One thing I try to be careful about is making sure my car kit remains accessible.

When packing for a trip, be it camping or otherwise, I always take out my car kit, load up the truck and lastly put the kit back in so that its easily accessible. I figure it's silly to have it buried if and when I actually needed it.

This summer I proved this is not the best plan with my current vehicle. I was out camping with the family for a few days and when packing up I followed this same routine. Packed up all the gear making sure the kit was right at the back near the hatch and closed everything up.

Keep in mind that with my family a fully packed cargo area is literally floor to roof & packed tight .

We all hopped in, ready to go, but the truck wouldn't start. Turns out the wonderful new feature of lighting the interior every time the vehicle was accessed drained the battery so I wasn't going anywhere.

My wife & son went over to a neighbouring camp site to ask for help while I went to get my jumper cables.

This is when I found out that my rear hatch can only be accessed when the vehicle has power. My trying to start the engine had drained the last of the juice so the electronic latch would not open.

My kit, jumper cables and all, were effectively inaccessible.

Our neighbouring camper was able to help & had cables of his own so this was really a no harm, no foul type of situation. However I did learn something useful which will help ensure my car kit is kept somewhere where it can be accessed even in the case of a dead battery.

I've added a 12 volt jumpstarter to both cars. Imagine your chagrin if you had one of those but it was inaccessible due to power loss.

That would not have been fun ... I likely could have got at it but not without some serious effort. I definitely would have been looking for help before trying to unpack/dig through to it.

Actually, this situation has me thinking about picking up one of those portable jump starters for this vehicle; a couple days earlier we were the only people in this campground.

My favorite one is Costco's. 18Ah battery, jumpstarter, area light, compressor, charges from house current and won't overcharge from that source (the manual says, though, to be careful not to overcharge it from 12V sources). I've used it several times instead of dragging out my jumper cables. And I can run my amateur HT or my cellphone off of it for at least a week continuously.

No affiliation other than a Costco membership.

A flat tire will induce them same stress when it's buried in the bottom of the trunk.

Sometimes there is too much electronic gadgetry. I would love to have a manual alternative for windows, but I am sure it would add too much to the price. Nothing like a nice simple, key operated lock.

One of the many reasons i love my 1989 Honda Civic. Manual windows, doors, et ... Older, cheaper, better?

One of my cars suffers from the no power no trunk release malady. But I can pull the divider out from between the passenger compartment and the trunk. But it is also the car that I won't jump start because of all of the electronic gadgetry on it, I'm way to chicken. So I don't even carry cables with it. Just hope that if it has a dead battery that my cell phone is getting a signal.

But as a warning some new cars advise against jump staring because you can damage expensive parts of the electronic gadgetry. Some cars also have unique jump starting instructions that need to be followed to keep from damaging the electronics. So read the owners manual before you jump start your car.

On a Mythbusters episode we learned that electric windows can stay working for a minute or more after a car hits the water. This isn't something I'm willing to test with my car, or with my body in the absence of SCUBA gear and a safety diver.

Read the manual, of course, before jump starting a car. With that said, I've been told that the headlights serve as a redneck surge suppressor during jump starts. I've jumped dozens of cars and never had a problem using this technique.