Fogotten Items for BOB

Bigwig - May 6, 2023

I binged-watched Black Summer (Netflix) again and noticed that they had 2 different scenrios where someone pulled a short crowbar out of a backpack in the same episode.  I never thought about putting a crowbar in a BOB before, but will likely be a short pry bar.

What other things have you put in your BOB that others may not have thought of?

10  

I live in Florida, where summer temperatures are often around 100F with high humidity. So in summertime, I don’t go anywhere without my cooling vest.

You can see my whole EDC here. The vest is at the end in the “summer only” section.

 

Interesting.  I’ve heard of the cooling neck fans (I have 2) but not a cooling vest.

 

Fans only help with moderately hot temperatures. When air temperatures get above 95 degrees, you can’t cool yourself by making the hot air move faster.

The idea of this cooling vest is similar to wearing bags of ice, except the “ice” is a special material that cools you just the right amount and lasts for hours. And no freezer needed – it will freeze just by leaving it in an air conditioned room.

 

I’m in Arizona; we have dry heat and temps over 110 in the summer, and temps 100+ mid April through October. Essential to my EDC and BOB are mini rechargeable fans. They do help cool you in our heat, but we are a very dry heat with only ~ 9% humidity. The kinds I like the most hang from your neck and blow up.

 

Across the border from you in NM, I also have rechargeable fans for in the house.

In my travel bag for summer, I was going to put some plastic dollar store hand fans in, along with a cotton mesh veil. With the low humidity, soaking the mesh veil, it creates a portable swamp cooler effect. Mix it with the fans and it will make you shiver. Planning to wet it and throw it over the 2.5 gallon water jug we’re going to take with us on trips.

 

It definitely helped my mom deal with the heat last summer, either laying on it or just draping it over legs. Much more effective than an instant ice pack for treating heat issues in the arid regions. Bandana also can work, but it’s not as effective.

The cooling vest is extremely expensive but should last years and I think it’s a much better option in high humidity places

 

Bigwig, my favorite oddball implement is a gripper used to remove a fish hook from the mouth of a fish. It grips all sorts of things that are stuck in small distant places. I’ve most recently used it to remove debris from the curve in a rain gutter downspout. I keep a small bag of hand tools (including a small pry bar) in the car. The hook remover is in the bag. I could imagine myself using it to retrieve something that fell under a car seat or in other hard to reach place.

I don’t try to fit everything into a single BOB. I need to keep things more light weight, so I have multiple bags in the house ready to go if needed. The car is also pre-packed. I’m not going to be walking long distances under any reasonable scenario. It does mean there’s some duplication (one pry bar in the car, a larger one in the house, for example).

 

Do you have a link to what one looks like?

 

Bigwig, here is an example of the fish hook removal tool. It starts with the gripper mouth open. You position it where you want and squeeze the handle to shut the gripper. Your hand is a distance away from the object you’re gripping.

https://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Remover-Extractor-Freshwater-Saltwater/dp/B08P6JM9JT/ref=sr_1_6?crid=3SPLJ8XCMGQKI&keywords=fish+hook+remover+tool&qid=1683720342&s=sporting-goods&sprefix=fish+hook+re%2Csporting%2C125&sr=1-6

 

Never seen this contraption before.  Thanks.

 

One thing I brought up in the Discord server, was an electric travel razor in an electrical kit.

For people that can grow long facial hair, it directly impacts the seal of N95/kn95/kf94 masks. Recent study suggested that above a certain length, the mask can let through air and won’t be as effective. So a AA operated travel razor seems like a smart option.

It was also suggested that just the cheap but sufficient disposable safety razors would work.

I did recently see a video that had a pre built bag that had a small travel size pouch of shaving cream and I have an idea where to get it.

There’s always so many small things for kits, I think another would be those sliver grippers tweezers. The Swiss army knife ones are decent but the sliver grippers are definitely a step up.