The other day I was thinking about the fact that my Survival pack (more of a get home Kit) sits in my truck often evaluated and re-worked, but never used.

I joke that I use it every day by applying Murphy's Law. I am prepared therefore I should not need what I have.

The question I have is, "Has anyone ever had to use there kit to its entirety?" I think that we all use our kits a little, anywhere from a Band-Aid to fix a boo-boo, to some tape to secure something or a quick use of the Para cord to tie something down to get it home from the local hardware store.

But, has anyone truly had to dig deep into your pack and had success with it.

Food is the "normal" thing I wind up using, but we witnessed a REALLY bad wreck back around last Thanksgiving that put much of it to the test.

Long story short, unless you are a sales rep. for Kerlix and 4x4's you don't have enough with you, period.

The FAK and many heatsheets were used to good effect, and my FAK was completely revised once we reached our destination.

Not entirely.
Mostly the flashlight.

Almost got stuck on a 4x4 trail 3 or so years ago with a buddy in his rig, I had my pack, and was prepared to stay the night! I would have gotten good use out of my hammock, food, cooking kit and wool items

An item here, an item there. Never all together, but every thing at least once over time.

I constantly go to grab my fleece hoodie from my BOB when it gets cold and I didn't prepare.

My wife also loves having the wool blanket handy when on road trips. I like it cool, she likes it a hundred degrees.

Not necessarily the specific items in my kit, but I have other identical gear I use all the time. Most of the gear in my kits made it there because I liked it, so bought another for back-up. Most of the kit gear is back-up.

I am seeing a trend. I wonder if it is because those of us here are "situational aware" more than the average person. Thus we tend to avoid situation that would make us need the items in our emergency kits.

The fact that we have our first aid kits and our gear ready to use makes it easy for simple things like power or water outages. But I would say that for the most part being prepared puts you in the "what if" mindset therefore we don't rush into situation that would force us into needing the gear..

The most I have used my bag for is flashlights, and occasionally to start a bonfire with friends

Yes, many times, but that was when I was still and active firefighter.

I do use bits of it from time to time. Mostly tape & First Aid.

BoB and my war/plague box? No. But my ditch kit and a lot of BoB goes with me camping, so it has been tested under "training conditions".

My EDC is my GHB. Last winter, just after the new year, my vehicle had some issues and it reached the point shortly after work that I felt I could not safely get home with it. I got it to my garage (about a mile and half from work), left them a letter and the key and walked home. Spent a week and a half hoofing home with the same kit (could catch the bus in in the morning, but I'd miss the next to last bus and it was an hour wait for the last one, so the heck with it, walk the hour and a half.)

Never had to use my entire EDC kit at once. Most used stuff? Wet Wipes, Duct tape, small zip ties, an antacid or bandaid, nail clippers, multitool.

It might also be that our kits have a few items meant for different situations, and not all of the items are needed in any single situation.
But as Ken points out in another thread, it is the nature of emergencies to be random and unpredictable.
If it was all predictable we would be able to create perfect kits to match the predictable emergencies.

Way back when: I left Newark at 9pm in the rain. Halfway home it was snowing. Soon Rt. 80 looked like the road to Bagdad with cars strewn all along either side, and more spinning out right in front of me. Got onto Rt. 15 and it was stopped. Got off the highway near my grandparents house but the road was stopped again. Decided to go the long way around the lake instead and got stuck numerous times.

Luckily I had in my car boots, insulated pants, parka, gloves, hat, gravel and a cheap folding shovel. I also had a sleeping bag and cooking gear if I needed it. I finally slid into their driveway around 2am. Without that gear, I would have been very cold and wet and probably still stuck.

Definitely. One question that needs asking is: which kit? Off hand, I keep three kits in my truck: A large duffel bag with my winter gear,
a backpack and light hiking boots as my GHB,
a 96 hour kit with food, water and other supplies to get through the immediate aftermath of a major problem. Between those three kits, my EDC backpack (separate from the GHB), pocket carry and the truck itself, I'm in fairly good shape.

If you consider the composite of those kits to be my "truck kit", I pray the day never comes that I actually need all that gear. I'll be cold, hungry, thirsty and for some reason I won't be able to just drive home.

I am about the same as the other replies, I use some of my kit occasionally but have never used the entire thing outside of training.

This makes me think of an interesting question I asked on the Forum before.

