Vehicle Emergency Kit

Bigwig - January 7, 2024

Lately I’ve been working on my vehicle emergency kit.  I went to pick up my son from an event and ended up helping someone with a flat tire.  They had no flashlights and were trying to use their phone lights.  Their jack handle broke, so I ended up using the jack from my truck.  I had a headlamp and gloves along with an extra flashlight which made the job easier.   Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the tire off of the vehicle even after removing the lug nuts, so they just parked it and came back later.

I started thinking about what I would have liked to have.  One is a 4-way lug wrench.  I thought I had one but it was in my daughter’s car.  BTW, I looked for the lug nut size in the owner’s manual and it was no where to be found, only the BOLT size.  I couldn’t find it on the vehicle’s lug nut wrench either.  And if you do get one, make sure and try it on your vehicle.  The older ones are SAE and a lot of the newer ones are metric, so they may not fit.

I had a few items in some Plano storage trunks, but now they are full.  I also have a backpack from my CERT days that is now better stocked.

2  

Good on you for helping out!

 

You’re awesome for stopping at all so many other people wouldn’t. Just couple observations, you might want to replace your lug nut wrench with a Gorilla Power Wrench or similar. The Gorilla batons out to 21″ to get more leverage. Also if your car jack has a tiny base like is in most vehicles it would be nice to upgrade it to a Torin Big Red 1.5 Ton Scissor Jack or similar. The safety of a larger base can prevent the car from tipping or the ground from sliding under.