I am in the process of outfitting a backpack to keep in the cab of my truck. It will just be a general emergency bag (a few Adventure Medical kits, knives, flashlights, batteries, lighters, paracord, etc…). Kinda-sorta an all purpose bag…it will be used for everything from my girlfriend having heartburn after eating Mexican to coming upon a car accident and needing to apply quick-clot to someones arm.
Anyways…as wintertime is approaching here in Iowa, it got me thinking “what kinds of things are going to freeze in my emergency bag?” So, here are the things that I am worried about. Tell me if I am worried for good reason.
MREs
Oral-IV
liquids in the medical kits (wipes, anti-itch bug bite stuff)
First, it depends on what “cold weather” means to you.
I wouldn’t worry much about bug bites unless you are in warmer “cold weather”
At temperatures much under 20* F the heater packs in MRE’s are verging on counter productive and I would not waste the water on em unless you are willing to stick them in your jacket the whole time they are cooking.
Butane lighters will cease to function properly unless you warm them up first, go with a zippo - they light in any temp.
If you have any kind of camp stove, go with some sort of multi fuel setup that uses airpressure from some sort of hand pump - the ones that come pre-pressurized will fail in cold weather unless - again - you warm them up first.
Leaving items out VS. understanding how to use them in cold weather is an important distinction. For something to use in the car, I would say leave them in unless space is one of your big concerns - the car will supply you with an excellent place to warm up items before you use them.
I would also suggest keeping a small 1 or 1/2 gallon emegency jug of gasoline for use either to keep the car heater running, or for use with a multi fuel stove.
The reason I am worried about bug-bite fluids, is the simple fact that if I remove all of the warm-weather stuff from the medical kit, I will probably lose it or forget to put it back in. I wasn’t planing on being bitten this winter…but…you never know, I suppose. I guess I was also kind of worried about the burn gel/ointments and things of that nature getting frozen.
I am not too worried about the heaters in the MREs…I am more concerned with the food itself freezing.
As for the lighters…yup…two zippos, flints, and lighter fluid
Animal - We put our boat away in outdoor storage each fall with all of our summer bug bite, burn cream first aid type stuff still stored in the emergency compartment. Every spring when we dig the boat back out and after spending all winter in 20 to -30 degree weather everything seems to be in good working order. i would not worry to much about that stuff freezing, like I said - if space is not an issue I would just leave all that stuff in the kit.
Just finished a Winter survival course out in -20 weather, I was eating freeze dried food, but one of the guys was eating MRE’s. He could not get his heater packs to work, and the jalepeno cheese spread was frozen into a very thick paste, but everything in the MRE was edible without breaking teeth.
I’d throw and can or two of Sterno fuel in there for good measure. The cans are sealed up and the fuel is a gel. In a pinch they would produce enough heat to warm you or the family up.
Since you live up North I assume you already have winter clothing covered.
As for products freezing, look at it this way. All of the stuff we carry in our BOBs have been transported by ship, rail, and trucks to warehouses and distribution centers abroad in all types of climates. Here in Texas during the summer months many of the store bought cookies are melted.
I have an additional bag full of cold-weather gear that I’ve put together meant to add-on to our existing emergency kits. A fleece blanket, a full ECWCS kit for each of us, hats, gloves, dry underwear and socks, and gaiter neck/ski mask stuff is in there too.
Unfortunately, there isnt really any practical way for me to store liquids in the vehicles in the winter months. My main concern is storing drinking water in our get-home kits, as most of the medical/first aid fluids could be thawed by body warmth and still remain useful.
I was introduced to these at the fore mentioned survival school, these would be great to have if you needed to dig yourself or some one else out of a ditch in the snow, or if you had to make a snow cave or snow trench to survive.
Replace the MRE’s with freeze dried . (winter MRE’s are out there)
Get an alcohol stove with wind screen, and a jug ( pint, quart whatever) of fuel.
Oral IV. aint got a clue, but water does freeze and thaws. Keep it separate IE: in the cab of your rig. OR, keep your med bag separate and load it up every time you hit the road.
Anti-itch bug juice?? Its winter…unless you have some badassed skeeters, thats a spring/summer item.
If you see yourself being on in the boonies, be sure and pack a couple of road flares. With snow on the ground starting a fire to stay warm can be a problem at times. Road flares can get a fire going when other methods can run into trouble.
And they’re good for letting someone know you’re there if you’ve run off the road.
A small camp axe can be used for cutting firewood. In winter survival fire serves many purposes including: staying warm, signaling, cooking food, and I believe its a natural mood booster hardwired into our brains. Being able to start a fire can make or break you.
Some other things that come to mind that I keep in the cab of my pickup for the winter months are a good ice scraper and a can or two of De-icer. I also keep a couple of Wal-Mart plastic shopping bags to tie around my side mirrors when I’m at work and a broken down box to place underneath my wipers. Both have saved me time after ice storms hit while I was at work.
50lbs bags of play sand in the bed of my truck has saved my butt more times than I care to count.
In cold weather I keep a small catalytic heater like some made by Coleman and about 4 1lb propane cylinders. A small 15000 BTU one will last 14 hours on one cylinder.
Great info fellas! Can anyone chime in on how to safely store extra gasoline in a vehicle? I like the idea, but am uneasy about throwing a red can in the back.
I know they make racks for SUVs (seen wranglers with them) that attach to the back and store 2 gas containers. But I can’t buy one of those at the moment.
I would only like to add snowshoes to the mix for winter survival along with the already good info on here.Unless you are going to stick with your vehicle or to the roads,snowshoes will get you across country and they can be sized for you and your gear weight wise.
