Cross Country Trip - Suggestions???

Thank you all in advance for your input here.

I have a 2008 Prius with 105K miles. I have no issues with the car and it has been trouble free thus far during its life. I am getting ready for my 3 Cross Country trip in this wonderful vehicle, however this is the first time I am going to the Arizona & Nevada desert in the summer months and I would like to increase my vehicle survival odds. I have good tires and a recently replaced serpentine belt, I have always changed my oil every 5000K miles with Mobile 1 Synthetic 5W30 along with the filter. I have a brand new Optima yellow top starting battery along with a brand new hybrid battery and I have just replaced the brake pads (pads only) for preventative measures. My alignment is checked every 5000K miles when I get my tires rotated. I have replaced my engine air filter 6 months ago and the A/C cabin filter about 2 months ago.

So my questions are, what should I replace as a preventative measure at this mileage to ensure a trouble free trip? I have a few concerns and would like to hear all of your input and suggestions. This is a partial list of things that I thought of, but not sure if I should actually do them;

Thermostat on the cooling system
Water Pump (There are 2, which ones if any?)
Transaxle Fluid
Spark Plugs
All Hoses in the cooling system?

I want to hear from the Prius chat community as I value your input, and who knows the Prius better than the Owners right? I plan on bringing my car to my local dealer to have it fully inspected (Free) just to see what they say as well.

Thank you all for your input and look forward to hearing your valuable input for my 6000K + Mile trip in the Desert heat of August!

 

Thank you all for your input. Just to let you know, I did bring my car to a my local dealer yesterday for a (free inspection). They came up with this: Spark Plugs, Differential oil, Engine Coolant, Electric Coolant, Air Filter (even though It is brand new because it's not a Toyota Filter), new belt even though they just changed it 4 months ago. When I told them that, then they came back and said Oh, the belt is fine. A new 12V battery, even though I just put a brand new Optima Yellow Top in there last month and it reads 12.85V at rest and 13.9 during charging and 13.5 after several hours of shutting the car off. For just the fluid changes and the spark plugs, they quoted me 8 hrs work and $1800 plus shop fees, disposal and tax. I picked up my car and went home.

Round 2: I drove to another Toyota Dealer which I have used in the past and have always been able to negotiate prices there. They looked over the entire car and said, your car is in Excellent condition and should be fine. The only thing we suggest is coolant and plugs. I had them change both coolants, transaxle/differential fluid and change out the spark plugs along with the AC cleaning. BTW the Transaxle/Differential fluid came out Black and is Pink Going in). Quoted price was $869 plus shop fees and tax. I told them that was way too much and they have always taken 25% off my bill right from the start, so they resharpened their pencil and came back with $589 out the door. I told them to run it through the pencil sharpener one more time, we're close. The bottom line was $518 out the door. Ok, so I know if I would have done all that myself It would have cost me less than $100, but the bottom line is, I don't have the machine to flush out all the fluids and vacuum out the fluids, then replace it like they can, so for that, I figured I do it every 100K miles so I paid them to do it. Now I have 5 weeks before I leave for my trip, so I can make sure all is good and then a week before I leave, they will look over the car one last time to make sure nothing has changed. They were very honest, both the Prius Master Mechanic and the Service Advisor. Even though I was willing to replace all the coolant hoses, water pump and thermostat to prevent a potential failure of a 6 year old part with 105K miles on it, he did not recommend any replacement of parts other than the fluids and the plugs. He said, and I quote, "You have one of Toyota's best cars ever made, and we rarely see them with less than 320-500K miles before anything major really goes. He said 6-8 years on a hybrid battery is about the norm, although if you never leave your car sit for long periods of time, 10-12 years plus, and he has never replaced a hose in the coolant system unless the car had been in an accident prior. He also said there is really not much maintenance on these cars and we rarely do repairs on them. So the bottom line, I think I'm good to go.

I still would appreciate any other suggestions one could offer as I still have 5 weeks before I head out on my journey. This is a camping adventure all the way to the Mojave desert and back. Looking for a cheap Satellite Phone for this trip for emergencies since I will be outside of any cellular coverage for at least 12 days or more. Suggestions on that would be welcomed.

 

I have 2-way radios that do it all, however they are only for local person to person comms as I am meeting up with a group at different locations along my travels. Camping and hiking for 12 days in total, 1 night in TX, 3 nights in Albuquerque, NM, 3 nights in Grand Canyon, 2 nights in Mojave, 1 night TBD, 1 night just outside of Petrified Nat'l forest, 1 night just outside of Meteor Crater, 2 nights in Taos, NM, 2 nights along the Rio Grande River, 2 nights on the continental divide, and 7 more nights TBD, then home. 12 of those nights will be in zero cell phone covered areas. Some of the other people have Sat phones, but not all of us, and there are plenty of nights where none of us will have one, so I would like to be prepared for those nights, just in case. You never know. I've done this trip before, but never in the summer. Did this same trip 3 years ago from end of Nov through end of December. -20 degrees at night, 50's day and 80+MPH winds in the mountains with freezing rain, sleet & snow. I would rather do the winter, but taking my Son (14) on this trip and can't take him out of school for a month, so it has to be in the summer. I hear it's hot out there, 120+ at times, and 40's/50's at night at the higher elevations. Looking forward to sunsets.