Setting Up Your Survival Kit – When you’re aboard a motorhome, it might feel like you’re in a dream world, but the reality is, you’re in a home on wheels, often disconnected from everything, yet still connected in some way. And when an emergency arises, it’s crucial to be prepared.
Understanding the Basics of the Survival Kit
To begin with, it’s essential to understand that humans need four things to survive: oxygen, water, food, and sleep. But to deal with life’s road bumps, you need a bit more than that. Here’s what should be in a basic survival kit – you shouldn’t embark on your trip without these items:
- First Aid Kit: Essential for dealing with injuries and medical emergencies on the spot. Typically contains items like bandages, gauze, adhesive tape, disposable gloves, alcohol, and some basic pain and fever medications.
- Physical Map: While digital navigation is common nowadays, a physical map becomes invaluable in case of electronic failure. It provides an overview of the terrain, allows for planning alternate routes, and can be vital in situations where the internet is down or you’re on a trail with no cell phone battery.
- Multifunctional Pocket Knife: This tool is versatile and practical for various tasks. It usually includes blades, a bottle opener, screwdriver, scissors, among other features, useful for everything from opening packages to making minor repairs.
- Emergency Blanket: Made of reflective material that retains body heat, the emergency blanket is essential for providing warmth and protection in critical situations, such as hypothermia or prolonged exposure to cold.
- Compass with Azimuth: A compass is a traditional and reliable navigation tool. In case of technological failure, a compass can guide you and help you find the right path, providing directions based on the Earth’s magnetic field.
- Flashlight and Power Banks: A flashlight is essential for illumination in low-light situations or complete darkness. Power banks are portable devices that store energy to recharge electronic devices like cell phones in case of emergency, ensuring you can communicate even without a conventional power source.
- Radio: A hand-cranked radio is a reliable option for communication in emergency situations. It doesn’t rely on batteries or external electricity, being manually operated to transmit and receive vital information.
- Documents: It’s crucial to keep important documents such as ID cards, passports, insurance policies, and other legal documents in a safe and accessible location in case of evacuation or emergency.
- Medications: In addition to continuous-use medications, it’s essential to include other medications in the emergency kit to treat common conditions like headaches, fever, allergies, or gastrointestinal problems, to ensure you can deal with unforeseen health issues during an emergency.
- Personal Hygiene Items: Maintaining personal hygiene is crucial for preventing infections and illnesses, especially in emergency situations. Items like toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, wet wipes, and hand sanitizer should be included in the kit.
- Cash: In emergency situations where electronic payments are not possible, having cash on hand can be crucial for buying essential supplies, paying for transportation, or other urgent expenses.
- Pet Necessities: If you have pets, it’s important to include essential items for them, such as food, water, medications, leash, collar, and poop bags, ensuring their well-being during an evacuation or emergency.
- Survival Whistle: A survival whistle is a simple and inexpensive yet highly effective tool for attracting attention in emergency situations. It can be heard over long distances and is an effective way to signal your location to rescue teams or other responders.
Beyond the Basics
These basic items cover immediate needs in the Survival Kit, communication, and navigation. If you venture far from civilization, consider learning a bit about land navigation, such as properly using a compass and especially knowing how to use your first aid kit. Other recommendations include having an extra cell phone with chargers, seven days’ worth of medication supplies (if applicable), hygiene and sanitation equipment, a three-day supply of food and water, and a collar or tag with emergency contact information.
Remember, road-life first aid goes beyond physical supplies and includes knowledge and understanding of basic safety practices.
Tools and Items Needed in the Survival Kit
Tools are essential and indispensable items in the Survival Kit. Assuming you’ll be traveling or spending time on the road, we must consider that every tool that may be needed should be with you, but unfortunately, they take up a lot of space and weigh a lot, so common sense will prevail here. You should evaluate your project, think about various possible situations, and choose the best tools to take with you.
Always remember to have lighters, matches, a tactical knife, a compact hatchet, and a fire extinguisher in the car. These items can be useful to help you in various situations, especially if you like to venture out on trails and hikes in the woods.
I’ll separate a specific post to talk about some cool tools to have in the Survival Kit, survivalist items and gadgets that fit well with the road life and are very useful for a vanlife. Even following survivalist bushcraft channels like Anderson Machado’s channel can be a great option to learn useful details.
In conclusion, this is the basics when it comes to the Survival Kit on the road, for various situations inside and outside the car. Always remember to keep the most vital items like first aid kit and the pocket knife close at hand, with easy access. The other items should be stored where you don’t need much force to access them; remember in an emergency opening a trunk can be a huge challenge.
