Bugout vehicles?

The comments in my other thread about my Jeep got me thinking. Who has a vehicle they would consider a bugout vehicle,is it built for offroad use, and what do you keep in it?

Mine would be my 2005 Jeep Wrangler X-Edition. 4.0 Liter Inline 6, 6-cylinder, 4WD. 33"x12.5"x15" Mud Kings, welded rear diff, Aussie Locker in the front diff, Ramsey REP 8.5K winch, 2.5" Budget Boost lift, 1" body lift, 1" Brown Dog Industries motor mount lift, custom 1/4" thick rocker armor, Rusty's Offroad radiator skid plate.

What I carry in it:

a ton of tools
small air compressor
duct tape, tie-wraps
tire plug/patch kit
48" Hi-Lift
tire chocks
hand saw
flashlight
mechanic's gloves
tire pressure gauge
spare rear axle shafts
spare rear drive shaft
spare unit (wheel) bearing
spare universal joints
spare nuts and bolts

Currently, tools alone fill 4 ammo cans. I also carry oil, water, antifreeze, gear lube, brake fluid, ps fluid, grease, WD40, fix-a-flat, snatch strap, tree saver, 3/4" D-ring, 20' tow chain, and a bag of ratchet straps and bungee cords.

While I don't know what you mean by a "huge crescent wrench" (I have used a 36" Cresent in the oil fields), you seem to have more tools than some garages. Do you really need both 1/2" and 3/8" drive sockets? I don't see any spare hoses, or hose patch gizmos, spare belts, etc. I am assuming from the list that you do have the mechanical ability to use the stuff you have. I am amazed that you can get that stuff (minus the tools that are much longer than any ammo can) in only four cans! I used to do some playing in the boonies with a little bitty Suzuki Sam, I had a lot of stuff, and couldn't come close to getting in in that few cans. Happy four wheeling!!!

(I edited out the list of individual tools to make the post shorter.)

I've never bothered with spare hoses just because I've seen so many people patch a hose with duct tape or just cut the broken section out and hose clamp it back together (have hose clamps in there too). I do need to pack a spare belt though. I keep the 1/2" drive stuff in there because these tools not only get used to wrench on my Jeep, but anyone who breaks their rig and needs to borrow a tool. Some of my friends running 2 1/2 ton military axles and 53" tires need beefy tools to work on them.

I will be adding spare front axle shafts and a spare front drive shaft. I removed the rear bench seat and installed a racing bucket in the rear to give me a lot more room back there. I'm pretty good at organizing tools and use tool roll-ups and socket rails for everything to keep them where I can find them. The big crescent wrench is a 24" and it resides in a mechanic's tool bag along with anything else too big to fit in a tall 20MM ammo can.

Where the heck do you sit with all that in there? Sounds like you went to the packing school I put on just before I slung my HMMWV on 24 FEB 91.

All the liquids are stored behind the rear seat, the 3 "Fat 50" ammo cans are stacked right next to the liquids and ratch-strapped down. The larger 20MM ammo can and mechanic's toolbag sit right in front of those, next to the rear racing bucket seat. The Hi-Lift jack is mounted to the rear rollbar behind the rear seat and just above the liquids and ammo cans.

Small tools are in the "Fat 50" ammo cans - wrenches (in tool rollups), sockets (on socket rails), ratchets, extensions, screwdrivers (rollup), pliers (rollup). Bigger tools are in the mechanic's tool bag along with the 20' chain, 30' snatch strap, 8' tree saver, bungees, ratchet straps, and tiewraps. The 20MM can has grease, cotter pins, grease gun, oil gun, u-joint / balljoint press, and a spare unit bearing. The u-joints are in the console along with duct tape, 2 ponchos, a roll of toilet paper, a lighter, and the winch remote.

The spare axle shafts and driveshaft are laying in between the mechanic's toolbag and the 20MM big ammo can. My fire extinguisher is mounted on the roll cage right behind the driver's seat, the CB is on the dash, and my MP3 player is in the glove box along with a tire gauge. The tire patch/plug kit and a few other small things fit underneath the racing bucket seat, the bracket I made to mount it allows access from the back but not the front, so they don't slide out forward. I also have a steel magnetic parts bowl that goes on the inner fenderwell opposite the rear seat, and the tire chocks go under one of the front seats or in the rear floorboard opposite the rear seat.

It is a lot of stuff, but I know where everything is (even in the dark) and it fits in there pretty good. When I go for an entire weekend at the offroad park, I throw my cargo rack on the receiver hitch and bring more stuff, including jack stands and a long frame 3-ton floor jack.

Can somebody explain why they always put the winches on the front bumpers instead of the rear bumpers?
Is it just to keep them out of the way of the trailer hitch?

Winches are not there to just to save other vehicles. If you get stuck, you would generally want to get beyond where you got stuck, instead of pulling yourself backwards only to have to deal with the obstruction again.
I believe the concept is to continue forward progress.

