Things every man should have in his car - photo

[Altair]

Things every man should have in his car.




Previously:

Wildfire evacuation checklist - photo
Stormproof survival matches - GIF
Starting fire using gum wrapper and battery - GIF
Apollo astronaut survivalist kit and training - photos
Making a bark roof shelter - GIF

[Frank S]

Jack Spare tire lug wrench small tool box assorted fuses spare tail/stop lamp qt of motor oil unless older vehicle then maybe 2 or 3 a gallon of fuel premix chainsaw fuel is not as volatile as gasoline and the 50to 1 oil mix won't hurt a real engine, the higher octane burns better as well good for an emergency 20 miles to the station.

[Jon]

Sleeping bags and a duffel bag full of warm clothes so that you can survive a night at 20 below zero. A real emergency for us would be going off a mountain road in the winter where there is limited cell coverage, and getting injured badly enough that you couldn't walk out. All of the other things are nice to have but are for lesser emergencies.

Traction pads are also a good idea for winter weather driving. Not the hard plastic kind for offroading, but the foldup rubber kind. Although so far we've only used them when Amazon Fresh drivers get stuck in our driveway.

[Frank S]

The middle picture in post #12 looks like a bug out vehicle

[metric_taper]

Get a 'real' shovel, an aluminum grain scoop. You can dig out under the vehicle if it gets high centered.
The other thing is the old style bumper jack where you could lift the car pretty high (won't work on today's cars with plastic bumpers), and then push it over onto the road. I did this in my teen years when the 62 Pontiac had such a bumper.

If you live where you get an accumulation of snow, the grain scoop allows you to throw snow a good enough distance. And if you have a drift, you can pick up a large piece of it and sled it with the grain scoop like a Canadian snow scoop (I have them also). They allow you to sled a very large piece of snow from a drift.

[Jon]

Get a 'real' shovel, an aluminum grain scoop. You can dig out under the vehicle if it gets high centered.

Best one I've found: https://www.laprimashops.com/collect...uminum-52-inch

$92 on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075CTJHJ7/

[metric_taper]

Best one I've found: https://www.laprimashops.com/collect...uminum-52-inch

$92 on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075CTJHJ7/

Local home supply $44;
https://www.menards.com/main/outdoors/gardening/garden-landscaping-tools/shovels-tampers/yardworks-30-aluminum-scoop-d-handle-grain-shovel/23187yw/p-3490591039983887-c-13243.htm?tid=1772595021199139564&ipos=1

Local farm supply $32;
https://www.theisens.com/products/al...-glass-scoops/

The snow scoop I mentioned
https://www.menards.com/main/outdoor...3143239&ipos=3

I grew up in North Dakota, Grand Forks, there was a blizzard of 1966, late spring, over 3 foot of snow. My dad grew up on a farm, and he used aluminum grain scoops (steel ones when he was a kid).
He had lots of helpers. No snow throwers.

Shovel on pile of snow; My mother took these photos, lucky she did. I scanned all them in last year after her death.



That's my dad with view down the street.

[Jon]

Those are good pics. It felt crazy to pay over $90 for a grain scoop, but at 1/8", that one had the thickest blade I could find.

[metric_taper]

Those are good pics. It felt crazy to pay over $90 for a grain scoop, but at 1/8", that one had the thickest blade I could find.

100% agree, if you use them for general winter snow removal, the front edge will erode from scrapping concrete, so thickness is important, as well the quality is probably a harder aluminum alloy. I don't trust the plastic ones to not shatter in the cold.

Also note, if you ever have to put out a grass fire (snuff the fire out with the flat bottom), they work good if your boots or shoes can walk on the surface without melting (or attack from the upwind side). The aluminum pulls the heat out and gets the temp below vaporization. I learned that from a friends aunt, that wanted her pasture burned off in the spring.

[piper184]

100% agree, if you use them for general winter snow removal, the front edge will erode from scrapping concrete, so thickness is important, as well the quality is probably a harder aluminum alloy. I don't trust the plastic ones to not shatter in the cold.

Also note, if you ever have to put out a grass fire (snuff the fire out with the flat bottom), they work good if your boots or shoes can walk on the surface without melting (or attack from the upwind side). The aluminum pulls the heat out and gets the temp below vaporization. I learned that from a friends aunt, that wanted her pasture burned off in the spring.

We had that 1966 blizzard in SD too. Looked about the same way there. Steel grain scoops were the order of the day. We shoveled coal for the furnace with ours. Aluminum ones were too expensive. In 1983 when we got our first house I splurged and bought an aluminum scoop. I knew it would wear out on the concrete driveway so I bolted a steel cutting edge to the bottom. (I didn't know about cutting edges on heavy equipment until later). Over the years I have replaced that edge twice but the scoop still looks new. It has outlasted two plastic scoops.