The route berlin-moscow (and back) I have now already 5 times behind me and in addition 1 times moscow-st. Petersburg (and back). I have made a few mistakes on these trips, but I have also learned a great deal. I want to let you profit from these at this point.
Timing:
As a personal lesson I learned never to leave after a working day again, because those hours will definitely show up later. It makes a difference whether you’ve been awake for 20 hours or 29 hours after a 20-hour drive.
Also, a good night’s sleep before departure is essential. It is best to load everything into the car the day before you leave, so as not to delay going to bed.
Booking accommodation for an overnight stay on the road is only useful to a limited extent, because you never know when you will really be at which place. Something unexpected can always come up.
Always plan with plenty of time in reserve so that what almost happened to you doesn’t happen to you.
Staying awake:
energy drink is only for emergencies! Weaker caffeinated drinks like vita cola, on the other hand, have worked well on long-distance trips, in combination with highly carbonated mineral water, when the teeth get dull from the cola and the sugary taste in your mouth starts to get on your nerves.
these pink and white mint-flavored chocolate lentils have proven to be very helpful against second-second sleep on long-distance trips. You shove 1-2 pieces in your mouth and the mint freshness almost immediately drives away the sleepiness. In addition, the chocolate provides the body with a small energy kick. Chocolate kola, on the other hand, has not helped more than ordinary chocolate.
The ultimate remedy for fatigue is neither drugs nor sweets, but simply audio books. They are 10 times better than music. I discovered this by accident on my first trip: on my cell phone I had beside my music also some russian short stories in both languages (to learn russian). When I was bored somewhere between minsk and smolensk, I turned one of these on and was amazed at how quickly time passed all at once. and the tiredness was blown away, because it was interesting to listen to the stories. Since then I have never made a long distance drive without an audiobook.
Cost:
On such a long ride, it’s worth doing fuel calculations like you would on an airplane. For this it is helpful if you know the average consumption of your car. if your route leads through several countries, it is advisable to study the fuel prices of all countries and to plan on this basis where it is best to fill up and how much. Important! If you fill up calculated, always have a 5-liter reserve canister with you, in case you misjudge!
Example (all data are approximate):
Average consumption 10 l/100km, tank capacity: 50 l
germany: distance 70 km, gasoline price: 1.50 €
poland: distance 800 km, gasoline price: 1,30 €
belarus: distance 650 km, gasoline price: 0,60 €
russia: distance 500 km, gasoline price: 0,65 €
I fill up in germany 8 liters (1 l reserve), after the polish border once full and shortly before warsaw again 35 liters (5 l reserve for the border), after the belarusian border once full and before leaving again (so that I can drive in russia as long as possible with the somewhat cheaper fuel). On long distances such calculations make themselves quite noticeable.
another tip: the ideal speed for the car as well as for you is 120 km/h. At this speed, the car will consume the least fuel and you will not be overstimulated as much as at z.B. 160 km/h, ergo you don’t get tired so fast. Interestingly, you will also reach your destination faster, because you will have to take fewer breaks. From experience I have taken breaks every 2 hours when driving fast, but only every 5 hours when refueling at 120 km/h.
You should also calculate the possible toll costs beforehand. alternative country roads to avoid toll roads are not an option for long distances, too much time is spent creeping behind trucks and in traffic jams at traffic lights, traffic circles and railroad crossings.
Hours on the road
Sustainability:
On portals like carpooling.You can find passengers for almost any long distance trip. The car consumes about the same amount of fuel per 100 km as a short-haul jet (boeing 737 or airbus A320) per person, with one person in it. Correspondingly much CO2 is emitted. But if the car is occupied by 2 or even 3 persons, this effect is halved. Fuel consumption and CO2 emissions are cut in thirds. this way, the car doesn’t beat the train, but it becomes much more sustainable compared to the plane. If you now drive an economical car, this effect increases even more.
another advantage of passengers is that you meet new people and have interesting conversations. Ideally, this is how friendships are made for life. I have driven twice with passengers and have not regretted it both times. you can also take turns behind the wheel.
The same effect can be achieved when traveling with your own family. It’s never boring with passengers in the car.
What you absolutely have to take with you on the long haul?
- 5 liter can with gasoline/diesel (in most civilized countries the maximum distance between two gas stations is 50 km, so you can always make it to the next gas pump with 5 liters)
- liter bottle of suitable engine oil, be sure to pull oil stick every 500 km! nothing is as annoying as a piston seizing somewhere in a foreign country.
