I like to keep the repair manual (Haynes) with the tools in my car. I'm no expert on car repair, but I can usually follow the instructions.

A friend of mine outfitted his Ford Escort with NOS. He had a cute little fire extinguisher in a clip near the driver's door. When his engine burst into flames he whipped it out and set to work. The 3 seconds of use the little thing provided did nothing but annoy the fire gods. They consumed his vehicle.

Another friend had NOS in a Civic but when his caught fire he had BAGS of baking soda that he dumped on the engine. Seeing that my friend was converted. He now carries several zip locked bags of baking soda in his car. *This is one of those hints for motorcycle drivers*

Sometime make a large bonfire and try using your small extinguisher on it. You will either upgrade or switch to baking soda.
Those tiny extinguishers look nice but TRY BEFORE the emergency.

-NIM

P.S. I don't touch nitro myself! FLAMES come out of the exhaust even when it's working properly!

3lb extinguisher behind the seat in the truck, 10 lber in the bed - I think I have the extinguisher deal covered (plus 2 10 lbers in the basement, a 10 lb and 3 lb on the main floor, and a 10 lb upstairs - oh, and one in the detached garage)

If I ever do an overhaul on my house, I will put in a sprinkler system

Paranoid? Maybe...

I just bought a 2 lb. for the car. $10 at Home Depot. I saw the 5 lb. for $20 should I go exchange it? My thinking was a small one next the drivers seat is better to have if I where pined in the car.
Dose anyone know how much Baking soda you would need to equal one pound of Fire extinguisher?

And why baking soda? Why not sand? Ziplock bags full of white powder will get you looked at funny...

We have talked about this subject in the past. I carry a 10lb extinguisher in the trunk of my car. After using less than 1/4 of the content to extinguish a van fire and paying a good sum of money to have it replaced (tank was older than 12 years) I also started carrying a smaller disposable extinguisher. I will use that one first, provided the fire is small enough, rather than using a portion of the larger one on a small fire and having to pay to get it refilled.

Some very useful tools, especially for offroad use, but also useful on the pavement are: 1. A small compressor or inflator; and 2. A tire repair kit including a rasping device, repair patches, seating tool, and cement.

Fortunately I haven’t needed the tire repair kit yet. The compressor is useful to reinflate low or leaky tires. The compressor also allows you do deflate your tires so as to increase the bearing surface and improve traction especially when driving on very loose sand. After negotiating that area, you can easily reinflate for highway travel. These compressors are cheap (~$30) and smaller than a loaf of bread. And don't forget the tire gauge.

Boards such as thin plywood can provide a firm surface from which you can get traction if you have become stuck on very loose ground. That could occur not only in offroad travel, but also when simply pulling off the road.

A tow strap is also a good idea.

John

When it comes to that compressor do not be stingy. I filled my tire up today with a small one that comes in those kits from Wally world and it took a 1/2 hour. I could have done it in 3 min with a bike pump. The tire patch kit is great.
From what I understand it is a permanent plug. That means no going to the tire shop to pay 20 bucks to gat a tire patched.
<img src="/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />Are you supposed to cover the plug with something or just trim it down flush? <img src="/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> I really need to know I just used the plug kit for the first time with little instructions.

I also carry a 10 gallon air tank as a backup if my compressor fails or if I really want to unflate fast nothing beats an air tank, I also carry a power pack and an inverter good for jumpstarting or running small power tools like drills etc.

I like the good old low tech foot pump. Requires no power, has a built-in gauge and runs about $5-8.


TRO