High mileage traveling

[auxiliary]

Ok, so I bought my 1997 4runner because of the great response with it being such a reliable vehicle. Over the weekend I drove up to North Carolina from Atlanta and had absolutely zero problems.

The car has 160,000 miles on it and is a 5-speed and I have no idea when the clutch was last replaced but doesn't seem like it needs it any time soon.

Now this summer I have two trips being planed, one to Little Rock, Ak. and one to Panama City. I am leaving from Atlanta and was voted driver because "I have more room"...

Anything I should be looking to fix before heading out on these trips? Besides the obvious oil change and tire inflation?

I have noticed at high speeds (70-80) the steering wheel will wooble a little bit, is that just because it's an SUV or do you think it may be something else?

 

[theizzardking]

test your battery, starter and alternator, do the oil change and a tune up- new plugs and wires. check and replace all fluids that need it.

other things to consider
timing belt
water pump


those things should bump up you mpg's a bit and guarantee you can start it and get moving alright, beyond that are things you can't really control when they are going to break as in saying there's no real preventive maintenance you can due to ensure their going to be good, they are those sort of things that just happen and short of rebuilding the whole truck your not going to know about it till they start to fail and even then it take a bit of time



as for the shimmy see if you need to rotate/change the tires (maybe even check to see if their weighted right)if it's not that you should upgrade to poly bushings but i think that may be able to wait till you get back and yes this is a suv should be driven like a sports car so keep it in the 70-80 range max , if it's not your bushings or tires it's going to be shocks/coils but i doubt it would be that if it's stable at other speeds...

i'm leaving on a 4500 mi road trip next friday and going through alot of this stuff myself, i did a 3500 mi road trip last summer in the runner and did all of this stuff and i had zero problems.

also if you want i made a sweet bed thing for the rear so me and the lady can sleep, it's like the normal platform you see on the other sites but i put hinges on it so it can "transformer" in on it's self and i can fold up the rear seats as normal and have all of my storage space in back, if you want i can post pics later today. (keep in mind it's a prototype and i'm making the real one this week)