. A long story short, my Volvo broke down in Yosemite NP. I called a parts vendor in Oregon, who suggested a shop in Berkeley. A long distance call (before cellphones!) to that shop got me lined up for the repairs I needed. Read the entire story here.
Finally, on my Jaguar forums, there have been numerous discussions about tools and spare parts to carry on long road trips. That is an entire subject on its own but if you want some interesting reading, do a search on this topic and see what ideas are out there that might be of interest to you. Safe travels!
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