Should a kit be sealed-up-tight that way it will be complete for the BIG emergency or more accessable so you can utilize and practice with the gear?

I fall somewhere in the middle; some components are sealed within a larger more accessable complete kit. I also consider my EDC as part of my kit and use parts of it daily.

Mike

Nope, never. Like others, the occasional bit of food, a jacket, maybe the flashlight (if my EDC one dies out).

I've never yet needed to bug out, and haven't gotten overrun by zombies yet, either.

But I do use pieces out of my SHTF bag on an almost daily basis. Saturday I used a small roll of gauze, 2 bandaids, 2 aspirin, a large safety pin, and 3 carabiners. Another weekend I used 2 Immodium, 2 aspirin, 3' or duct tape, 1 7" ziptie, and the sewing kit.

One thing I'm quickly realizing is that my "ultralight" FAK is too small. I'm thinking of replacing it with one like the one I have in my room (the Johnson & Johnson "All-Purpose First Aid Kit" with 170 items in it), adding even more to it after some research, and packing it in a Pelican case.

Either that or start with an AMK Comprehensive kit.

It is a tad costly, but an outstanding place to start.

Wow, they are a little proud of that kit. I know it's a good kit, but I gotta go with what's in my price range for right now. Plus, I'm not a certified EMS so I might not have any idea what to do with half that stuff.

wowsers! that is pretty high!

I just began to edc a small FAK/urban survival kit, and have used it almost daily. not entirely but pieces at a time, much the same as everyone else. My personal favorite use so far was to re-tape an ankle wrap this morning. She sat in slack-jawed amazement that I had sport tape on hand.

Keep in mind you are seeing the manufacturer's retail price. They can be found for less in some locations. Really no need for EMS training with the Comprehensive kit, and I bet by the time you collect all the odd and ends included it would cost more. Trust me, I have always been really proud of these kits except for one minor detail.... More Kerlix and 4x4's

I frequently use one component of my BoB/GHB, a Yaesu RX-7 handheld amateur radio. I use it to monitor both National Weather service and local Skywarn network while traveling under severe weather warnings and alerts. I use the radio to avoid be out where I might need the rest of the gear.

The other thing I use frequently is the rain parka.

I commute through both urban and rural (Detroit to Lansing) by car-pool/van-pool, so my BoB/GHB is my REI laptop/messenger bag. In the cold months I carry cold weather gear in a separate backpack. Occasionally that cold weather gear gets used too.

I'd like to pose another, related, question. Is a survival kit meant to be used in it's entirety? I suggest not, and the posts here seem to support that theory. If you pack three different fire starting devices are you really planning on using all three or just the one that works in the environment your in at the time?

my kit,the overboard PFD "camping kit" is ment to be used in it's entirety. however i can see where most kits would be the sort of thing where you tell yourself-"if i only had---- i could get out of this" so you can pop open a container of some sort and save the day.for fire making i think the multi devices fall into --easy,hard,almost impossible categories.you don't want to waste a lifeboat flamer if a paper match would work.

I think redundancy is the primary reason most of us carry mulitple methods of firemaking. With the added benefit that if there were a power outtage at work say, you could just use your bic to light a candle rather than having to break out the firesteel. It'd be pretty awkward trying to make sparks on top of the copier.

The reason for multiples for me are several:

A) Incase your first option doesn't work for some reason and thus you have backup
B) Different items for different purposes. For flashlights, I carry one that is VERY bright, and one that lasts long. In fire starting a strike light may be better at starting a fire than say a lighter.
C) Multiple people. With two flashlights I can hand one light to someone and still have my primary light
D) Multiple use, Keeping extra means that I can light multiple fires (remember that 3 of anything is a sign of distress.) multiple flashlights means that when I run out of batteries for one,, well I have another flashlight
E) I loose things. And if I have multiple of anything I truly need, well then I am a bit better off, and hopefully I will not loose it due to Murphy’s law :P

Like someone said on this site (forgive me for forgetting who it is) Two is one, and One is none

Well I guess the point i'm trying to get at is this. If you go on a job to say fix a dishwasher. You don't neccessarily use every tool in your bag to accomplish the task. In a Survival situation the job is to get out alive, and the survival kit is your tool kit. Do you need every "tool" in your survival kit to accomplish this? It seems clear to me that the answer to this question is sometimes you might but not always. When planning a survival kit you try to cover every possibility that might come up making sure to cover the most likely possibiliies first, but when the emergency actually occurs you may well have covered some possibilities that you don't actually face on that occasion. I submit that you don't actually put together a survival kit with the intention of using everything in it, although in some cases you might have to.

