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Location: When you take flak it means you are on target
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I live in AZ where we have extreme summer heat, 115-120 in July is the norm. We do quite a bit of rough dirt road driving. Mostly I drive a F150 4x4 crew cab. I carry the usual stuff others have mentioned.
I had my stupid Garmin send me down a dirt track just the other day near Flagstaff. We were on a paved road heading for the freeway about 20 miles away, and the gps was like, "Turn right, Here!" It was a dirt road, we were like WTF? But we're always up for an adventure so we took it. After a couple of miles we got the brilliant idea to check google maps if the road actually connected to an on ramp. Which of course it did not so we turned around. Thank goodness for wireless internet! But I can see how tourists get stuck and lost in those areas. Some gal was stuck for a week in the snow two years ago by the Grand Canyon.
I don't usually keep food in the car due to the high summer heat. On trips we take a cooler of the appropriate size with food as needed. If I lived in a more temperate place I'd keep some energy bars, or an mre or two.
One thing is water, we almost never leave the house, even to drive to the market two miles away without a 6 pack cooler with several bottles of water and a cold pack. Even in winter, but especially in summer. A breakdown, even in town leaving you without ac in 120 deg temps can kill or at least get miserable.
I carry 2 gal of radiator water. It is probably drinkable with a life straw, but it sits in my bed box simmering at 160 deg all summer. I change the water about every five years... if I remember. If we are going way off road then we have a 5 gal water can, and may throw a case of water in the back.
Our big issue is getting stuck in the fine desert flour sand in some areas or rare mud after a rain. I carry a set of sand trax, and both a hi-lift jack and a small floor jack in my bed box, with a couple small hunks of plywood and short 2x4s, and a lug wrench, one of the 4 point ones. The stock sissor jack is probably good for something, but lifting a truck stuck in sand isn't one. I also carry 2 30' recovery straps and some rope. I don't have a winch because I have a lease and get a new truck every year.
Recovery straps are different from tow straps. Tow straps don't stretch, which recovery straps are designed to do. Know which you have.
Other stuff:
I carry both an Estwing hatchet and a Scharade bolo Gurka type machete sort of knife thing. Got it for $4 in a garage sale with a cool but useless shoulder sheath in zombie green. It has been useful a few times for cutting branches on trails to avoid getting "Arizona pin striping" on my truck.
I also carry a tire plug kit and TWO 12v air pumps, because "two is one," right? Also if you air down, refilling takes half the time. I also as someone said, carry a jump starter. Mainly because it's easier to jump others than hook up cables. I have cables too.
And a fire extinguisher, and a trauma kit. I have two, a basic kit in an old tackle box that cooks in the car year round but can handle minor car accidents and skinned knees, and a larger one designed for gun range accidents that has quick clots, spounges, TQ, chest seals, lots of gauze, tape, splints, brain surgery instructions, super glue, etc.. I grab it as needed.
Other stuff:
Compass
3 ways to make fire (matches, bic, flint striker)
Flashlight
Headlamp - found some at Walmart. They cost $1, been using them about 6 months with no complaints.
Swiss army knife - with TWEEZERS
Whistle
Mirror
Life straw (we now use Sawyers in our hiking bags but I had the LS so the truck got it)
Water purification pills, one bottle.
Space blanket
TOILET PAPER!!!
duck tape, like everyone.
Folding army shovel
As someone said, a knockoff leatherman (I have a real one in my hiking pack.)
Work and driving gloves
Maps
We also usually keep a little car blankie and small camp pillow in the truck in those zippered plastic bags that sheets come in, because I always forget stuff like that and it's nice to have if you get tired.
BOLT CUTTERS - for cutting fences, locks, and potentially, bolts.
Air pressure guage
A nifty pen with a hard point for breaking car windows, lives in the console.
Oh, and our two hiking sticks in the gun rack. Because putting guns in a gun rack these days is asking for a broken window, and no gun.
The whole pile fits under the back seat, console or in the bed box.
I don't normally carry other tools as my truck is new and if it breaks I just call the lease company, and I probably can't fix it by the road anyway these days. If we know we are going off highway I carry some tools to make me feel good...
VEDC is a subreddit dedicated to Vehicle EDC (Every Day Carry) kits. You can peruse the threads without joining, if it matters. You will of course encounter the super-preppers who have enough stuff in their 4WD Unimog to build a shopping mall, but among them you can also find some clever ideas on storage, bins, sorting and packing it all.
I offer it as a way to research what a lot of other people have done.
On the small window breaker tools... You might want to go to a junkyard and try to break a window with one. Safety glass is MUCH harder to break than people expect, and the added window tint plastic that many use make it even harder. I avoided power windows for as long as possible over my concerns about entrapment. I have a small hammer with a pointed end AND a center punch in the van for the task, but even with those I'm dubious that a window could be sufficiently broken out.
Obviously if you're crossing the desert or in the snow belt in winter there are additional things you need, but the typical metro area driver pretty much just needs a phone and a way to charge it.
Obviously if you're crossing the desert or in the snow belt in winter there are additional things you need, but the typical metro area driver pretty much just needs a phone and a way to charge it.
seatbelt cutter/window breaker tool that attaches to my keychain for easy access.
Those things SUCK...........I gave one to a kid that locked his keys in his car. He couldn't break the window to get into his own car in a parking lot........nevermind in a car that is sinking in a dark pond or some other perilous situation.
Good marketing for something that will likely let you down when you really need it.
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