Carl, I drive my 83 SC Cab to Rochester, NY and back twice a month, that's an 800 mile round trip. The key really is to know the car inside and out and that requires driving it a lot. I started with a few shorter trips (100 miles or so) and as I built confidence and experience increased the distance. This was 7 years ago when I got the car. Now, I feel very comfortable taking it as far as I want. In addition to the basic maintenance and inspection items previously mentioned, here are some pointers:
- since this is your first long trip make sure your battery is fresh (not out dated) and fully charged
- of course a fresh oil and filter change is in order
- make sure you understand how much oil your car consumes or leaks and bring an appropriate amount of replacement oil
- top off your wiper fluid
- check tire air pressure
- do a pre-drive inspection of all your indicators and lights
Then by way of items to carry I tend to bring only stuff I know I'll likely need. You can't plan for every possible problem!
- paper towels
- oil (see above)
- window cleaner
- a couple of pairs of latex or latex free gloves
- one flashlight with fresh batteries
- stock toolkit
- I like to carry a set of metric wrenches, a socket set and a medium vice grips
- a set of 4 good Phillips and flat head screwdrivers, two of each in small and medium/large blades