# Cold weather gear for our vehicles



## Sentry18 (Aug 5, 2012)

We keep a Rubbermaid Action Packer container in each of our cars throughout the winter months (we have a different kit for warmer months). These are excellent large rugged containers for storing our cold weather preps and emergency gear. This past weekend we decided to put them in the cars, which meant tearing them apart and making some upgrades. Every year I seem to add stuff and at this rate pretty soon I will just need to use a trailer.  But just the same check over my list and let me know if you see something I am missing or should consider. 

Also note that if we are going on a trip we will bring along additional food and water as well as being dressed in appropriate winter clothing. I will also bring a cased rifle with magazines and ammo. Otherwise I have an "active shooter" kit that pretty much goes everywhere I go that would cover any self-defense needs. 


Each container has the following items: 

Surplus wool blankets 
SOL thermo bivvy's
Small plastic tarp 
Wool socks gloves & hats
Hot Hands (pocket heaters) 
Canteen & canteen cup
Mess kit
Homemade MREs
MRE heaters
MayDay Ration bars
Hand-crank/solar radio
Battery pack charger (iPhone)
12v solar charger (universal)
Enhanced first aid kit
Small container of OTC meds
Nitrile gloves 
Disinfecting wet wipes
Duct tape
LED flashlight 
Spare batteries 
Cyalume light sticks
Lifegear LED glowsticks
Fire starting kit 
Fixed blade knife
Multi-tool
Basic tool kit 
Folding shovel
Hatchet 
Tow strap 
Tire chains
Jumper Cables 
Spare fuses
Tire repair kit (temporary)
Hose repair kit (temporary)
Belt repair kit (temporary)


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## ZoomZoom (Dec 18, 2009)

Looks good to me!

I'd consider adding at least one clevis or hook for that tow strap.

I'd also consider adding a spare set of wiper blades. I've had them snap off in the winter.


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## notyermomma (Feb 11, 2014)

Thanks Sentry!

I've been working on a BOB for my car, which I first tailored to a fire evacuation given recent circumstances. This gives me a lot of ideas for updating it.


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## Tweto (Nov 26, 2011)

I have been stranded in a blizzard over night in sub zero temps miles from any farm or humans.

The most valuable item I had was a good sleeping bag (forget the blankets)

Items added to Sentry's list

Cigarette lighter outlet power cord for the cell phone.
A few 24 hour candles
Air horn
Winter coat and winter pants, serious gloves, winter hat.
Snow shovel
Strobe light (put on the top of the car so the plows won't run into you at night or when the car is hidden in a snow bank)
12V air compressor (much smarter to fill a tire then to risk freezing while changing it)

All of these items should be at arms length from the drivers seat. If the reason you get stranded is a car accident and you can't get to the trunk because of a broken leg or worse, you may die from exposure just feet from your emergency gear. Every winter we have people dyeing from exposure on a back road when they get stranded.


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## camo2460 (Feb 10, 2013)

Sentry, If you haven't already, you might want to check your light sticks and hand warmers, they tend to malfunction when they start to get old. Otherwise the list looks good to me.


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## Sentry18 (Aug 5, 2012)

Good reminder. I usually replace "perishable" items annually. I have slowly been replacing the cyalume light sticks with battery operated glow sticks.

We always keep a small scoop shovel and 12v ac/dc power supply & converter in the cars. We also have an air compressor but only in our primary vehicle.


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## backlash (Nov 11, 2008)

camo2460 said:


> Sentry, If you haven't already, you might want to check your light sticks and hand warmers, they tend to malfunction when they start to get old. Otherwise the list looks good to me.


Good reminder.
In the Navy we had strobe lights on our flight deck vests.
One night we had a power outage and while sitting around the shop I activated my light.
It didn't flash.
You could hear them charge just no flash.
Everyone tried theirs and none of them flashed.
Glad I wasn't bobbing around in the ocean at night when I found out it was bad.
Shined a light on one and it flashed and immediately all the others went off.
The Safety Officer was not happy and we all had new strobes ASAP.


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## OldCootHillbilly (Jul 9, 2010)

Build one them portable heaters what uses toilet paper an heet gasline antifreeze.

Add in a few road flares. 

Otherwise it sounds perty good.


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## Dixie (Sep 20, 2010)

*I see a canteen and cup but how about bottled water (to be exchanged frequently) and toilet paper (other than for a heater)*


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## Caribou (Aug 18, 2012)

I keep two space bags and two space blankets in the car as well as a trifold shovel. The shovel got added after winding up in a snow bank and having to dig myself out without one.


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## Sentry18 (Aug 5, 2012)

When our family truckster (SUV) leaves the house, it very rarely does so without a diaper bag full of diapers, wipes, A&D ointment, a bag if Cheerios, etc., etc. We also never seem to go anywhere without a half dozen sippy cups (ranging from real sippy cups to sports bottles). The Mrs. is a real stickler about water consumption and forbids the consuming of soda or energy drinks unless they are 16+ years of age of older (of which there is only one). With -30 degree winter days being somewhat common, bottled water is really just bottle shaped blocks of ice. It's easier to use a canteen cup, a pocket heater and some snow. But if I lived in a warmer climate I would definitely have water handy. 

