Targeted Essential Items You Need For Your Vehicle Survival Kit

Seven Things To Keep In Your Vehicle Survival Kit

In this post, we will talk about seven things that you should keep in your car or truck at all times. Whether it’s in the summertime or wintertime, there are specific tools or gear that you should keep in your vehicle at all times. You want to be prepared for many situations that you may encounter to deal with the things that may pop up when you least expect them. Since I have been driving, I try to keep some emergency supplies and tools in all my vehicles.

I’m sure that you have encountered many situations of your own that could have left you stranded on the side of the road. If you sit down and go through the many catastrophes you’ve had on the road, I’m sure you can develop a list of tools or items that you would have wanted to have with you during those times. Robert Baden-Powell, the originator of the Boy Scout motto wrote that to Be Prepared means “you are always in a state of readiness in mind and body to do your duty.”

Keep them Wheels Rollin

The first thing that we’re going to talk about is having a spare key for your car. Women and men should carry a second key in their wallets or purse or something like that. So if they do happen to lock the keys in the car, at least they have an option to be able to use a key to get in. I know that a lot of the new vehicles have the keys hidden in the key fob. They are a different key shape, and I am unsure if you can get those cut at a hardware store. I have to admit that I do not have a spare key separate from my key fob. That will be something I need to remedy. We may have to rethink this soon because of all the electronics on a vehicle. We might need to carry a small chip type of device in our wallets to open the door if we lock the keys inside the car. I am old enough to remember when you had a key to open the door and one to start the vehicle.

Be A Hero, Save Lives

The second thing that I think you should have in your vehicle survival kit is a first aid kit. Ensure that your first aid kit is adequately supplied with the things you might encounter during an emergency. You should have the equipment to do basic first aid like cuts, burns, scrapes, and trauma. If you want to add additional items, most kits would have some extra room to accommodate those items. There are quite a few companies that make suitable first aid kits out there. Sometimes you can get a perfect first aid kit and an additional smaller first aid kit to use elsewhere.

Need A Jump, Mister

Thirdly you would want to have an emergency roadside kit. These emergency car kits can have a safety vest, folding reflective triangles, jumper cables, tire repair kit, tow strap, flashlight, and multipurpose tool. Contained within the multipurpose tool will be knives, a pair of pliers, philips, and a straight screwdriver. These kits could have a mylar blanket or a fleece blanket, gloves, electrical tape. Most would even have a small first aid kit for some fundamental things. But you know they’re always a good thing to have in your car. Sometimes it’ll have the multifunction tool that can break your windshield and cut your seatbelts and a small tire compressor also. It is imperative to have a fire extinguisher in your vehicle.

This Spare Is Not Around Your Waist

The next item is number 4, your spare tire. This is obviously something you can’t put in your vehicle survival kit but an important item for your overall safety. I recently did have a blowout on the passenger’s rear tire. Like a lot of cars today, they have a small spare tire. You should know that most of those tires are limited to about 50 miles an hour? Talking to the tire people, you really shouldn’t drive them over 100 miles. It would be best if you familiarized yourself with the procedure to change a tire. Find where you can place your jack and where they hid the lug wrench. We had scissors jack, and they’re not necessarily the best jack to have. If you have room in your vehicle, you may want to go with one of the hydraulic bottle jacks. They are a little sturdier and safer. I jacked it up, got the lug nuts off, and could not remove the tire for the life of me. I tried yanking on the tire, tried kicking it a little bit, nothing worked. I was frustrated because it was hot out, and I could not remove the tire. So I called the repair service to come out. He had a floor jack when he came out. He mentioned that if you quickly lower the jack, it might help the tire to come off. Well, it didn’t, so then he jacked it back up. He used a good-sized rubber mallet and beat the tire off. He finally got it off, and then we put the spare tire on, and then we’re off. But you may want to carry a bottle jack and rubber mallet with you.

Additionally, maybe once every couple of months or every six months, check the tire pressure in your spare tires.

Finding The Tool Is Often Half The Battle.

Our number 5 item will be a small tool kit for your vehicle. The toolset should contain screwdrivers, pliers, channel locks, a hammer, screwdriver bits, and a small ratchet wrench. It would help if you also had drive sockets in metric or standard or both. Nowadays, it probably would be a good idea to have a Torx bit socket set in there. So just some sort of a toolset that you could do minor repairs out on the highway if needed. It is just another one of those Peace of Mind things. You’d be surprised what kind of repairs you can do in the field that will temporarily get you back somewhere. You know whatever you need to do to get back on the road and get moving. You may not be in the best shape, but at least you’re driving, making progress.

No Water, No Life.

Next on the list is number 6. Even though this is in 6th place, it should probably be in first place on the list. And that is food and water. I can’t stress enough to have an adequate supply of water in your vehicle if something happens. Water is much more important than food. I would say, as a minimum, carry one gallon of water or probably 2 gallons of water in your vehicle. And I know that gets to be a challenge in the wintertime. Do not fill the containers to the top in the winter. Leave room in the containers to expand. But even if you have two 1 gallon containers of water in your car and it freezes, you can thaw it out. There are many different types of freeze-dried foods to enjoy. Freeze-dried food can be used in emergencies when you do not have access to fresh food.  Many people have freeze-dried food in their emergency supplies, bug-out bags, or cars as well. We get into situations where we need food and cannot get it. There are many instances where this happens, but others happen more often than you would think. For example, you are driving on a highway, and there is a massive accident. You will be stuck on the road for hours, but you cannot get off the road because of all the other cars. So, what do you do? Well, I recommend having at least three or four meals/bars in your vehicle at all times just for those types of situations.

I Wisely Started With A Map.

Believe it or not, number 7 is going to be to carry a map. I know we all have GPS in our car or phone. Why do we need maps? Not everywhere you go are you going to get a signal for your phone. We encounter that often in Colorado. Carrying a map in your vehicle of where you will be traveling is smart. Is the GPS always accurate? No. I have a large collection of National Geographic Trails Illustrated Maps. I love these maps, they are also waterproof and tear-resistant. They have highways, roads, trails, and are a Topographic Map. On the plus side, you can use the map paper to burn if you get into a survival situation.

Now It Is Your Turn

When you complete this article, think about some of the other things you may want to put in your vehicle survival kit. Maybe some duct tape, electrical tape, shovel, old windshield wipers you replaced, old hoses or fan belts. Some hose clamps might be suitable. How about extra fuses for your vehicle and some spare batteries for the flashlight or phone along with a solar charger. You keep thinking about it, and I bet you will have a good selection for your vehicle. By the way, we have one of those totes you store clothes in for our kit. You may not want something that big but make sure your kit is easy to get to and contains the things you want to have. All of the above things are stored in that tote.