WINTER CAR KIT SUGGESTION

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.
-Albert Camus

A personal use emergency kit is something that's a good idea to keep in your car any time you travel, but it's especially important to construct and carry one during winter travel months. Below is a list of item suggestions you should consider and possibly include in building your car emergency kit. If you build it you have ownership; when you build it you will know what you got and why you put it in the kit, thus preventing panic and dismay on the side of the snow-covered highway. Please consider taking the little bit of time to assemble a kit that includes the following items just in case you ever get caught out in the worst of winter weather.

• Car Cell phone car charger. (A cell phone is one of the most valuable emergency items you can keep in your car. Program your cell phone with numbers you may need in the event of an emergency -- friends, family, auto-club, tow-truck companies, etc. As a backup, make and keep a list of emergency numbers in your glove compartment.)
• Tire chains in areas of deep heavy snow
• Bag of sand, rock salt or kitty litter (a towrope may also be helpful at getting you out of a winter-weather bind, or it may allow you to help out a fellow motorist)
• Collapsible snow shovel
• Good snowbrush
• Good solid-edged ice scraper
• Booster cables (maybe for you but also so you can help others)
• Flashlight (check the batteries often; batteries lose power quicker in cold climes. Also consider snap light sticks or a hand crank or shake no battery power flashlight.)
• Road flares and if possible a road hazard reflective triangle (will help warn other vehicles if yours is stranded on a roadside at night. Flares can be hazardous, so read and follow the appropriate safety warnings and use extreme caution when using them.)
• Fuel line de-icer
• Door lock de-icer
• Windshield-wiper fluid
• Extra antifreeze
• SPACE Brand Emergency Blanket
• SPACE Brand All Weather Blanket (in case you were to be stranded in your car overnight or have to walk a short distance.)
• Extra clothing including pants, gloves an older pair of boots and extra socks, also a wool pullover hat and warm gloves.
• Basic First Aid kit
• Grabber Warmers that create long lasting heat when opened.
• A couple of candy or high-energy bars
• A good idea is to print out a big "Call Police" or a "HELP" sign on your color printer and keep it in the car to put in the window if stranded.

Though you most likely maintain your car very well, in winter you should:

• Keep the gas tank above ¾ as much as possible in cold weather
• Get an oil change before the real cold weather sets in
• Check out the coolant system
• Check your car battery
• Check your tire air pressure

Inside the car I keep a good extended handle snow brush/ice scraper combination, it does you no good later on in the day if it is in a snow covered trunk. Also keep a pair of knit gloves under the front seat, so you don’t wet out my warm leather gloves.

Keep an anti-fog cloth for the inside windows, an old washcloth and a can of de-icer to clean the windshield washer blades of built up ice… a clear unobstructed view is essential in winter driving. This is in addition to the flashlight with extra batteries and the small first-aid kit you should keep in the glove box.

Now in the trunk in a plastic hinged or lid storage box you may also want to have the following items:

• Hooded sweatshirt: if you should get stuck or run off the road you will want to be warm as you await help.
• Knit cap: not stylish but it keeps the ears warm if needed.
• Pair of wool socks: don’t scoff, remember wet cold feet.
• Orange ALL WEATHER BLANKET: So you can be warm and be seen if you exit the car in a white out situation.
• 3# coffee can filled with sand: traction
• Reflective triangle and a flashing strobe light: you don’t need someone hitting my car if it is off the side of the road.
• Grabber Hand and Toe Warmers
• Good metal-edged ice scraper
• Extra turn signal bulbs and some basic tools.

Now also in the trunk you may want to have “jumper cables”. Yes I know you got a new car and all that, but better safe than sorry, and consider one of those collapsible snow shovels… again just in case.

Inside the car have an emergency stash of a candy bar or two, a cell phone re-charger and I consider purchasing those deep edge plastic floor mats on the floor so as not to salt out the carpet and which can also be used for wheel traction if you get stuck.