I used to have a coffee can, roll of toilet paper in the bottle of rubbing alcohol in every car. But I decided I was less than thrilled with the potential dangers than I was the warming benefits. We usually keep a case (40) of the Hot Hands in each car and plenty of wool blankets. Plus the SOL bivvys retain body heat really well. I might have to reconsider and test one out again. People still get stuck in the snow and lost in winter but it's not like the old days where it wasn't uncommon for someone to lose their life waiting for help. Our primary vehicle can quickly produce GPS coordinates as can most of our phones. With tracked vehicles and snowmobiles rescue tends to be a lot faster then it was even 10 years ago. I just want to be comfy, happy and warm and rescue arrives.


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## ZoomZoom (Dec 18, 2009)

Sentry18 said:


> When our family truckster (SUV) leaves the house, it very rarely does so without a diaper bag full of diapers, wipes, A&D ointment, a bag if Cheerios, etc., etc.


If you haven't already considered it, think of your hand sanitizer for heat as well. It burns very nicely and puts out a lot of heat. I normally use a tuna can to put it in (as well as something under the tuna can to separate the heated can from the surface).

It is an open flame so I'd use it as a very last resort in a vehicle. In a tuna can, flames can easily reach 8" high. I'd play with its use outdoors a few times before even considering it so you understand and are comfortable with how it burns.


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## tc556guy (Apr 28, 2011)

backlash said:


> Good reminder.
> In the Navy we had strobe lights on our flight deck vests.
> One night we had a power outage and while sitting around the shop I activated my light.
> It didn't flash.
> ...


What strobe requires light to activate it?


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## Coastal (Jun 27, 2013)

I have a diesel heater in my 4runner, the type from boats or semi truck sleeper cabs... it heats up a vehicle quick! The exhaust is all outside so no fear of carbon monoxide.

This one:

http://www.espar.com/products/fuel-operated-heaters/product-selection/air-heaters/airtronic-2.html


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## zfk55 (Oct 5, 2014)

Caribou said:


> I keep two space bags and two space blankets in the car as well as a trifold shovel. The shovel got added after winding up in a snow bank and having to dig myself out without one.


^^^
This is important. Our Family has first hand working experience with the value of Space Blankets. I've kept them in every vehicle emergency bag for the past 27 years. 4 wool blankets cannot match one Space Blanket.

I think it was 1984 when the temperature in Lost Prairie went right down to 52 below zero, or at least our best guess in dead standing air. Having called all the ranches around the valley they all oddly showed the same temperature. It turned out that all of us at one time or another had bought our outside barnyard thermometers from the same place........ The Equity Supply Farmstore in town and they only went to 52 below, so who knows.

Having only wood heat in the old ranch house meant we were all sitting around the firebox to keep warm, but................. the horses had to be fed and the two milk cows milked come hell or high water.

Both cows were in the barn and Lyn took her stool and buckets to the barn with me behind her. She placed her stool and I draped a Space Blanket over her and Posie's hind end. Posie's body heat together wil Lyn's made it possible to milk her, and right behind Posie she milked Squirt.

The kids sat with their Space Blankets wrapped around them. Understand that the old ranch house where we first lived some 40 years ago was built in 1932, and the insulation qualities against severe cold were nothing like most of you have experienced.

Now for the horses. The Massey Furgeson had an heavy engine heater on it, but at 52 below even the coolant was thick and the 5 weight oil was like sludge. 
Third try and it did a labored start, but that was just the engine. The rear axel housing was frozen, even with the light weight gear box oil we used for winter, so......... Wrapped in their Space Blankets with their waists cinched shut with bungee cords, Lyn and the kids helped haul coals from the main firebox with shovels out to a very big baking pan under the axel housing. We threw a huge hay tarp over the tractor just leaving exhaust stack showing and away from the tarp.

They all looked like silver Nuns covered from head to toe in those Space Blankets and with wool scarves around their mouths to temper the air they were breathing in. Icicles formed around the nose and mouth area on those scarves.

After three hours of refreshing the coals from a now roaring firebox, I got the old girl moving. I was wearing Air Force Bunny Boots, Arctic fur gloves and a space blanked around the whole works leaving just my hands a boots free to work the tractor. The horses got fed that day, and the following day at 40 below, and the subsequent 5 days at 35 below. The heat wave hit after that and the temps settled in where they should in January in Lost Prairie. 18 below.

From that time on we doubled the number of those Space Blankets we had and still keep them in the emergency road kits to this day.


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## backlash (Nov 11, 2008)

tc556guy said:


> What strobe requires light to activate it?


Defective ones the Navy issued to us in 1973. :laugh:
They had some sort of gas filled tube that was really bright.
You could hear them squeal as they built a charge and then they would make a pop and flash.
They took a special battery that was supposed to last for 12 hours of continuous flashing.
I kept my regular flashlight with me at just in case.


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