Americans spend a lot of time in their cars. We’re in our cars when we’re farthest from where our main preps are (our homes). That makes a well-prepped car an important feature of overall prepping. It’s particularly important in winter, when travel is more risky for those of us in Frozen World.
(I know these are not earth-shattering, brand new ideas. It’s just time to think about them and actually get the preps done, you know?)
Some preps are winter, spring, summer, fall
Whatever you need for getting by for a few days unsupported and getting yourself home need to be in the car all the time, in my world; but I’ll leave the specifics of that for another post. There’s also some preps that are very useful in car-specific emergencies; there’s a post about those here. I keep other handy things, such as a Kelly Kettle, hunter-orange sweatshirt, a several gallons of water, and tool kit; but that’s mostly because of frequent trips to The Place where I’m a bit isolated.
Winter changes the game
Being stranded and unable to drive home in summer might be just an inconvenience; in winter it can be deadly. It’s also more likely to get stranded in winter. What you need depends in part on the situation.
A snow shovel will dig you out of a ‘snowplow mountain. Hand digging … not so much.
The most likely winter culprit: dead battery
Most modern cars will turn off their own lights if you forget, and that helps reduce the winter strandings. Still, physics can’t be denied, so a cold lead/acid battery is more likely to fail than a warm one. I just topped off the charge on the battery pack I keep in the car and checked out its functions. It’s stupid easy to use to jump the car (and I love that about it), but it won’t charge my iPhone. Good to know head of time, no?
We don’t have financial links with any of these companies and I’m no expert, so I’ll just link here to an article on good jump packs that received good reviews.
I like this style of battery jump starter. They’re very easy to use.
Winter makes it hard to see
Good scrapers are imperative anywhere that gets frozen precipitation. We’ve all read how you can use a credit card to scrape a windshield, haven’t we? Ok, have you ever tried it? I have. Yes, it can be done, for snow or frost. After an ice storm, forgeddaboutit. Please don’t forget the lights and turn signals too; got to prepare for those other jerks trying to get by on a six inch hole in the ice of their windshield, looking like seals at an air hole.
For winter, you need this …
Not this! to clear a windshield.
Get me outta here
…preferably to someplace warm. So far I’ve found this sort of prep pretty useless when someone had slidden off of the road and gotten stuck, to be honest. But when a snow plow piles ice and snow up to your rooftop? You’ll be very glad to have a snow shovel; and not an all-plastic one that’ll break when you have to chop up ice chunks with it. I also like tube sand for when water’s melted and refrozen into a smooth sheet under my wheels. Some prefer kitty litter for that job.
Sometimes winter wins and you stop
Boy the cop looked at me funny when he came up to check on my stopped car and found me bundled in a sleeping bag. I was comfy and the tow truck was on its way though, so it was a win. To the extent a ‘my car’s engine just randomly and completely died as I was driving down the road’ moment can be a win, of course.
Warmth first: Have enough warmies in the car to keep all potential occupants reasonably comfortable even if you’re stuck in it overnight with no power. I’ve read a lot of suggestions about keeping some candles or kerosene lanterns, but it’s not happening in my car. Carbon monoxide from incomplete combustion is more of a threat than the heat from a couple of candles can justify.
These warm boots, with a good thick wool sock and good glove stuffed down each, live in my car in the winter
What I see overlooked in many suggestions for car kits is good warm boots and socks, plus spare dry gloves. We often drive in our work clothes, in shoes not suitable for walking away from a car that slid down an embankment. Attempts to clean off cars often result in wet gloves that provoke a real risk of frostbite, or impairment of further attempts to fix problems because of fingers too cold to follow your directions.
Food and water are harder in winter
(I HAVE NO SHAME)! Seriously though, many of our carry containers don’t do well in freeze/thaw cycles. A bottle that split when it froze then melted in your floorboards is no good. I’ve got some foil packs of emergency water in the car just for this. They’re small enough to slip in an inside coat pocket to thaw out.
I like this type of water for the car kit; it’s very temperature tolerant and the pouches can be thawed individually — important when it costs body heat.
Some no-cook foods don’t like those freeze/thaw cycles either. MREs break down faster, for example. I find one left in my car for one winter is ok, but needs to be eaten and replaced soon after or it gets nasty. Foods like nuts and dried fruits do well and are high calorie for the weight. I think those emergency ration bars will be fine too, but honestly haven’t tested much of them. I haven’t found enough enthusiasm for subsisting off of them for a day just to test the point.