It wasn't intended as a bug out vehicle, but my teardrop trailer certainly would be handy for that purpose. Permanently packed, comfortable, secure and diminutive. And stored 90 miles from the city, near the mountains.

I'd post a pic here if I could figure out how.

The go-to place on building or buying a teardrop:

http://www.mikenchell.com/forums/index.php

Photos of my teardrop:

http://www.mikenchell.com/forums/album_p...SC&start=48

A pic, I hope.

Several of my friends have a winch on both ends of the vehicle. They make a mount that can be moved from the front to the rear that goes in the receiver hitch, also.

Thank you.
I have seen a couple of fairlead systems intended to pass the winch cable under the vehicle to the rear too, but I suspect that would be hard to do if you were mired in the muskeg
I never used bumper winches much.
I tended to just throw a small Tirfor and a cable into the back of the truck instead.

EDIT
I just realized you might not know what a Tirfor is so I went to find a picture of one on the internet.
http://www.nobles.com.au/overview.asp~area=2&cid=27&parent_id=154&product_id=155.html
They are often used by ironworkers for pulling steel columns and beams into alignment.


I still think putting jeep winches on the front bumper is just to get it out of the way.

The idea of a winch on the front, at least on a jeep, is to self-extricate. And, at least on jeeps, there is a nice little mounting area right on top of the front bumper. In the rear, it may get in the way of the tailgate. Also, you gotta run it from the battery (or a separate battery): easier to only run a little wire, through the front grill, into the engine compartment, instead of through the whole damned vehicle.
Other than that, I've never really given it a second thought.

That Tirfor appears to be what we call a "come-a-long". If I'm in a real bind, I can also use the Hi-Lift jack and the chain as a come-a-long. One trick I've used before I had the winch and was buried to the frame was to jack up each corner one at a time and throw rocks in the holes the tires had dug. Then we basically made a trail of rocks to drive on once we got it up out of the mud.

Sometimes it's a simple as just jacking the vehicle up one end at a time and pushing it over a couple of feet. I try to avoid mud as much as possible, unlike when I first got the Jeep. I used to romp through the biggest mudholes just to see if it would make it through. Replacing wheel bearing and universal joints all the time got old though. It'll still walk right through the worst mudholes with ease, I just prefer to go around them whenever I can. Spending $20 at the carwash getting all the mud off every time got old too.

And, for every one time my winch has been used to extricate me, it's been used at least 20 times to extricate someone else, lol.

Yes, a come along.
That is the common name.
But people like to call those little ones that roll a cable or rope up on a drum like a boat trailer winch come alongs too.
Tirfors are much, much stronger.

Old Soldier's point about the front mount winch being cheaper to wire up makes sense to me too.

By the way, nice looking jeep.

One of our old tricks for getting unstuck if we had no winch or tow vehicle was to rig a logging chain or cable to a tree a good distance away and pull it up as tight as you could by hand.
Then go to the center of the cable and pull it sideways.
You can get a really impressive mechanical advantage that way.
You might pull the cable 8 feet sideways and move the vehicle less than a foot, but you can pull it really hard for that foot it travels.

Be careful though, bumpers can come off and frames can be twisted.

Yeah, one of the first things I did when I bought the Jeep was install some 10,000 pound rated recovery hooks on the front bumper. I also have a D-ring mount that goes in the rear receiver hitch. The Jeep looks nice when it's clean (which is rarely) from a distance, up close it has a lot of dents and scratches on it. That's why I cut off the front fenders, they looked like wadded up aluminum foil, lol. And the 1/4" steel rocker guards I installed after the first picture was taken cover up where the bottom of the tub is crushed in under the door.

I have a 2003 Ford Ranger 4x4 with a GHB, CB radio, GPS, and some basic tools that I consider my BOV. It does well offroad and in the snow, but has stock tires and no winch. I have chains, straps, and a D-shackle for the hitch receiver, but nothing more comprehensive than that.



Honestly though, if bugging out it will be with my wife and two kids in car seats. So the mostly likely BOV is a 2006 Chrysler minivan that is FWD and has a 400-mile range on a tank of gas.

Your grand dad would have called it a coffin hoist.

Odd, I remember him as having a more colorful vocabulary than that.

He gave it up for Lent.

With everything you have in the jeep, your space for emergency supplies my be very limited. BTW, I'd figure out a way to tie everything down so it won't fly about if you hit something or roll. Ratchet straps work well for tieing things down. A few "D" rings can be welded to the floor if needed.
I'd replace the hand saw with a large Bow saw and add a good first aid kit,a pry oe wrecking bar, a couple days food and water, maybe a tarp and sleeping bags or blankets, and a reasonable PSK just in case you have to spend a unplanned night or two out.

In my other thread "New member, my SHTF bag", I listed what I carry in my BOB that goes with me everywhere. It fits in the Jeep just fine. I didn't count that just because it's portable and gets moved from vehicle to vehicle, all the stuff in this thread stays in the Jeep all the time.

I'm planning on re-designing the rear seat mount so that it'll enable me to hard mount a truck-box style container in the back to put most of the tools and such in.