Essential Car Kit Guide

If you’re someone who spends a lot of time on the road, then maybe you’ve considered stocking your vehicle with an essential kit to be prepared for whatever life throws at you. You’ve gotten as far as wondering “What should be in my car kit and why?” but need some guidance from experts to finalize your choices. Below is a guide to the items you can stock in your essential car kit, why you should pack them, and what you can use each item for.

Essential Car Kit Guide

Image via Flickr by Dick Thompson Sandian

Car kits are a way you can prepare for any unexpected scenario on the road. You can prepare for hazardous weather and roadside breakdowns by stocking your vehicle with these car kit essentials. They provide an excellent way to keep yourself safe and prepared while driving. They can even help you remain calm in emergencies, too, as you can feel confident knowing that you have the basic tools for any situation.

Emergency Kit Essentials

Roadside emergencies include being stranded, encountering hazardous weather, and experiencing car accidents or any other type of event when you’re unable to move away from the road. The items below can help you and others in case an emergency occurs while traveling by car:

First Aid Kit

Easily one of the best ways to stay prepared, a first aid kit allows you to provide basic care for injuries. A basic road-ready first aid kit includes bandages, sterile gloves, painkillers, and water purification tablets. It can also include items such as sterile gauze pads, oral antihistamines for allergic reactions, rubbing alcohol, and items for cleaning and dressing wounds. First aid kits are often useful for car accidents, letting you respond to injuries you may find after you contact emergency services. This way, emergency services can devote their attention to the most urgent issues when they arrive.

Flashlight

Another excellent item to include in your emergency road kit is a flashlight. The best flashlight is one you can wind up to use instead of one that uses batteries. This kind of flashlight may take extra time to wind up before it works, but it will always work reliably. If you use a battery-powered flashlight, ensure you keep spare batteries in your car. A flashlight can help you through emergencies when it’s dark, stormy, or foggy outside. You can also use flashlights to help find people after an accident. Finally, you can use a flashlight to signal other people.

MREs or Energy Bars and Water Bottles

Meals, Ready-to-Eat (MREs) and energy bars are food items you can store in your car that are nonperishable. Keeping these items in your car can help you if you become stranded on the road for a long time. Reasons you may become stranded for long periods of time include hazardous weather events or a vehicle breakdown. Keeping water bottles along with these items can ensure you’re more likely to stay in good health while stranded.

Road Flares or Reflective Triangles

Road flares or reflective triangles can help you keep yourself and other drivers safe. If an emergency strands you on the road and makes it impossible to move your vehicle, you can place these items on the road to allow other drivers enough time to change lanes, keeping you safe from other vehicles while you wait for help or perform a repair. You can also use road flares to get someone’s attention and possibly get help from other drivers.

Sleeping Bag

A sleeping bag is an emergency essential because it can keep you warm if you become stranded on the side of the road in freezing temperatures. You can also use a brightly colored sleeping bag to signal other drivers or emergency services if you don’t have something else you can signal with. Outside of emergency situations, you can use a sleeping bag to spend the night in your car on long road trips.

Shovel

A shovel is a key emergency kit tool you can use for several things. The first use you may have is digging your vehicle’s tires out of snow, sand, or mud if your car gets stuck. You can also use a shovel to test the ground around a vehicle to see if it’s stable and can support your weight. Finally, you can use a shovel to reach things beyond your normal range of movement, such as in trees, across hazardous liquids, or underneath your vehicle.

Cell Phone Charger

Most people carry cell phones that they can use to contact emergency services, access GPS, call a tow truck, and use as a flashlight. With a valuable multitool like that in your pocket, keeping a charger in your emergency kit can help you ensure you have access to these features. When you find a charger compatible with your phone, make sure you’re also able to connect it to your car. You can either use an adaptor or make sure your charger can plug directly into your vehicle.

Portable Jumper Box

A portable jumper box is a device you can use to provide a current to your car’s battery. This can help you jump-start your car if the battery dies. Unlike traditional jumper cables, a portable jumper box doesn’t require a second vehicle to be present for jumping your car, meaning you can use it if you’re alone on the road. While it doesn’t fix your battery, it can help you get your vehicle to the nearest mechanic or car parts store. Like traditional jumper cables, the cables are red and black, and most boxes come with instructions about using them.

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