Aftermarket Products for Comfortable Holiday Travel
‘Tis the time of year when everyone piles into the family vehicle to bounce from house to house and stuff their bellies full of seasonal favorites. The holidays present blessings of love, cheer, and joy with friends and family. But holiday travel also comes with physical, mental, emotional, and financial burdens (and mandatory bonding with the in-laws). Add to that a less-than-ordinary year where air travel hasn’t been the rosiest, and there’s bound to be a large number of holiday travelers making the trek by road this season.
We all know how this scene plays out: passengers are packed tighter than sardines amongst luggage, toys, and fast-food garbage. One parent tries to talk over the childish catfights in the back seat. The other grips the wheel for dear life in bumper-to-bumper traffic. You want to know how to reduce travel anxiety? Don’t go. It’s the only sure-fire way to avoid the mayhem. Unfortunately, most of us don’t have that luxury. So, check out these products that can help make the drive a little more manageable.
Pressed for Space
By investing in quality cargo management solutions, drivers can maximize their storage capacity so they’re getting the most use out of both the interior and exterior of their vehicle.
Up On the Rooftop
Suppose your vehicle is equipped with a roof rack. In that case, Yakima’s rooftop cargo boxes offer as much as 18 cubic feet of storage space, depending on which model you choose. Most boxes come outfitted with SKS locks and Superlock, so your possessions are secured for those overnight stops. Plus, these boxes sport an aerodynamic shape to reduce drag, so you’re not feeling the pain at the gas pump.
If you need extra power for the long trip, Yakima even offers a solar cargo box. The CBX-16 features an integrated solar panel that delivers a 36W/5-volt output. With 2 USB ports, it can power a small campsite and charge phones, tablets, USB lanterns, and cameras like GoPros. At $1,400 it’s a luxury purchase, for sure. But if your traveling clan lives the off-grid lifestyle, it could be a practical addition to your ride.
Of course, if you’re traveling in a sedan or smaller SUV, a heavy-duty rooftop box may not be an option. Thankfully there are other rooftop options, too, like Rightline Gear’s car top carriers. Similar to hard-top boxes, these handy bags free up space inside your vehicle and trunk, providing more precious legroom. There are bags designed for SUVs, crossovers, wagons, sedans, and even compacts, meaning there’s a car-top carrier that’ll fit just about every modern car on the market.
This style of car top carrier is an excellent option if you don’t have (or don’t want to install) a roof rack, since they strap onto the roof without any drilling. Best of all, Rightline Gear’s bags are soft-sided and lightweight, while still being waterproof. That means, you can keep on trucking down the road even if there’s some snow and not have to worry about your clothes getting wet.
Rolling Around Back
If you’re a smaller group and just need some solutions for keeping the trunk and interior organized, there are also many great options for trunk organizers.
Reese offers handy collapsible trunk organizers with straps and dividers to keep your gear from rolling around in the trunk. These add-ons can sometimes be seen as overkill by the uninitiated. Rest assured, though, a cramped and overfilled interior can be made quite comfortable with the addition of just one extra cargo storage device.
Mess-Free
Keeping your ride organized can help make the trip to the in-laws more tolerable, since everyone will have enough room to stay comfortable on the long drive. But traveling during the holiday season in many parts of the country also means muddy, slushy, and downright messy conditions. Keep your ride clean by outfitting it with interior essentials like floormats, cargo liners, and car seat covers.
Both WeatherTech and Husky Liners carry everything from heavy-duty floor mats and truck bed liners, to seatback kick mats and inside door panel protectors. If your holiday travel involves unruly children, drooling fur babies, or some combination of both, those last two items are must-haves…
Add an extra line of defense to your seats with car seat covers by Covercraft or TigerTough. Both manufacturers offer multiple colors, styles, and fabrics to match your ride. Some options are also machine washable depending on the material, saving you a trip to the detailers.
Furry Friends
If the kids aren’t making a mess, it’s a sure bet your four-legged friend will drag in some dirt, mud, or who-knows-what at some point during the drive. Keeping your pet comfortable and securely fastened during the trip will cut down on spills, messes, and other inconveniences.
Whether you want to keep them strapped in safely with a tether that attaches to a seatbelt buckle or give your smaller pup a booster seat so they can watch the road go by, Kurgo stocks travel essentials to make things easier on you and your pet. Find hammocks and seat bridges to maximize comfort on those long drives, and backseat barriers to keep furry cannonballs from firing forward during hard braking.
There are even handy accessories like collapsible kibble carriers and combination water bottles/bowls to cut down on space for the dog’s travel goods.
If you want to have a little fun with your pet travel, too, DOOG has an excellent selection of treat pouches, walkie bags, and mini belts with fun patterns for those short walks during your pit stops.
Baby, It’s COLD Outside
Since most holiday travel is done in cold weather, it’s always wise to have some emergency gear on hand. Nothing’s worse than a dead battery or a flat tire when you’re still an hour from your final stop and the snow’s coming down. Aftermarket companies like Weego, NOCO, and CTEK all make jump starters and battery chargers that can power up everything from the family station wagon to a full-size pickup.
Fluctuating tire pressure can be another issue on long trips during the winter season. One or two nights with dipping temperatures can bring tire pressure below its optimal level and create hazardous handling conditions. Instead of having to hope the next gas station you get to has an air compressor (with a working pressure gauge, for that matter), consider stashing a tire inflation kit for the trip. Companies like Viair make portable compressors that plug directly into a vehicle’s cigarette lighter power port and feature a built-in pressure gauge to ensure you’re inflating to the proper PSI.
If you’re hauling a bigger holiday travel caravan like an RV or trailer, consider investing in a tire pressure monitoring system. Modern TMPS products like the Valterra TM22130 feature phone app integration and a handy LCD monitor, so it’s easy to keep track of all tires for safe towing and driving.
Go-Go-Gadget
The modern family vehicle hauls plenty of electronics for the holiday trip. There’s an iPad for the kids’ shows, a laptop for the work-from-the-road professional, and a phone that covers navigation and music for the drive. But battery life drains fast, especially if you’re running multiple apps with the screen brightness turned up.
You can keep all your devices fully charged from the road with adaptors and chargers that plug into cigarette lighter power ports from companies like Scosche. There are also USB chargers, which allow you to split up charging areas in the car and avoid fights over that one sacred power outlet in the front console.
And, of course, hands-free is the name of the game when traveling with family in tow. Anything that keeps your hands off the phone and eyes squarely on the road is a crucial part of road safety.
Add a dash mount to your ride to make that long trip safer, and it’ll also come in handy for those short drives across town. Best of all, a lot of the modern versions of phone dash mounts have built-in charging, so you get the best of both worlds in one product.
Keep It Clean
We’re all learning that after the last 18 months or so, we could stand to pay a bit closer attention to our general health and sanitation anytime we head out into the world. Having a solid supply of hand sanitizer like an easy-spray bottle from Chemical Guys gives you a handy way to keep those hands bacteria-free after a quick stop at the rest area. And if you’re looking for waste-free options to sanitize hard-sided items like electronics, kids’ toys, pet products, or even door handles, check out UV sterilizer wands — like this one from 59S. They’re a safe way to sterilize, and cut down on that pile of sanitizing wipes building up in the backseat garbage.
Holiday travel can be stressful before you even leave the driveway, so consider stocking up on some of these accessories to make the trip a little more tolerable. Maybe you’ll even find yourself humming along to a few carols once you get out on the open road…
