SAN ANGELO, TX — Ric Henry, owner of Ric Henry’s Auto Service says the first thing anyone should do before heading on a road trip across Texas is make sure your car's battery has enough charge to get you to where you're going.
"Because if you get some place and you drive 3 hours to get there and you're in the middle of nowhere then your car won’t start then you're in trouble,” said Henry.
Also, avoid not driving your car for too long, which is usually the reason for dead or low charged batteries. For an easy fix, henry says take it to a mechanic who can charge it up for you.
Summer time in West Texas also means extreme heat. Henry says there are small things like hoses that are inexpensive to replace, but if left neglected, could be costly.
"We have a lot of belts and hoses issues with more pumps leaking, and you don’t really notice it in the winter time but in the summer time when you get a lot of heat you can blow a radiator hose or a heater hose and it'll leave you stranded on the side of the road,” said Henry.
AAA expects to come to the rescue of more than 330,000 Texas drivers this summer, one way to reduce your risk of being one of those drivers is checking your tires, but not just for tread.
"We're in West Texas and the tires do dry rot so they can have a lot of tread but there’s going to be a lot of dry rot around it which causes them to blow out," said Henry.
He says one way to spot the rot is through the cracks in the rubber, usually on the side of your tires.
And if you do want to check the tread, Henry says to make sure you check the inside and the outside of the tire.
"So this tire here you can see how bald it is here, if you look at the other side of the tire its looks like it has tread on it,” said Henry.
On a national level, AAA says it will perform about 7.7 million roadside rescues this summer. So make sure to follow these tips so you're not one of them.