I think you have the right idea Stoney.
I have a lot of tools in my tool boxes but I only need a few of them at a time for the jobs I do.
It is just that each different job might call for a slightly different selection of tools.

If I just had to fix a leaking sink then I could make a tool kit with just the tools for that job and no extras.
However it would mean I was hooped if I had to do anything different because I would only have what was needed to fix a sink.

So I have a slightly bigger kit that lets me have a chance for all sorts of general repairs.
Not every tool I would like, but the tools that I should have available at the very least.

That's my outlook also. At work every day I drive a van full of tools and parts. When I get to a jobsite, I carry in a tool bag, it has roughly 35 pounds worth of tools in it. I set it down where the majority of the work is going to happen. Then I unclip my smaller tool pouch from the side of it and clip it on my belt to carry around everywhere I go.

It has the most-used tools on it (3 different size straight screwdrivers, 2 different sized phillips screwdrivers, diagonal cutters, roll of electrical tape). It weighs a LOT less than the big bag, and the big bag weighs a lot less than the van-load of tools.

Even when I'm not carrying the small pouch on my belt, I still have a few tools on me: My Gerber Suspension, a pocket screwdriver, a pocketknife, a Sharpie, and a penlight.

For me, compartmentalizing stuff always makes my life and job easier.

The most complex thing in there is the SAM splint. No chest seal, no airway, no tourniquet, no suture set. Comeon Red, you can use everything in here.

So, do you prepare less for routine stuff because you are prepared with a kit?

I agree with that.

I've used mine more than I thought. Usually a flash light or a lighter for fire,duct tape, or bailing wire, but medical stuff, that I wouldn't have thought probable. Motrin and bandaids, alot, but butterfly bandages and benedril for a bad alergic reaction to "who knows what" still don't know, even today...Had to use my mini mag light about five years ago with duct tape around it's middle for an emergency air way, it came in handy when gutted and the tape cusioned the teeth from chipping because she was swollowing her tounge and clenching her teeth, also had to use my whistle to pry her teeth apart...That would be an interesting thread... How did you use your kit for makeshift / unusual purposes.

I've used just about every piece of gear in my current kit, and even the bigger one on my web page at some point, just not at the same time/incident!

The ONLY thing I have NOT used is the trauma bandage, because the 2x when I really really needed them was before I started carrying them (shudder - quick flashback to one incident - they even saved his leg on that one)

Wow. Had a good run today. I had to do some roof repairs. So i climb up, pull another latter up, climb over a peak (using the second latter on both sides) and get to my porch roof. So I was where i needed to be and would take 5-10 minutes to get down. Found I needed a few things, like the garden hose (for gutters), more nails, and a putty knife. (I had a hammer, some nails, roof tar, patch, edc kit) so i pull out my cell and got help from inside. used 50lb test to pull a rope up, then the rope to pull supplies up.

From my kit I used fishing line, idoine wipe, triple a antibotic, ora-gell, q-tip, cloth bandaid, advil, sport tape, duct tape needle, thread.

did not use: back-up light, 2x3 pad, gauze saftey pins, razor blade.

cleaned and bandaged a banged knuckle, took some advil, used some of the fishing line as a tool tether, used the q-tip+oragell on a wisdom tooth that got cold, covered bandaid with sport tape (i was using tar, which always gets on my hands) and duct tape to hold my jeans closed (old holey pair that had a ventilation hole in the crotch helpfully opened further by my antics with the ladder)

This morning i patched a little hole in my coat with needle and thread from my kit.

RE Knowing where my towel is - of course, on the back of my chair

I was SO happy at work when I got a static IP that ended in .42

You know the "Can I ask you a question?" - instead of saying yes, I always look at co-workers and say "42" - most think I'm strange, some thing I'm funny

Most of the guys I work with don't get it. Wanna really see some funny looks ask "Do you sass that hoopy so-and-so? That frood really knows where his towel is!" That makes their eyebrows go up.

I wonder if anyone has made a edc towel kit? Not being a purist I could see me doing that.