OffRoad supplies

What kinds of things do ya'll keep in your truck for offroading trips? I'm trying to build up my supply base, and needed some ideas.
Some of the things I have:
Tow Strap, Car booster/air compressor, basic tools, water, gloves, shovel, knife.

What else would be good to throw in the truck?

 

Awesome ideas. Next on my list is a good CB radio. I forgot, I do have a nice bright flashlight in the door. Just need to get some spare batteries, and maybe some matches in case I need a fire.

 

Awesome write up man!

 

I hear those MRE's can be hard to come by.

 

Not when you have boxes upon boxes in your shop! Every time we flew to Haiti they gave us a box of MRE's and a case of water for the crew in the event of the plane breaking down out there. Fortunately, that never happened, and now we have a bunch of boxes of MRE's.

 

There's tons of information on recovery gear here, I'm going to cover some things that don't come up here as much. Because of my background, I'm as prone to plan for walking out as I am for do or die recovery (i.e. get the vehicle going or you're screwed). Physical fitness and who you have with you are obviously big parts of this.

Plan for the absolute worst case scenario. For most areas in SoCal that could mean something like it's night, it's raining, it's 35 degrees, you have a deep cut on your arm some sort of accident while attempting to recover the vehicle, and you have 15 miles until the nearest populated area/travelled road.

I keep an extensive medical bag in my truck that covers everything from boo boos and owies to gun shot wounds and fractures. Coupled with training, it can save your life.

I keep a "Walk out" pack as well. I pack it to be capable of getting me from the furthest point I will be at back to a travelled paved road. Water, protection from the elements, light, navigation, and medical.

Water, water, and more water. Water in something you can carry and give to others. Five gallon jugs are nice, but they're a bitch to carry.

Navigation in layers: GPS (primary), maps (secondary), compass and panic azimuth (i.e. if all fails and I don't know where I'm at, I know if I walk 90 degrees I'm going to eventually hit such and such paved road). Take note when you have a trail merge with your trail, as that will become a "Y" intersection on your way back.

Some sort of defensive weapon. Depending on where I'm going, what I'm doing, and what the laws are there, I'll take anything from a G19 to an AR-15.

Picture yourself having to walk out of mountain lion or bear territory at night. I don't know about you, but I'd feel a hell of lot more comfortable being armed. There are also some downright messed up people that you can run into in the middle of nowhere and the only person who can protect you is yourself.

Communication devices: The more, the merrier. Cell phones, CB's, short waves, FRS, GMRS radios. I'm guilty of going without a CB for too long, but I'm installing one this weekend. Short wave is even better and is on my list of things to get. The important part here is covering all your bases. Your super-duper 2M radio may be able to reach 20 miles, but what if there's no help on that type of radio in that range? What if you could reach the hikers who are 2 miles away on FRS (i.e. walkie talkie) radios? The more bases you cover, the better off you are. Handheld is also nice because you can take it with you should you have to leave the vehicle.

Spare set of clothes and a box of large trash bags. The clothes are for you after you get soaked and muddy recovering the truck, the trash bags are to cover the interior of the truck so you don't ruin it.

Light. I bring my Surefire L2, my headlamp, and my Streamlight (which is always in the truck) on every trip, at the minimum. If you get stuck at 4 PM and you don't have a flashlight, you're not going to be a happy camper, that's for sure.

One lesson to learn is to never turn the truck off unless you're stopping for an extended period of time and have 100% confidence in your battery. I also make sure to roll the windows down any time I get out so I don't lock myself out.

Secure loose gear in the truck - if you crash, they become projectiles. Plus I hate rattles with a passion.

A set of bolt cutters, while not generally used for legal things, can really save you should you be in an emergency and come up to a locked gate. I'm sorry, but if I'm lost and a forest gate is all that stands between me and not spending a snowy night on the trail, that lock is getting cut.

And most importantly, have a plan!

Tell someone I'm going here, be back this time, send help if not back by this time. Stick to your plan! Share your plan with those with you. I always tell people I'm offroading with "I have a medical bag behind my backseats if anything happens". It does you no good if you're the one unconscious and others don't know that the medical supplies they need are behind your rear seats.

Pre-plan contingencies. I keep a 3x5'' card in my truck off all the trick I know to recover a vehicle. That's because there's a lot of them and I don't want to forget one when I'm feeling the pressure to recover my vehicle. Here's a couple I can think off the top of my head that one might not remember in the heat of the moment:

You can use your spare tire as a dead man's anchor if you put a tow strap through the wheel and bury the tire.

If you have a winch and a hi lift and nothing to winch off of in front of you, but something behind you, disconnect the winch cable and use a hi lift jack as a manual winch to your rear.

 

Lighten up Frances...

 

Not really.

http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/MRE865-1.html

 

WATER. Most important. I know it seems counterintuitive but you need to take care of yourself before your truck! Weird, I know.

It's all covered above but I like to bring MacGyver fixings too: Ducttape, a few different sized bolts/nuts, Tire plug kit, Shoe Goo, couple feet of fence wire, etc.

A also carry fence/lock removal stuff: heavy bolt cutters, hacksaw, axe; the reason for this is more emergency necessity, around here there is alot of fence in remote roads, if I need to evacuate for fire or injury transport I'm not letting some locked gate stop me and I'm not going to bang up my truck running it over... unless the fire is close.

Signal mirror. headlamp. Always have a couple Cliff Bars in the truck. Sleeping bag and/or jacket even in August.

HiLift. Super handy device. Sincy you don't have sliders or bumpers (me neither) get the wheel attachment (lifts a corner by attaching to your wheel; goofy but it works), and the 'winch kit' which basically turns your highlift into a come-along (it's cumbersome and a pain in the as# but it beats walking out or leaving your truck for the crack-heads to part out)

Just bring what you can, here are some scenarios to be prepared for:

1. Stuck by yourself, no help
2. Stuck, with help
3. Broken truck, no help
4. Undrivable truck, self evacuation with no help
5. Somehow you get hurt, no help and have to stay put until help finds you.
6. Hopefully only this one happens: H2 stuck, you help.

 

Great! This is all suck a great help, and I appreciate it all so much. Now with all of that, what kind of storage containers do ya'll suggest? Old Ammo boxes, tool box in the rear, etc...?

 

Did I say I had taken any? No. If you inferred that I did, that is on you. As a matter of fact, I have not. Why just take something, and risk getting in trouble, when you can wait for something to break (not in the case of food, of course), or some higher up to get sick of seeing a bunch of storage space wasted by boxes that we will never use. Then it's as easy as asking if you can have it, and most likely, you get an answer that is satisfactory.

 

Whatever you like really, truck tool boxes work great. I have a shell so I just ratchet-strap a big rubbermaild thing with all the little stuff and MonkeyFists for shovel/axe etc., I had to rig up a custom HiLift mount with a couple lag bolts and some wing nuts.

The stuff in the rubbermaid thing is real heavy so I take it out when I'm not wheeling.

 

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