- windshield washer fluid (especially in winter) – with slush on the road, 5 liters of fluid is enough for about 1000 km, when it runs out, you have zero visibility after just a few kilometers.
- tow rope and jumper cables (self-explanatory)
- fully charged spare battery – if your alternator goes dead and you don’t notice it because the corresponding light in the dashboard doesn’t work, then you will only notice it when the car stops with a dead battery. The spare battery will at least get you to the next garage. Also, especially in winter, it can happen that the battery is discharged over night if you forget to turn off the parking lights or the interior lights.
- Spare wheel or tire pilot – on cars with autogas systems, the tank is usually located in the spare wheel well instead of the spare wheel. In normal city traffic you usually don’t have a suitable bike with you. But this is a must for a long-distance trip in the car. Alternatively, you can use a tire pilot, but it is not as reliable.
- jack and small onboard tools: at least one set of wrenches, a couple of screwdrivers and a set of cable connectors. Gaffa tape and cable ties must also be taken along. ideally you have a ratchet box with you.
- Repair manual (z.B. From the series "this is how it’s done" by dr. Etzold, which are available for many popular car models)
- Navigation system or smartphone app with offline maps – otherwise you can get hopelessly lost and if you don’t speak the language, it will be difficult to find your way. The company garmin has proven to be particularly reliable.
- Exchanging money in advance is not necessary, since gas stations in all civilized countries basically accept cards.
If I have forgotten anything here, I am happy about your suggestions.
Special features of the highways in eastern europe:
Unlike in germany, there is a speed limit between 110 and 130 km/h here. This leads to the fact that the right-hand-driving rule is interpreted differently here in practice. If you are driving the speed limit, you usually drive in the left lane, and if you are driving slower (trucks and pensioners), you drive in the right lane. Every half an hour a very hurried driver in a porsche cayenne or BMW X5 comes from behind, you let him pass quickly and turn left again. this way of driving is much more relaxed and also more economical, than the constant between-lkws-row in germany, where you have to decelerate and accelerate all the time. Generally I have made the experience that the highway traffic in countries with speed limit is more relaxed than in Germany.
I hope I have been able to help you plan your long-distance trip by car and wish you a safe journey!
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3 responses
What is a long distance? the 2000+km at a stretch you mention, i did only once, but 2x600km are almost every weekend on the program and if there are no more cheap ferry tickets over the baltic sea or the weather interrupts the ferry connections i often drive "around" over the oresunds bridge or the helsingor/helsingborg ferry (which somehow always runs), that makes the 700km + ferry then quickly 950 (vogelfluglinie) or even 1200km.
600km you sit as an experienced driver so to speak on a butt cheek, from 100km I find it slowly uncomfortable and 1200km are so my personal pain limit. I probably wouldn’t want to do Berlin-Moscow without a stopover, at least not alone.
A few comments I have but also still.
The absolute minimum consumption you have with most cars at about 70km / h. This is of course out of the question; if you don’t want the truck to stand in your way, you drive 85+x, depending on the speedo advance (the old saabtachos are absurdly accurate and hardly go ahead; with my old mercedes, on the other hand, you could safely subtract 20km/h from the indicated speedo value when driving cross-country…).
But that drags. speed 90 is ok in scandinavia, if the speed limits don’t allow anything faster anyway, but on german autobahns this will be a problem without an audio book or interesting and talkative co-drivers (and, not and/or!) quickly boring and tiring.
120km/h has proven to be the ideal compromise between getting ahead and saving fuel. If I drive faster the turbos start to booze like my russian father in law. In addition, it is quite loud in the 900 and you get tired faster. The optimal cruising speed has to be adjusted depending on the vehicle: in the 900 automatic I drive much slower than in the manual gearbox, the three-speed automatic sends revs and fuel consumption on the highway to infinity, which makes it expensive, noisy and exhausting. On the other hand, the speedometer needle in the A/C converter was mostly at 180 on the open road – the S-class was still quieter and more relaxed than the 900 turbo at 120. And the V8 has a certain basal metabolic rate anyway, to drive too slow is hardly worth it. Whether the box took 12 liters at speed 100, 13 at 120km / h or 14 at 180km / h was now rather less relevant. With the 900 turbo, the series would look like this: 7 liters at slow speed, 8.5 liters at 120, 12-20 liters with lead foot..
what I would add:
I ALWAYS have a blanket in the car. Especially in winter. After you once in the winter chaos 6 hours on the highway stuck and, because the tank was short of reserve also the engine could not run infinitely, then you learn from it. But also in the transitional period a blanket makes a sleep stop "to regain driving ability) much more pleasant.
