I have been reading these forums for a few months now and this weekend I decided to review what I carry in our cars. My wife and I live in the Phoenix metro area, and other than (all too) rare camping trips, we are always in the metro area. I prefer to keep my kits somewhat modular, so I can add groups of things easily. The list below mostly reflects things I have found a need for often enough in the past that I didn't want to not have, plus some things that just make life a bit easier.

I'd appreciate any feedback on changes or additions:

Stored in trunk:
Car Toolkit
* Large & small vise grips
* channel-lock, needle nose, and slip joint pliers
* wire cutters
* utility knife with spare blades
* 16' tape measure
* Screwdriver set (8 total, various sizes)
* 6" nail puller
* Allen Wrench (SAE & Metric)
* Driver bit set with various bits
* socket set (1/4 and 3/8 sae & metric
* Jumper cables
* leather gloves
* 8x8 tarp
* AA LED flashlight
* 16oz claw hammer
* mini hack saw
* funnel

Consumables:
* 2 1/2 gallon water jug
* duct tape
* #8 steel wire
* hose clamps, various sizes
* wire ties
* fix-a-flat
* 50' 550 paracord

Clothing
* Jeans
* tennis shoes
* socks (2pr)
* tshirt (2)
* hooded zip up sweatshirt
* hat

Stored in passenger compartment:
* 3D LEG mag light
* Petzl TIKKINA headlamp
* AA LED mag light
* SOG Pentagon fixed blade knife
* Utility shears (paramedic type)
* Nalgene water bottle
* Hand towel (12x18)
* compass
* matches, lighter, & firestarter
* Fox 40 whistle
* travel sewing kit

* First Aid Kit
**Tweezers
**Assorted band aids
**4x4 gauze pads
**Gauze roll
**Medical tape
**Advil
**Aspirin
**Scalpel blades
**Disinfectant wipes
**Antiseptic cream
**Latex gloves
**Antacid tablets
**Nail clippers & scissors
**Allergy pills

*Personal items
**Toothbrush
**toothpaste
**dental floss
**Sunscreen lotion
**lip balm
**Insect repellent (small vial of REI jungle juice)
**disposable razor
**3 days worth daily prescription meds

In addition, my EDC consists of:
Leatherman Juice multitool
Bandanna
Handkerchief
Photon II LED light
Cell phone
Mini Fox Whistle
2GB USB Jump drive
Pill vial with 1 days worth of meds

I have not yet assembled BOB's for us - that will be happening soon. I will also make additional 'road trip' kits to add to the vehicles when we head out of town. Keep in mind I do live in the Phoenix area, and during the summer, the inside of a closed car can easily reach 140. The water I carry is the 2.5 gallon jug of Arrowhead and I replace it each month.

In case I haven't said it before, Welcome Newguy!

Looks like you have a pretty good spread of stuff. Given the heat in your area, I might get another tarp, you could rig one as a sunshade while using the other on the ground to crawl around under the vehicle, trying to fix whatever is bad.

What are you going to use the scalpel blades for???

Something new that went in my car today- spare set of wipers.

The other pair sorta died when they were needed. So I bought two sets. :P

Welcome Newguy to this place.

Lee

I noticed you listed a complete socket set (both metric and sae!) and even vise grips.
Good man!

But Ironraven points out something I've been thinking about for a while.
What about vehicle specific expendable parts for the vehicle?
I carry a full set of spare bulbs and fuses just for starters. These are items that receive massive markups at convenience stores and few quickie marts have a wide selection of good quality headlight bulbs. Usually that stuff is overpriced junk.

But I also carry an oil filter, drain plug, drain plug gasket, spark plugs, and a fuel filter.
Fortunately my vehicle does not use a serpentine belt but I carry a timing belt, t-belt tensioner bearing and a water pump/alternator belt.
Does this seem excessive?

My thought process is to reduce down time should I be forced to take the car to a mechanic in some locale that may not have quick access to parts like this which can be very vehicle specific. Haven't we all heard tales of someone we know being stuck somewhere, far from home, while the mechanic is "waiting for parts"? Not to mention the parts markup when they know you stuck there and have no choice...
Thoughts?

Thanks for the responses.

OGB - The only thing I have ever used the scalpel blades for was removing deep splinters. A needle would have probably worked as well.

Timo - For most of my driving, I am well within the free service area for my AAA. I spent this afternoon cleaning out my car and refreshing supplies, and noted that I do in fact have a fuse kit (made it up last time I blew a fuse and forgot I had it). Wiper blades are a good idea I hadn't thought of. A Haynes repair manual might not be a bad idea either.

This led me to another important point - it doesn't do much good to carry stuff if you forgot you have it. To remedy prevent stuff like that from happening, I inventoried everything in my car and printed out and laminated lists of the contents of each kit and taped them to the container I keep my stuff in, and made another copy to keep in the glove box.

Since I use Microsoft Outlook to schedule everything else in my life, I added some reoccurring appointments to it to remind me when different things need refreshing.

As to specific vehicle repair kits, I have mixed feelings. While I have decent mechanical aptitude, I have no real experience doing much 'under the hood' work with modern vehicles. Other than basic 'unbolt and replace', I'll leave the repair work to others. I do carry plenty of water and replacement radiator hoses, a tow rope, and sometimes a come-along when I go out of town. Overheating and getting stuck are pretty common problems relatively speaking. I keep our vehicles maintained and do a pretty thorough check before any out of town trips, prevention being the best medicine.

Thanks Lee for your post,,,

I have to make a long road trip in a few days an I hadn't even thought abou checking and inventorying my car kit,,,,,Duh!!!!!

This trip will include my severely handicapped daughter and her 250LBS wheelchair. I hadn't thought of bringing her wheelchair repair kit and that is a MUST!!!!

Thanks again!!

I carry some car-specific parts but prefer to run an aggrressive preventative maintenance program rather than carry parts. Timing belt change done early precludes carrying timing belt (for instance - none of my cars has timing belt).
In some cases, like serpentine belt, I change it early and put the takeoff belt in the car parts storage as the spare.

I change belts, hoses and battery at 4 year interval just to be sure. Those haven't yet failed me except for the OEM battery on a new car failing at 3 years.


How do you keep all your goodies from melting into slag in the Arizona heat???

"...be like OBG carrying spare points
and condensers..."

I stopped doing that when they put a computer on my ride's motor. As for the gap, in a pinch you can probably get away with using ten penneys (a nail of course)...

looks like a good kit to me
the second tarp sounds like a great idea as well as the new wiper blades

Welcome to the forum