1" EMT conduit makes a great breaker bar. It fits over the handle of most ratchets and smaller breaker bars.

I'll have to get a length of it. I'm working on reducing tool kit size from full size ext. cab pickup to mid-size car & that's the one item I hadn't found a good option for.

I'm having the opposite experience, Dave. I'm changing primary vehicles from a mini-van to a '91 Civic 4 door. I can't believe how much stuff I kept in that van! The trunk in the civic feels a little bigger than the rear compartment of the van but man, there's a whole lot less interior space to hide stuff!

As always, thanks for excellent food for thought everyone!

I keep a Cold Steel Special Forces shovel in each car...was no match during a blizzard when a plow driver kindly put 3 feet of snow around my car...but it's done well every other time...designed after a Soviet Spetnaz shovel...around $15 these days...check them out!

But this is a good reminder to beat on the gear that you are planning to use to save your skin...all this kit building does no good if your components are going to fail you when you need them most...use and abuse...the stuff that holds up? Make a permanent place in your kit for it!

I'd add some food in the form of granola bars, a spare cell charger, sunglasses, ponchos.

Thanks for the info. This is a great kit!

Spare Thermostat and a Radiator cap might prove handy to go with xtra hoses, belts and coolant.
Consider checking to see if your vehicle has any special needs for fill & venting the cooling system. My pickup does .. but no car I ever had before did ...might be handy to know.
I don't think thermostats fail as often as radiator caps might.
And I've had about every water cooled car have a radiator failure. Most vehicles now have plastic manifolds on their radiators ...the one on my truck leaked before 50K miles. My other failure experiences were with metal radiators and occurred around the 100K miles mark. I'm thinking now maybe some kind of hi temp epoxy repair system might be helpful for just such a failure.
Might want to add a set of Torx bits ... I discovered I needed mine when I changed out my throttle position sensor last week and saw more of those type screws than I'd thought there would be.
All my cars carry a small air compressor and Flat Fix. Some compressors are wimpier than others ...mine cost $50 at Costco and is the strongest I found so far. There are more expensive ones out there .. but $50/car was spendy enough for my wallet.
I love my Cold Steel Shovel ...but a folding one might take up less space and should work adequately enough.
Hadn't thought of adding an oil drain plug and washer ...that could be tough to do without if it got lost.
I don't EDC or stash in my kits any less than a week's worth of personal Meds....and a month is my preferred minimum for my kits.
Love the compartmentalized examples that were posted ....some day my stuff will be that organized too ...

"...I don't think thermostats fail as often as radiator caps might..."

Maybe I just have bad luck, but I have had a jillion thermostats freeze up on me, and never had a radiator cap fail...

Toilet paper.

+1 on the spare fuses, extra tarp/blanket for staying dry/insulating against hot tarmac, the silicon tape from Duluth Trading Co..
I also recommend a tire plug kit, have plugged mine at least a dozen times over the years and never had one fail in plug afterwards. A good air pump that runs off the lighter is a good suggestion too, I tend to perfer this set up over fix-a-flat any day of the week.

-Bill Liptak