Vehicle Emergency Kit Detailed Item List

A vehicle emergency kit makes a lot of sense. You could be far away from your house or work and you never know what can happen while commuting.

Parts of the vehicle emergency kit may overlap with your other emergency kits. For long trips you may have more than one kit in your vehicle. On this page I talk about the extra things you can have in your vehicle.

Like all kits, it’s up to you what you have in them. What might work for someone might not work for someone else. Remember that.

Use this page as a starting guide to give you ideas for making your own emergency car kit.

Decide on What’s Important for your Situation

Like all the kits to have the best emergency kit you need to think about where you will most likely be using it.

What type of weather could you encounter while using your vehicle? Will you be going off road? Will someone else be likely to help you in an emergency or will you be on your own to either survive or get back on the road?

Only you can answer this question. It pays to think about the different scenarios you may find yourself in. If you end up travelling to far away locations or move make sure to reassess this emergency kit. Talk to other local people and find out what they have dealt with. 

Check your Vehicle First

If you have a new vehicle or maybe you just haven’t looked at it in a while. Now is a good time to check out your car.

Have a look around at potential places items could be stored. Have a look around to see what your car may already have. Is there already a first aid kit? A tool kit? Or maybe you have items that would be useful in a roadside emergency or if you need roadside assistance.

Familiarize yourself with where the spare tyre is (if you have one) where the car jack parts are and how they go together.

Having this initial look around, especially if the vehicle is new to you can help you in an emergency situation.

Size of the Kit?

As you have a vehicle it can be very easy to go overboard with a car emergency kit. It’s easy as the vehicle can hold more, carry the weight better,

You can see this when looking up ideas on the internet. You might be tempted to carry gallons of water around with you, multiple tools to cover every scenario possible. You will need to decide on what to keep in your vehicle at all times.

For some people, this can make sense. If they are in an off road vehicle and travel far away from civilization you will need to make sure you cover all your bases.

If you live in the suburbs and travel to an office each day for work. Your car emergency kit needs might and probably should be different.

Vehicle Emergency Kit Gear List

Storage in Your Vehicle

How are you going to keep your kit together in the car?

Boxes, bags, trays or something else.

A lot of vehicles have some sort of inbuilt storage in the car. It pays to check. In the past I’ve had trays that could be found under the passengers seat. Or a storage type tray that lived under the trunk cover above the spare tyre.

While these are handy. It does mean a lot of items might be found in different places in the vehicle and could be potentially loose.

You should think about this and make it as good as you possible can. There’s two main reasons.

Easy to Move if Required

The first is ease of grabbing items if you need them. This kit will more than likely just stay in the car. But if you need to grab things, maybe you come across a car crash, or need the items away from the car.

Being able to grab them, or a section of the car kit can make your life a lot easier.

Safety in the Event of an Accident

Something that can be overlooked when it comes to vehicles in general is any item that isn’t secured can become a projectile in a car crash.

While having a fire extinguisher is a great idea, having one that isn’t secured properly and could hit you in the back of the head is not a fun idea.

Another reason to keep things as secure as possible if you can.

Security of the Kit

Another aspect of a car emergency kit is just how secure will it be. People might want to steal your car and take the vehicle and everything in it.

Or they might just want to break in and steal what they can see.

If you have a large emergency kit sitting out in plain view, it could be a tempting target for people wanting to steal things.

While I like the idea of having my car emergency items in a bag. Having it in view freaks me out a bit. You never know when you park your car if it is going to be targeted by people.

This is why I use my cars inbuilt storage if possible. Keeping things out of view.

Conclusion

Car emergency kits are super helpful when you need them. Just like any other emergency kit.

But they have a balancing act of what you should have, how to store it while keeping it secure. All of this coupled with different vehicle types, how you use your vehicle and where you go will help dictate just how to fit out your car.

Have I left something off this list? Let me know by leaving a comment below.

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Other Emergency Kit Detailed Item Lists

> Grab and Go Emergency Kit Detailed Item List
> Household Emergency Kit Detailed Item List