Vehicle Survival Kits: How To Beat Munson’s Law
What’s in your vehicle survival kit?
You’ve no doubt heard of Murphy’s Law: “Anything that can go wrong, will.” Munson’s Law, which I named for myself, is the corollary to Murphy’s Law: “Anything that can go wrong, will. And you will feel like a jackass because you knew better and you let it happen anyway.” One of the places where our survival strategies can go full Munson is in our vehicles. Everyone–not just jackasses like yours truly–has a tendency to think of our cars as little mobile extensions of our homes. This is a mistake.
It takes only a moment for your car to go from “vehicle moving at 60 mph” to “half a ton of crumpled steel.” It only takes a storm shifting off-track at the last second to turn a highway into a flash flood. When that happens, you may not even have the luxury of using your car as a temporary shelter from the elements. (If you’d like to know how I learned this, it’s “the hard way.”) So, in order to beat Munson’s Law, this is what I now keep in my trunk at all times, for every trip, no matter what.
1. Full-size camp axe
You’re going to want to cheap out on your trunk axe. Don’t do this. You may need it to break up a felled tree, or to cut branches to make shelter. This is not the time to discover that yes, there are grades of steel and some of them barely qualify as tinfoil. Boy, did I feel dumb.
2. Cat litter
It’s bulky, it’s heavy, it takes up space and you’re going to want to take it out of your car. Do not do this, even if it’s summer and you want to make room for your bear tent. I did that once in late May, and managed to get my car stuck in a snowdrift at 7,000 feet the following day. The cat litter I left on the floor of my garage was, therefore, not available to be scattered under my wheels.
3. Space blanket and tea candles
You already know what the space blanket’s for…fashioning an emergency shelter or warming oneself up. I used to think it was dumb to bring a space blanket in my trunk because I had plenty of room for a real blanket, and my car would certainly serve as an emergency shelter. And it would have, if the car had still been car-shaped and not some new weird defiance of Euclidean geometry.
Here’s the trick: You take the space blanket and set it up around yourself like a little teepee. Then you take a single tea candle and light that bad boy. In about two minutes, you will be very warm and you will stay that way for up to 12 hours (depending on the tea candle).
4. Paracord, rope, and more rope
Do you know what you need for just about every single survival strategy humankind has devised? Rope. Do you know what you absolutely will not have at the moment you need it? You guessed it: rope! That’s because the nature of rope is to tangle itself up in your tire tools and other random crap you keep in your trunk, and if you are Trace Munson, one day you will get annoyed with it and pitch it on the garage floor to make room for the other stuff you want to bring. Don’t be like Trace Munson.
5. Lighter, steel wool, flint, striker
From Jack London to Bear Grylls, everybody understands why it’s paramount to build a fire. We can live a long time without food and a few days without water, but hypothermia kills in just hours. So I won’t spend too much time emphasizing the fact that lighters love to just quit working and that flint is a pain in the ass to use…I’ll just mention that you really need to have redundant capabilities here. That’s because I have a secret survival tool that everyone should have with them at all times, and it can’t work without a fire.
6. The biggest, nastiest dog-turd of a cigar you can find
Sometime after midnight at 9,000 feet and 20 below zero, you exit your wrecked car and look around you at the empty, howling wilderness. Your cell phone has no bars, and the nearest town is a day’s walk away. Nobody’s expecting you, and nobody’s coming to get you. What to do?
Take that cigar, bite off the end, and get your firestarter. By the time you exhale your third big puff, someone will be along to tell you to PUT THAT DAMN THING OUT.
What’s in your vehicle survival kit? Tell us in the comments!
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Everyone tells me that I lug too much stuff around in my vehicle. I own an SUV, but the back is full of survival items. I have a few milk crates, one with fluids like oil, antifreeze and windshield washer. The other has tools: small shovel, gas wrench, pry bar, folding saw, bolt cutters, tool box (wrenches, screwdrivers, sockets, pliers, etc), first aid kit, road atlas, rope/cordage and a 4-cell Maglite. I keep an assortment of beverages: Mt. Dew (caffeine), Gatorade and water. I have tool bag that I use for a “poop kit”. It holds a few rolls of toilet paper and baby wipes. There is a gym bag with food: a few MREs, granola and Nutrigrain (fruit) bars and Poptarts. I keep 4 sweatshirts and 2 winter jackets in the back of the vehicle as well. Most important, I throw a Get Home Bag in the SUV before I travel. I have a Winter and Summer version. These hold the smaller items: Survival knife, sawback machete or hatchet, All Weather Blanket, bivvy, water filter, fire kit, multitool, flashlight, paracord, Datrex Food Bars and a combination weapons system (AR7 + .45 ACP or 10/22 Takedown + GP100).