Which brings us to the next point: in case of doubt, arriving at all is more important than the arrival time (at least, if you don’t have to cross a border at the last minute – fortunately, this is not critical within the EU). When I’m driving alone and notice that the coffee is hardly working I take a break, set the alarm to 45 minutes and doze a bit. Really fit you do not, but it gets you easily another one to two hours before the fatigue would make further driving too unsafe. If one sits at least to two in the car it has proven itself to change the drivers regularly, long before the driver becomes tired, thus approximately every two to three hours. On the polar tour 2007 we drove 2000km from ifjord to gothenburg in one go – exclusively on country roads. One drives, one rests – this way you arrive at your destination surprisingly fit.
Apropos breaks: at least for me several short breaks work better than one long one. Better every 200km five to ten minutes briefly stretch the legs than after 500km to rest for an hour. But since each person is different.
a small thing only, but very helpful is a large thermos with tea. If you preheat it overnight with hot water, it also keeps warm much longer. having a few sips of tea every 50km keeps you awake – not only because black or green tea has caffeine in it, but also because you have small "stopovers" and can keep your brain busy for a while. boredom and monotony is potentially deadly, especially on night drives. It is also much cheaper and healthier than cola or even energy drinks from the gas station.
I make the refueling dependent on weather, time of day and local conditions. Often in Sweden in remote areas are only automatic refueling open, but they do not like all German maps. Visa works most of the time, but EC-cards and automatic refueling don’t always get along – terminals in the gas station store on the other hand do. And in structurally weak areas in Germany you get after 20 o’clock also no more fuel. This happened to me once during a service trip to the eifel: shortly before the last highway exit the reserve light came on, then another 70km over darkest country roads and every gas station was closed. I arrived (with a suabrocken tank), but I could have saved myself the stress. And in the winter I never let the fuel needle drop below 1/4 – the engine keeps you warm and alive if you get stuck somewhere.
the last, very important point: the car has to be in reasonable technical condition. tools should be on board, also some wire, cable ties and a roll of duct tape. oil and washer fluid you have already mentioned; water, in winter also some glysantin should not be missing. So marten bites (which you j agrundsatzlich only noticed on the road when the big cooling circuit opens) or age-related rotten cooling systems also lose their scare.
Thanks for your very detailed comment and sorry for not answering for such a long time, the blog has been idle for certain reasons for the last year (more about this in my next article).
To your comments to my article: after my newest experiences (further 10 times MOW-BER and back as well as our round trip through southeast europe with the caravan) I would not write the article today any longer in such a way and/or. I have to correct him in some points.
My indispensable basic equipment includes meanwhile: tool bag with armor tape, wd-40, ratchet set, hammer, screwdrivers, wrenches, imbus and (very important for volvo) torx set, copper spray and brake cleaner; electrical connector set with crimping pliers, one cable end, one jacks in addition to the onboard jack, full spare wheel, snow chains, wheel bolt wrench with extension, engine oil, hydraulic oil, radiator fluid, windshield washer fluid, 5 liters of clear water, 20-liter reserve canister (to be filled in russia), sleeping bag and camping mat.
I also have to correct my recommendations regarding travel food: instead of cola and sweets, it has turned out to be much better to take still water and fruit with you. As a hearty wegzehrung roasted chicken is very well suited. Tomatoes also do very well. very carbohydrate rich food like bread is hard on stomach and makes tired. And energy drinks I have since I think 3 years no longer drunk. & I don’t like tea from the thermos so much, it tastes better when fresh. I have a small 12 V immersion heater in my car, which I can use to brew a cup of coffee when I feel like it.
I can only agree with your statement about breaks, however, I always set myself intermediate goals of approx. 200 km. Otherwise it happens with pleasure that I get bogged down with the breaks (to recognize at it if one overtakes again and again the same, slow car after the break). Long rest breaks after long distances are also counterproductive.
I would be happy if you continue to look in from time to time and vow to do better as far as the frequency of my contributions is concerned.