Car Emergency Kit List | 23 Essential Items
Be prepared to keep your car on the road and survive the unknown pit stops along the way.
BY SEAN GOLD, UPDATED:
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Car emergency kits, or vehicle kits, are preparedness kits you keep in your vehicle. There should be items and tools to repair your vehicle if needed, and other considerations based on threats in your area. For instance, if it is a possibility you may become stranded in your car from severe winter weather, you may need to keep a blanket, water, and food in your car kit. Sometimes these kits are combined with a Get Home Bag, but kit duplication is never a bad idea.
Contents (Jump to a Section)
Car Emergency Kit Essentials
Here are the essentials you should pack in your car to tackle emergencies. Building your kit with most of these will help you with a wide variety of troubles on and off the road.
- Tool Kit: Road Assistance Tool Kit – While cheap, this kit is comprehensive. Upgrade the components as soon as possible.
- Basic First Aid Kit: Swiss Safe First Aid Kit – You can opt to go with a bigger first aid kit that you develop yourself, but this small kit can still get it done.
- Escape Tool: Resqme Car Escape Tool (From our best car escape tool review) – Keep in your car where you can reach it in an emergency.
- Jack: Cars usually come with jacks these days, but make sure it works and you know how to use it.
- Spare Tire: Keep your spare tire inflated properly and check the pressure often.
- Tow Strap: Rhino Recovery Strap
- Garbage Bags: Hefty UltraStrong (From our best trash bag review) – Use them for trash, or plenty of other survival uses.
- Lighter: Windproof Arc Lighter (From our best survival lighter review)
- Survival Knife: Cold Steel SRK-5 Fixed Knife (From our best survival knife review) – A thick beater of a knife doesn’t care what you throw at it.
- Siphon: Pennzoil Pump (From the best siphon review) – Transfer fuel or water quickly and easily.
- Gas Can: Wavian USA Jerry Can (From our best gas can review) – Store gas or have an empty for emergencies.
- Spare Cell Phone Charger: Nothing in the modern era will make you panic like a dead cell phone during an emergency.
- Compressor: AstroAI Air Compressor – We haven’t reviewed compressors yet, but this is the one I use.
- Local Maps: Print copies of local maps. Here’s how you download them for free.
- Mylar Blanket: Everlit Mylar Blanket 4-Pack (From our best survival blanket review) – You can find a mylar blanket in almost every survival kit. They are versatile and lightweight: an auto-include!
- Waterproof Ponchos: Prepared4X Mylar Ponchos 4-Pack (From our best survival poncho review)
- Work Gloves: Mechanix Wear Material4X Impact (From our best survival gloves review)
- Bagged Water: Datrex Drinking Water (From the best bagged emergency water review) – Fill water containers or bring bagged water. Keep in mind the temperatures your vehicle endures.
- Water Bottle: Vargo Parabottle (From the best survival water bottle review)
- Food: Millennium Bars (From the best survival food bar review) – Make sure your choice can withstand hot temperatures like this one!
Suggested Gear
This gear may not be essential by definition, but adding any of these to your car’s survival kit will improve your loadout’s versatility for even more situations.
- Fire Extinguisher: First Alert Auto5 Extinguisher (Our vehicle pick from the best fire extinguisher review)
- Power Inverter: Bestek 300W Inverter – We haven’t reviewed inverters yet, but I keep this one in my SUV.
- Paracord: Atwood Paracord (From the best paracord review)
- Duct Tape: Gorilla Tape 35 Yard Roll (From our best duct tape review)
- Super Glue: Gorilla Super Glue (From our best super glue review) – For when you want something to stay and never move again.
- Zip Ties: Gardner Bender HD Zip Ties (From our best zip ties review)
- Signal Flares: Orion Safety Flares (From the best emergency flare review) – Individual flares are relatively light and pack a punch when you need to signal.
Situation-Specific Supplies
Essentials and suggested additions have been covered, so this is the area will you will find everything else that could be useful to have in your vehicle. These extra supplies will help you in very specific situations, are less versatile, and may take up a lot of space. Even still, they could be the difference makers in an emergency, so it could pay off to consider adding these.
- Clothes: Grab a skivvy roll and stash it in your car. Learn how to make a skivvy roll in seconds.
- Ferro Rod: Bayite 6″ Ferrocerium Rod (From our best ferro rod review)
- Compass: Brunton TruArc Compass (From the best survival compass review) – Navigate and plot your maps.
- Shovel – SOG Entrenching Tool (From our best survival shovel review) – Dig yourself out of any situation.
- Whistle: SOL Slim Rescue Howler (From our best emergency whistle review) – Whistles make getting attention easy.
Severe Winter Weather Supplies
Being trapped in a car during a severe winter storm can become a deadly situation quickly. Here are several items (in addition to the basic list) that can improve your survival chances if you live in an area prone to severe winter weather.
- Ice Scraper/Snow Brush: Ice Scraper and Snow Brush – A good ice scraper and snow brush can make a huge difference if you are using them every day.
- Tire Chains: Peerless Auto-Trac – Make sure you have the right size and know how to roll them on.
- Hand Warmers: Hand Warmers – These things can make a miserably cold situation a lot more tolerable.
- Wool Blanket: Ever Ready Wool Blanket (Wool pick from our best survival blanket review)
- Spare Winter Clothes: Roll some extra clothes (especially outerwear) to have on hand in your car.
Car Emergency Kit Checklist
A perfect vehicle kit doesn’t exist- what is right for you depends on your situation and risk tolerance. That said, we have as close to a perfect starting point for you: our car emergency kit checklist.
Our checklist is available as both a printable PDF download and as a Google Sheets/Excel file where you can check off items yourself, and even add and subtract items from the checklist.
Printable PDF Checklist
If you are looking for the simplest way to print and use the checklist above, download our printable PDF version. It is one page long on 8.5″ x 11″ paper if you reduce the margins to 0.5″. This car kit PDF makes gathering and tracking your vehicle gear extremely easy. Once you open the car survival kit PDF checklist in your browser, you can either print it directly or save it through your browser.
Excel / Google Sheets Checklist
If you are looking for a comprehensive way to track your car kit, open our Excel / Google Sheets version. The sheet is shareable, and you just need to copy it to your own Google Sheets account or download it to Excel to edit it. We also keep links to our reviews for each category to simplify shopping for any equipment you may find yourself missing.
The Next Step
After you build your car’s emergency kit, you can either continue to focus on vehicles as part of your bug out plan or move on to another focus altogether.
To improve your car kit’s evacuation potential, check out our Bug Out Vehicle Guide, Gear List, and Checklist.
Otherwise, return to Every Type of Survival Kit for Preppers.
See more of our expert-written guides, resources, and reviews in your search results – add TruePrepper as a preferred source.
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