Forget the axes and the folding bow saw. Get the Silky Gomboy Curve 210 or 240.
I have blankets, lighter, flashlight, usb cord for charging cell phone, 6 pack of water, p-nut butter crackers… Motrin, extra meds if taken daily, small first aid kit and take it from someone who has been stuck on the side of the road in a snow & ice storm more times than most… DON’T FORGET THE TOILET PAPER!!!
I lived in Wyoming for years where the weather can change on a dime. I keep dryer lint & cotton balls pasted with petroleum jelly along with an extra tube of the jelly for fire starter fuel, a couple of lighters, homemade waterproof matches they are easy to make and cheaper than buying them ( buy a box of stick matches and a bottle of clear finger nail polish) dip the striker ends of the matches in the polish and set the striker end of the match over the edge of a counter to dry they burn hotter than a regular match, burn longer, and are waterproof. I also keep extra boxes of granola bars or mix that I also make myself, as well as beef jerky, couple cans of sterno cans, first aid kit, an axe & hatchet with a sharpener, at least one small pot for boiling water, a cooling rack usually used for cooling bread or cookies is great for a portable cooking grate for cooking over a fire. I think you get the idea. IT’S ALWAYS BETTER TO HAVE IT AND NOT NEED IT THAN TO NEED IT AND NOT HAVE IT!!
They are a little harder to find these days, but the old style railroad or highway flares are great for starting a fire. They burn for 20 min’s and burn HOT, will start your fire quick and even dry out the wet wood. and are good warning / signal aids. Store in a dry place to keep striker from getting wet.
a foldable shovel if a full size one not feasible, regular blanket/sleeping bag on top of the space blanket. extra lighters, flashlights, whistle.
Potassium permanganate (KMnO4) and glycerine for starting a fire. Plus the KMnO4 will help purify water and act as an antiseptic for cuts, abrasions etc. You could also take s TP tube and fill it with dryer lint and use the lint as kindling or base for a fire.
I would pack some of the 5 year shelflife water bags. They are small, about a cup of water in each, but they really beat melting snow or going without! Bad idea to not have water due to the fact that if you have just been in a wreck and you will need water to help you to come down from the adrenaline rush.
Google ‘Celox’, I did, and it’s amazing! Get several of the products! Long shelf life, too!
OK, Take a vehicle that is appropriate for the risks that may be ahead. I would say…do not ever take AWD cars into the back country! So, load up your Jeep or truck with stuff…shovels, picks, axe (full size and hatchet), full tire chains (I have had four chains most of the time, but now down to two (at time of this writing, have decided to get down to the ‘chain supply store’). Make sure you have a spare tire, I have only had one flat in 21 years (have picked several nails and screws ‘in the city’, but…). And, food, you know what you want for three days, in the summer, more in the winter!). Then the space blankets are a great and mandatory item, I will grab four. A tent is a small package and easy to pack! Sleeping bags for each person, cold weather ones for cold weather! I have some -20 degree clothing. Back to the truck (and I’m serious, no cars!), locking differentials are a must, without them, if you’re stuck your 4 wheel drive is only 2 wheel drive! You can figure that out, right!? My Jeep is ‘lifted and locked’…that’s the rule! And no ‘small tires’. If your truck isn’t worth, say $3,000 worth of electric lockers…then stay on the good roads, walk the rest!
Ok, so something useful this time.
I highly recommend the chemical fire starters, those little squares are great for starting a fire under near any condition, and because they burn so hot, even wet wood will burn easily.
They are compact, and cheap.
Just store then in a foil lined resealable packet, and they last quite awhile.
LOL! So, “Munson’s Law” is basically an observation on humanity? Ouch.
Hell man, that’s the history of humanity in a nutshell.
Awesome bro. Never thought about keeping a quality axe in my truck, but makes perfect sense.
I would like to add 1 product to your list it is called Celox and is a hemostatic product that will stop bleeding in any weather on any body it is amazing and should be in every car and every pack especially if you are on bloodthinners