I make a car kit every winter.

Heres some of the stuff I include:

sardines in cans
chocolate bars
nut bars of some sort
granola bars

the chololate bars are wful by the end of the season, but hey thats 6 months around here

For car storage, I would want something like a 0 degree sleeping bag and lots of water. I might not want to cook anything, but it would be nice to have a way to heat things up, so some chem heat reactors would be nice. Cans of spanish peanuts have lots of food energy in them, and seem to store well hot or cold. Spam also seems to do well in vehicles. Packages of Ramen noodles seem to last forever and also seem to do well regardless of temp. You've got all that space, you should be able to capitalize on it better than just a couple bags of jerky and some candy. I could imagine packing supplies enough to last a couple weeks in some of the worst conditions, with the ability to signal rescuers really well, and still not be overly encumbered.

I have a Ranger pick-up with a FG tonneau cover over the bed. It's really a two seat car with a big trunk. I store a lot of my camping gear in the back including 15 deg mummy bag, wool blankets and tent. I also keep a couple MRE's water and cold weather clothing. My get home walking kit (similar to what many would call a BOB) has additional gear.

I live in SOCAL and my body has acclimated to the nice weather here. When it gets cold I feel it and if I happen to be traveling through the mountains of CA, OR or WA, it can get very cold (and wet). At any time, my truck and I can handle anything from the mild/warm weather of the SOCAL coast to the Washington Cascade Mountains in January. Overkill? Probably, but I need to store that stuff someplace. Don't do Death Valley. . .

I'm running on 4 hours of sleep so this will be a quick post. Somewhere in our archives I posted about alcohol stoves for cars. They are a small coffeecan just big enough to slip in a roll of TP sans cardboard, alcohol and the retained lid for storage. The TP acts as wick to slowly burn the alcohol. If the TP singes brown you need more fluid. Thses things are dirt cheap and significantly raise the temp in a small space.

I hadn't considered an alcohol stove for use in the truck. I do have an MSR Pocket Rocket and an 8 oz fuel cannisters in the walking kit. I'm not sure I'd want to light that up inside the cab. Is alcohol safe to burn in a confined space?

thanks chris, I think I have bookmarked that but will check for it later on. I'm also wondering if you should/need to crack open a window a little or if safe in that small of area. I would assume since the fire would eat up the oxygen but what about the alcohol or ethanol fumes?

Any combustion will give off carbon monoxide if oxygen is not readily available to the chemical reaction.

• Lots of oxygen available: carbon dioxide emissions.
• Little oxygen available: carbon monoxide emissions.
• No oxygen available: carbon no-oxide (soot) emissions.

Crack a window.

I failed to mention keeping fresh air in a vehicle. During El Nino in the San Ferndando Valley the Sepulveda basin flooded. It does this, as planned when that area was still largely agriculture. And everytime it floods people with no sense of history and just no sense drive through before it's closed and get stranded. This guy had a lovingly restored 1957 Chevy Nomad. And he lovingly drove it into the floodzone and got stuck. And he refused to leave his pride and joy. So he sat there with the windows up and engine running for warmth. And the exaust backed up from the water and he died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Heres another cheap,renewable emergency item. Pick up a couple newspapers and toss them inside. You now have ; additional insulating material ( crumple up and stuff inside clothing) fuel, fairly sanitary emergency bandaging material ( the inside pages)notepaper and reading material.

"...Pick up a couple newspapers and toss them inside..."

In addition, with a little windex you can have super clean windows!!!

Speaking of carbon monoxide, I visited the Sedna IV (german boat used by Jean Lemire and his team for making documentaries about global warming in Arctic and Antartica) and there's a special carbone monoxide button to press in case of fire emergency inside the lower rooms. It's heavier than air and will smother the fire (people must of course evacuate the rooms before). It was interesting to see that everything on board had at least 3 back up alternatives in case of failure. They have to live on their own for months so it was an interesting lesson from a survival perspective.