Tag: preparedness

Go Bag – Start With The Bag

This is part of the Go Bag series.

Putting together a Go Bag, AKA Bug-Out-Bag or 72-hour kit requires something to gather things together into. That is some kind of bag. I’ve selected a backpack for the flexibility to have my hands free while carrying it.

Keeping in mind the limited use of a bag for emergency use is you should consider the balance between spending the money enough money to get a bag that fills the need vs something that would fall apart the first time you use it.

For me it needs to be a back-pack. This gives you the option of having your hands free while carrying the bag and generally you can carry more weight on your back than griping it in your hands. Additionally, I wanted the options that the MOLLE system provides. Further, I’m looking for my bag to visibly stand out, any kind of camo pattern is not what I’m looking for.

I selected this bag in the yellow and purple

In the past, I have used backpacks and bags that were one single compartment and found that I didn’t like it as I usually had to take everything out every time I needed anything. This has several compartments so I can organize the stuff I have in the bag. I have used it on vacation trips and so far like it. Future posts in this series will go through what I think should be part of a go-bag.

Tire Plug Kit – Something Everyone With Tires Should Own

My son came in after mowing the lawn saying “Dad we have a problem”.  He proceeded to explain how he was having problems steering and when he pulled it into the garage he noticed that one of the back tires was flat.

We found a nail in the tire and rather than take it someplace I pulled out the plug kit.  I took advantage of this to teach my son how to plug a tire, and he did it all.  If it fails he will have to walk home, from the front yard 🙂  If you look at the picture above you will see the little bit of the orange plug sticking out.

Frequently you can plug a tire without even taking it off the car, mower or whatever else.  This can be a real advantage if you are out away from your home base.  Consider being on the side of the road or pulled into a gas station.  If you catch it before too much air escapes, and you are quick you can have the tire plugged before it even goes flat.  Jacking a car up on the side of a busy road can be dangerous, you either have the jack in the soft shoulder or it is on the road side and you have to worry about a car hitting you.  Instead you can just pop a plug in.  However I must admit to not carrying a plug kit in my car so I decided to get this compact kit from Amazon.

You will likely need to add air to the tire so it is goo to also have a portable air compressor.  My Chevy mini-van with the load leveling system comes with a built-in air compressor to adjust the suspension and it has a port on it you can use for adding air to your tires.  It has save me on more than one occasion.

I’ve used up everything in my existing plug kit that I keep in the garage so I also ordered a 50 pack of plugs, this should last me almost forever.  Note this type of repair is only for tubeless tires, which will be almost any car, but things like lawn mowers, tractors and wheelbarrows might have tubes.  Bicycles almost always have tubes.