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About this tool
Generate a packing and car-prep checklist with real quantities, tailored to trip length, travellers, season and terrain.
The Road Trip Packing Checklist builds a road-trip packing and car-prep checklist sized to your actual trip: quantities scale with travellers and days, drinking water uses the WHO planning figure of about three litres per person per day, and the season and terrain you pick add the items those conditions genuinely need. It also lists the documents that must be produced on demand in India — licence, registration certificate, insurance and PUC — and the pre-departure car checks that prevent most roadside breakdowns.
Open Road Trip Packing Checklist on AltFTool — it loads instantly in your browser.
Set Trip length (days), Adults, Children, Season and Terrain, and tick options such as 'Travelling with a pet' or 'Camping or self-catering'.
The checklist rebuilds instantly — the Drinking water to plan for and Sets of clothes quantities are computed from your travellers and days.
Tick items off as you pack to advance the '% packed' bar, and press Copy result to export the grouped list as text.
Water, clothing and consumables are computed from travellers and days.
Monsoon adds wiper blades and dry sacks; hills add chocks and motion-sickness tablets.
The paperwork and the car inspection sit alongside the packing, where they belong.
Plan on about three litres per person per day for drinking and food, the figure the WHO uses for emergency planning, and increase it by half again in hot or arid conditions. For four people over three days that is roughly 36 litres, or 54 in summer — realistically you carry a day's worth and restock at each halt.
A valid driving licence, the vehicle's registration certificate, a valid insurance policy and a valid PUC certificate. Since a Ministry of Road Transport and Highways advisory in 2018, copies held in DigiLocker or mParivahan are accepted in place of the originals, so keep them downloaded before you lose signal.
Tyre pressure on all five tyres including the spare, tread depth against the 1.6 mm legal minimum, engine oil and coolant, brake fluid and brake feel, every light and the horn, wiper blades and washer fluid, and that the jack, wheel spanner and wheel lock key are actually in the car. Do it the day before, so a problem can still be fixed.
It is compulsory in transport vehicles under Rule 138(3) of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, and not legally required in a private car — but it is the single most useful thing in the boot on a highway. Include antiseptic, dressings, tape, painkillers and everyone's prescription medicines with the prescription.