DL Sly, you live in a challenging climate. What do you carry around in your truck?
- Bottled water (at least four quarts)
- Snack foods, particularly nutritious energy bars
- Raisins, dried fruit, nuts, candy bars
- Strike-anywhere, waterproof matches and small candles
- A flashlight with extra batteries
- First-aid kit
- Folding knife and multi-tool
- Emergency flares
- An extra winter coat, mittens and a wool cap
- Winter boots
- Toilet paper
- Cellphone and charger
- A space blanket
- A spare blanket or sleeping bag
- A portable radio with spare batteries
- Tow rope
- Nylon cord
- Flagging tape
- Chemical hand and body warmer packets
- Jumper cables
- A small shovel
- Tire chains
- Rock salt, sand or kitty litter to provide added traction when stuck on a slick surface.
How to survive a night in your car
This kind of article is increasingly relevant in these days of global warm/cooling. All of the advice sounds reasonable, but would there be any room left in the car for the driver, let alone passengers?
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11 comments:
And with my environmentally friendly hybrid having given over much of its trunk space to batteries....
Hmm....
Eric Hines
Maybe you should own one of those evil 4x4 SUVs. Then you'll have room for all that stuff, plus you're more likely to get home in the first place.
We got the hybrid because I wanted to try out the technology. In the realization, I like the car, and I do get significantly better mileage. But what I like about the car aside from the mileage is the cockpit, which has nothing to do with the hybridness. In the end, I'll not again pay a premium of $6k and loss of trunk space for a battery pack.
We're looking at becoming a one-car family, and if we do, the hybrid will be the one to go. Our other car is a pseudo-SUV--an Escape.
I'm also trying to talk someone into letting me get an Evora or a Veyron. I want to expand my carbon footprint and do my part to combat global cooling.
Eric Hines
Ridiculous over kill.
Actually, I was going over your list and have everything you have listed sitting in the back of Morty right now. Some things are doubled or tripled like blankets, flares, hand warmers, and the shovel - because two people can dig twice as fast as one. Plus my shovels are made and marketted specifically for our northern area - light-weight plastic and aluminum, extendable handles for storage, steel encased front edge to cut through ice and gravel. Although, there is no use for the emergency radio here because when you get into the mountains on the outer highways there isn't any kind of signal getting in or out if you can't use a cell phone, you can't use a radio. As I've got them packed, stacked and racked right now they take up about a quarter of the back storage accessible from the tailgate.
I will also note that I don't have extra water in Morty right now due to the fact that today's high was 2 with a wind chill of -21. We haven't gotten over freezing temps for any kind of 12 hr, much less 24 hr, stretch for well over three months now. I brought my console cd holder in today to switch out tunes and the petroleum-based Carmex was frozen solid. The alcohol-based hand sanitizer/moisturizer (which means it has aloe oil) was slushed like a pina colada. I would have 4 ice bricks in my Durango right now. However, a lesson learned from living in the Yuma desert was to never leave home without a cooler of drinks, so those always travel fresh with me no matter the season.
Also, the winter boots are a given to be already on my feet when I get in Morty, but I do keep an extra set of heavy gloves and a heavier coat in the back on top of the other stuff. One thing to add to your list, though, is a simple AC/DC converter that plugs into the ligher socket, Fix-A-Flat canisters and a six-pack of octane booster - which will, believe it or not get your car started and get you a short distance to the nearest gas station if you run out. Careful, though, too much or too long will burn out your plugs real quick.
Okay, that was three things...
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Also, since I do live in more challenging country, I have a general assortment of weapons on board: small caliber hand gun, couple of jungle Bowie's, utility axe and two Leatherman multi-tools.
That pretty much covers what's in there right now - 'cept the gun, it's back in the house tonight because it freakin' cold out there!
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Something tells me the local helpless and feckless population is small and temporary. I'll bet that makes for interesting voting patterns.
It's been in the 70s here lately, but tonight it's going to drop all the way to 34, so I know you'll keep us in your thoughts as we struggle to survive. I may have to pull out a pair of socks again.
DL is used to this in her neck of the woods, but it was startling to see forecasts of a high of 6 in places like Kansas City.
PS, DL, do you find you can keep drinks liquid in ordinary commercial coolers? How long does it take before they freeze in there?
shovels...extendable handles for storage
You extend your handles to store your shovels? I use shovels with collapsible handles....
...no use for the emergency radio here because when you get into the mountains on the outer highways there isn't any kind of signal getting in or out if you can't use a cell phone, you can't use a radio.
Not strictly true; this is frequency dependent. HF still will have trouble, but that has a serious chance of getting out. Of course, you might find your first contact is a few states away, but that's better than no contact.
You also can make a solar still for potable water with a piece of clear plastic, a rock, a cup, and a hole in the ground. Of course that needs above-freezing temperatures, but it's winter in Montana only 10 months of the year.
Eric Hines
Eric,
"You extend your handles to store your shovels? I use shovels with collapsible handles...."
Yanno, everyone likes a little ass, nobody likes a smart ass.
0>;~}
As for being able to get some sort of signal, I had Sirius/XM radio on my 300. I got rid of it - the subscription service, not the car, see above comment - because even that doesn't get through on some of these roads. Eh, it is what it is.
Tex, yes, drinks will stay liquid in a standard cooler for the day due to the extra thermal layer from the cooler itself. In fact, I've had my ice pack thaw completely during extremely long days on the road. I wouldn't try leaving it overnight, though. Not right now. Tonight's low: 12 is at least going to be warmer than our high of 7 today.
We're having a heat wave!
Although, we've already had a foot of snow since midnight last night when MH and I shovelled the five inches that had fallen since we'd shovelled earlier, so he could go pick up the VES from her babysitting gig. If this were rain, it'd be pouring rain. We're forecast for at least another four to six inches overnight as it warms up, and then another system rolls in sometime later this week. We've already gotten over five feet of snow this season, and the avalanche warning in the mountains has been at extreme or high for at least a month now. One ski range had four avalanches alone over this weekend.
FWIW, Tex, I did wear a coat this morning when we went shopping.
o>;~}
...small caliber hand gun, couple of jungle Bowie's...
What constitutes "small"? The challenges I can imagine wanting a gun for in your country are .45 Long Colt sized.
I just carry a big knife in the truck these days. On my hip, if I'm on the bike.
That's a nice list of stuff to carry for emergency use, but to survive ONE NIGHT in your car? How about enough gas to run the heater. I think that would cover mere survival.
For daily travel, Grim, it's a .38 special with hollow points. It'll take down anything but a bear or moose - and if you run into an angry one of those, there really isn't a handgun that'll take care of that for you. You need a rifle like the new SI .308 MH is making at work to drop one of those while it's charging you. When MH along, he carries his .357 magnum.
Douglas, if you have kids, then, yeah, you need the majority of that stuff for one night in the car. Although, I will say that when I set up my truck for winter, I set it up with the idea of having to survive more than just a night, but also having to either dig myself out of trouble or hike out the next day.
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