The Most Important Items to Keep in Your Car | 10 Things Must Haves in Your Car

 All right. Today we’re going to talk about ten things that I think every man should have in his vehicle whether you drive a truck, drive a car, ride a motorcycle, you want to be prepared because when you’re prepared, gentlemen you can deal with the unexpected.We can’t predict the future, but what we can do is control how prepared we are for common situations out there.

I’ve been driving vehicles for over twenty years, I’ve owned multiple vehicles and I’ve always made sure that my vehicles are as prepared as they can be.

This has saved me multiple times from being stranded on the side of the road to whenever, you know, I’ve had it so my keys are locked in the vehicle to whenever I’ve hit a deer and to be able to deal with that situation.

Life is going to throw you a lot of curve balls, gentlemen and some people appear to be lucky. Honestly, luck is equal to preparation meeting opportunity and you can be lucky.

So, take these items and guys if you’ve got something to add, you know I love hearing from you down in the comments below, go – let me know Antonio you missed this, you could have gotten into more detail here.

In addition, I’ve got a support article over at Real Men Real Style, I’m going to go beyond this ten, I’m going to talk about a number of other items which would essential most everything . All right? Let’s get into it.

10 Things You Need In Your Vehicle

So, number one, have a spare key on your vehicle. Now, this works out pretty easy for me, I’ve got an older truck about twenty years old and I keep a spare key hidden on there. Yes, you’re going to run the issue of it’s going to probably send your alarm off, however you can get in there to your keys. Having kids in there in our minivan we have had a three-year old locked herself in the minivan. My wife has locked herself out of the van.

And, yes, I showed up with a spare key, the alarm goes off, but that door opens we’re able to get in there, get the keys without having to break the window. Find a way to get a spare key and hide it on your vehicle. Also, it’s great to have another set at home especially with someone, you know, someone that can turn the alarm on or off.

Number two is get that spare tire and make sure it’s not flat. So, I’ve bought used vehicles, it didn’t come with a spare and we didn’t know that ‘til six months after almost to the point that I’m glad we checked because we did actually need it. So, make sure that your spare is good to go that it actually is there. Also, make sure you got the tools, make sure that you know how to use the jack.

Look, it’s better to look now when you’ve got light than at 2:00 in the morning and day where do I – how do I even use this jack. You also want to make sure that you’ve got the tools to be able to take that tire off. Oftentimes, what your car comes with is just not going to be adequate or it’s going to be a lot harder, so make sure you’ve got those tools.

Number three, carry a good first aid kit. You can buy one for $10 or you could put your own together. I worked with my son to put together first aid kits. We’ve got two in our house and one in each vehicle. This comes in handy all the time. Kids scrape, you know, one of my daughters scrapes herself, we have princess band aids in our first aid kit, plus Neosporin and everything else.

But, you know, there’s also important to have a booklet in there so in case you do come across someone who’s gone into shock, with my kids, you know, I’ve tried to give them some basic first air training maybe it’s the Boy Scout the marine in me, but I’m always, you know, trying to get them thinking about what are you going to do if you run into this situation. But, a big part of it is having that first aid kit handy.

Number four jumper cables. If you don’t know what jumper cables are if you don’t have them in your vehicle, stop now, go to the article, get some basic jumper cable. It is incredibly important to have jumper cables. I use this all the time.

And I live in a part of the world where it gets deathly cold, so I not only have jumper cables, but I’ve also got these jumping devices. This one made by JNC I probably used this twenty times over the last five years to help other motorists stranded on the side of the road. I helped my neighbor get her car started.

Number five, have a bright jacket. I’ve had this Helly Hansen in my truck for twenty years and, it’s a great jacket, I love it, I don’t normally wear it though. I like a bright jacket because if I’m getting out of my vehicle late at night, I can simply put this on, it will – so basically it’s acting as a reflective vest.

In addition, if it’s cold, hey, I’ve got this to keep me warm and when my kids are cold, I’ve got this as an extra blanket. If somebody’s in shock on the side of the road, I can use it as a blanket. There are so many uses for a bright very warm jacket.

Also, make sure it’s water resistant if you’re going to be in snow and you’re going to have to walk half a mile to a gas station and a  little bit of a blizzard, you want something that’s going to block the wind and is going to keep out any of the wetness.

Number six, the tool kit. So, I have a multi-tool in my glove compartment, I like the knife on it, but it also have a proper tool kit in the back. I rarely ever use this toolkit. So, I went with one and just packaged it up. This one made by Stanley, it works fine. Now, this one sits in my truck and I’ve got the same exact one in my wife’s van. It’s there just in case we need to be able to get under hood and make a small adjustment, if we hit a deer and you’ve got some, you know, you literally you’ve got to, you know, remove parts out of, you know, the vehicle so that you can keep driving, you know, that’s what a toolkit is there for.

Number seven, water and food. Water much more important. You cannot go very long just maybe a day and a half, two days without water. With food, you can go a week, so you’re fine there. I do keep MREs in there, if my kids if they say, oh, I’m really hungry I’m like, well, we’ve got the emergency  MRE. Nobody ever touches it, but at least it will sustain us in an emergency situation.

In my truck I keep about six of this, in our van I keep about eight to twelve. Now, you need about a gallon per day, that’s what they recommend. I think you can get away with about half a gallon per day in an emergency situation, but, you know, again, this is more for emergencies.

Number eight is the flashlight. I keep this one by Maglite, I really like it. The batteries last long time. I do keep an extra set and it – we use it quite a bit, if you’re not going to be using it, if you have a smaller flashlight, then remove the batteries put them in a plastic bag.  I also like this one, I can use this as a hammer or a weapon if we’ve got maybe some type of animal that’s outside the vehicle and won’t leave us or let us get outside the vehicle or maybe I would just stay at the vehicle at that point.

Number nine, I got an extra wallet. I do – with this extra wallet, I’ve got about $25 in cash. I also have around $10 in change I keep in the vehicle in the glove box. Also, I’ve got an expired license and a credit card just in case, you know, I need to be able to show some form or ID.

Most people don’t check the dates and it’s, you know, the credit card I use it once every six months to make sure it’s working not expired and I can use this if I really need to be able to buy gas and forget my wallet.

Finally, a map. I know a lot of you guys have GPS and you say, Antonio, I don’t need a map. Well, there are places where you’re not going to get a signal and where having a good map is going to be very useful.

Okay. So, what were the items I didn’t choose to include, again, I go into that more here in the article. But, guys in that article I’m going to talk about, you know, there’s tissues, I carry extra business cards, I’ve always got nice books so I can read and I can double this book if I have to start a fire with a fire starting device.

Duct tape, sunglasses, a miniature grooming kit, you know, just in case it’s, you know, like I got kids, we brush their teeth late at night when we’re coming home because they’re always asleep in the vehicle. I’ve also got my songs from the Marine Corps for motivation and, yes, that is a cassette tape.

All right, guys, let me know what you think. I would love to hear from you down in the comments. Go check out the article and I’ll see you in the next Article. Take care.