What's in your emergency kit?

davecymru · #1 23rd February 2012, 18:03

Now i've taken the car out a few times, all of the squeaks and rattles that I'm not used to yet got me thinking about what i should be carrying "just in case".

So i've got an old Black & Decker zip up bag that i can store behind the passengers seat and my emergency kit so far consists of:

A can of tyre repair mousse
A rubber hammer (for the wheel spinners)
1 flat blade and 1 Phillips screw drivers
An adjustable spanner
Some pipe clips
A roll of self amalgamating tape
A bottle of lead additive for the petrol
A selection of cable ties

I'd be interested to hear what are others carrying, or planning to carry?

froggyman · #2 23rd February 2012, 19:01

Good idea, how about a warning triangle and hi-vis vest - cable ties are a must have. I do hope you only need the 'emergency kit' to assist others and not for your own.

tlrtone · #3 23rd February 2012, 19:20

Bulbs

AA card

peterux · #4 23rd February 2012, 21:06

Gaffer tape and some fuses.

Nike55 · #5 23rd February 2012, 21:41

Coat hanger

Mole grips ( 1 x small 1 x large)

Jubilee Clips (various)

Bottle of water and a Mars bar (while waiting for AA/RAC etc*)

Swiss army knife

Survival blanket and rations (while waiting for AA/RAC etc)

Good book

----------------------------------
Optional Extras :

SAS Survival Handbook

Booster pack (with 250v inverter, compressor, light) with various chargers for phone / media devices so you can tweet/ blog etc

and / or tv and / or microwave.

and / or small electric kettle,

Tea, coffee, milk. Toilet roll, shovel, tent. Billy can. Various dehydrated food stuffs and / or tins of beans, Tuna, Chilli/Rice, etc

Should set you up for a couple of hours on the hard shoulder.

(or forget all the above and just ensure Ray Mears is the passenger)

or Jeremy Clarkson (could be used for bartering with local natives who possess a cannibalistic mien)

* also nylons, gum, Hershey bar, cigarettes, Zippo lighter, pack of cards, escape map, compass, harmonica, parachute silk...

Mister Towed · #6 24th February 2012, 08:22

Can't believe nobody's suggested MOBILE PHONE with car charger.

I'm considering towing a residential caravan behind mine so when it breaks down I can fix some lunch, watch tv, take a bath...

davecymru · #7 24th February 2012, 08:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by peterux

Gaffer tape and some fuses.

Gaffer Tape!!!! i knew i'd forgotten something crucial, ta.

As far as fuses are concerned, i've only got 1 on the whole car atm so i think i should really put one in

i sort of get the impression that some of you aren't exactly taking this seriously?

Nike55 · #8 24th February 2012, 17:01

Not taking it seriously, moi?

Well maybe not, but a coat hanger, duct/gaffer tape, jubilee clips, bungee cord and some baling twine have got me out of a few predicaments in the past, just transpose cable ties for baling twine for 21 century breakdowns.

- Noticed local Halford's were recently selling 'metal' cable ties, so am adding a few to the emergency kit.

If you do breakdown in mid-summer in the middle of nowhere and it happens to be one of those rare scorchers, a bottle of drinking water and sunscreen might be useful to have in the emergency kit.

- Of course you will probably already have a small hamper on the chrome luggage rack on the boot with suitable nibbles..

'Be Prepared' dib, dib, dob, dob: enough sarcasm from me; but hope there are some helpful hints among the above.

WorldClassAccident · #9 24th February 2012, 18:30

RAC card
Credit Card
Mobile Phone
Condoms
Axe

Mister Towed · #10 24th February 2012, 18:44

I was going to say condoms too - after all, they're included in the survival pack built into all RAF fast jet ejection seats...

No, really, they are. Anyone guess why?

GazDavies · #11 24th February 2012, 19:01

Condoms have lots of uses when it comes to survival. I would guess at carrying water or covering cuts as the main reason?

Mister Towed · #12 24th February 2012, 19:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by GazDavies

Condoms have lots of uses when it comes to survival. I would guess at carrying water or covering cuts as the main reason?

Nope. Neither of those. But you're warmer with the second guess...

GazDavies · #13 24th February 2012, 19:56

Covering a burn? Water proofing a dressing?

BazMason · #14 24th February 2012, 20:16

When I did survival training in the RAF we were taught that condoms were for carrying water, but first having put them in a sock to help support them. Mind you I wasn't fast jet, they probably had them to use on all the local babes who would flock around the recent ejection hero....(I'm not really bitter!)

Mister Towed · #15 24th February 2012, 20:38

Nope. Carrying water in a condom would be pretty much impossible even in a sock, although they'd possibly be useful for throwing at each other after a really heavy drinking session.

No, the real answer is.......

Leeches.

Anybody any the wiser?

Nike55 · #16 24th February 2012, 21:27

Bottoms up chaps!

(and don't you dare pee in the river)

davecymru · #17 24th February 2012, 22:01

Don't forget to make sure they're the non spermicidal ones! Or as one of my cadets once suggested "can't we use flavored condoms and that way we don't have to carry the orange powder from the rat pack?"

WorldClassAccident · #18 25th February 2012, 06:37

I was thinking condoms just so I could bang the brains out of any pretty young thing who stopped to help. I have a credit card to buy water and have never been attacked by leeches at the side of the road.

Mister Towed · #19 25th February 2012, 07:24

When I was 17 I qualified as an RAF Weapons Fitter (plumber) and got posted to an ejection seat servicing workshop stripping down and rebuilding Martin Baker's finest aircraft jettison systems.

The adjoining workshop was where the Safety Equipment fitters (squippers) packed the parachutes into the ejection seat head box and filled the survival packs - yellow fibreglass boxes with cushions on top that became the seat squabs when I then fitted them into the base of the seat.

One day I noticed that in amongst the foil packs of water, tins of sweets, miniflares, knives etc, that was going into the packs was a packet of condoms. Rather curious I asked the squipper ( a nice chap named Del Hall who's still doing the same job I believe 'cause I've seen him on the telly recently) 'Why are you putting condoms in the survival pack?' To which he replied 'Oh, for the leeches'.

I mulled over this for a few days before asking him what to me seemed like the obvious question 'So, why would you want to keep leeches in a condom?' Which is when he rather patiently explained the following:

If you eject into a tropical swamp (which happens all the time, aparrently) a slightly annoying inconvenience is dying of anaemia through blood loss to leeches, who've got nothing better to do all day than hang around in tropical swamps waiting for downed pilots to parachute in.

The approved method for removing leeches to prevent this is to burn the body off with a lit ciggy. This is so painful for the leech that it's about the only simple way of getting them to let go with their 'teeth' (and if you don't get the mouth parts out of the wound you'll die of blood poisoning in a few days anyway).

But it's also pretty painful for the chap holding the ciggy, especially if the leech that the ciggy is being applied to is chowing down on your john thomas, hence the inclusion of condoms to slip over your old chap. In the event of landing in a tropical swamp full of leeches you won't have to burn holes in your fandangle.

Here endeth the lesson...

Mister Towed · #20 25th February 2012, 07:27

Oh, and there was also a leaflet explaining how to harvest maggots...