Stories good and Bad
Building your Kit
A cellphone has been the key form of communication in most of the emergencies in my life lately. A couple years back I got a call from my wife because of a flat tire. She had driven over a nail some time on he way to work which caused a small leak. When she left work she noticed the problem within a couple blocks and pulled over. There is a spare tire in the car but that takes a lot of work to get on. We also keep a “slime tire repair kit” in the car. The is a lot like a can of fix a flat but uses an electric tire pump instead of compressed air. She had never used the repair kit before so I started explaining over the phone what to do. She stopped me really quickly and said the instructions where there so she would call me back after she read them. She called me back in about 7 minutes and said the slime kit was really easy to use. She was already done and would be home soon.
I had put the tire repair kit in the car years earlier. But there was really no way of testing it until we actually needed it. I was very happy to see that it was a reasonably easy to use. I have purchased a couple more since for friends and family. On of the greatest parts about a repair kit like that is you are not on the side of the road as long as you would be changing a tire. Hundreds of people are killed every year on the side of freeways. So being able to stay away from the traffic side of your car when you are broken down is something that can save your life. Even if you are fixing a tire on the traffic side this device mainly runs by it self. You hook it up turn it on and step away for a couple minutes. You can not do that when changing a tire. Also on thing that is usually not stated on a spare tire is that since it is a slightly different size than your other tires your computer gets confused and disables all of those cool safety features like stability control and traction control. That is not an issue with fix a flat.
Since accidents are the leading cause of injury and death after medical issues it is a great thing to prepare yourself to deal with one of the areas many accidents happen, the road. Staying with your car and keeping your car running is very important. So here are some things that can help with that. Duct Tape, Fix a flat or green slime and a tire pump, seatbelt cutter window breaker, Flashlight, emergency flashers or triangles, Jumper cables, and of course tire chains in the winter.
Everybody knows that duct tape can fix everything so of course it is a great idea to have some to get your car home, or at least get you into cellphone range so you can call for help. But what a lot of people don’t know is there are different qualities of duct tape. There is the really cheap stuff that goes all gooey in just a couple of months of storage. Then there is the nuclear grade duct tape that can cost upward of $50. I like to have a small amount of high quality tape in my kit, really this is anything that costs more than $12 a roll. I purchase one roll then wrap about 10 yards around an old credit card. That way I can get 4 to 5 small roles out of one big one and use it in multiple kits.
Jumper cables have been getting people back on the road for as long as there have been batteries in cars. But there are a couple of new devices that are a lot easier now. Lithium jumpstart packs are one of those things. It consists of a battery pack and 2 clamps to connect to your battery, it fits in your glove compartment, and you don’t have to find another car to help you out. The cigarette litter jump starters are kind of gimmicky but they also can get you out of jam if you are not comfortable opening your hood. Use the ones with a 15-foot cable that goes between two cars not one with a battery. The batteries in those are not very reliable. It will probably take 20 min to get you on the road but they do work for some cars and they are fantastic for hybrids. When you drain the battery in a hybrid by leaving your lights on you don’t need enough power to start the car you just need enough power to start the computer. So a cigarette lighter jump starter will get started almost instantly if it is compatible with your vehicle.
If you are in a crash getting out of your car can sometime be hard so a Rescume tool can help break a window and cut your seatbelt. This is especially important if you accidently drive into a body of water, so keep the window breaker near the driver at all times. Once you are out of your car make sure to put up some signals to other drivers that there is an accident so they slow down as they drive by. In most states you are legally required to slow down or move to the outer lane if emergency flashers are put up. I like the battery operated ones that are also a flashlight. Multi use items are always a good way to save space. Remember to put these out if you are fixing a tire or putting on tire chains in the winter.
For winter driving prevention is always the best defense. Snow tires will be a life saver whenever you have to slam on the breaks in icy conditions (remember 4-wheel drive does not help you stop http://4x4abc.com/). But in states where there is not enough snow to be dealing with different tires it is a good idea to have chains and some kind of traction material like sand or cat litter to get you out of a slick parking lot onto clear roads
??????If your car does break down to the point you can not fix it, or it gets stuck for some reason you will have to figure out how to rescue yourself, or get rescued. Protecting yourself from the weather during that time will be very important. So having some of the following
this is the first edit