Posted on 01/05/2022 8:32:28 AM PST by V K Lee
As you travel during the winter months, consider the important survival gear items to keep in your car. Your literal survival may even depend on it
Example: Stranded on the highway, stuck in a major snow storm or ice storm, along with everyone else. The cars are running out of gas. No heat. Now what? Hypothermia sets in…
Here’s a real world example that is occurring as I post this article: “Never Seen Anything Like It” – Drivers Trapped On Virginia Interstate Since Monday
The fact is, we’re not always dressed appropriately for an emergency when we hop in the car to go somewhere during the winter. We assume that everything will be alright. During the winter, it’s especially important to have adequate warm clothing and protection form the elements. Even if you’re not wearing them, it is highly advisable to keep a separate dedicated set of cold-weather gear in the car (e.g. an extra jacket is better there than hanging in your closet at home).
Here are a few ideas to consider: List Of Winter Survival Gear For Your Car
(Excerpt) Read more at modernsurvivalblog.com ...
The battery would what? You talking about an Electric car battery or a gasser's battery?
You're getting more vague with each of your posts.....
“You’re getting more vague with each of your posts.....”
You jumped into the middle of a conversation. Your job to catch up.
Yep have two of em
Not necessary to catch up, just trying to understand your gibberish.......
—” I didn’t see a survival blanket.”
Better than nothing, but do not bet your life on one.
Heat moves from hot to cold, three ways, convection (WIND), conduction(touch), and radiation (sun from space).
They do help with radiant and some convection loss.
No insulation is provided.
Test one.
It is 11F here in DuPage, run outside and wrap up in one and see how it works. Without solar gain or heavy insulated clothes /blankets...
Wool will retain 40% of its dry insulating value when 100% water-saturated, cotton, down, poly; not so much.
Check out a wool antique wetsuit, the old guys were tough!
how about gortex?
That is all true...I presume most sensible people who might drive from point A to point B in nasty cold weather likely have some form of heavy jacket on...I would expect a survival blanket to augment that, not replace it.
Heh, I might go to the corner store to pick up some milk in 5 degree weather wearing a simple sweatshirt, but I sure as heck aren’t going to drive 20 miles to work wearing that sweatshirt when it is that cold out!
When we head north , my hubby adds alcohol to the windshield fluid .
I happened to be at home when the blizzard of 77 hit Buffalo.
I could not see the neighbors house which was not more than 15 feet away from our kitchen window. It was the width of the driveway and about three feet of grass next to the house.
Total white out.
I learned the gas tank thing on a trip out west, of all places. I drove out there with my daughter and someone warned me to not let my tank go below half full. I heeded that and was glad I did when we started through Utah or Nevada and saw a sign that said *No services for the next 103 miles.*
If you were low on gas, too bad for you.
—”how about gortex?”
After many years on rock, ice, and a few mountains; I have collected a closet of the stuff.
Insulation is a function of distance and small interstitial spaces blocking air currents (convection). Vacuum works but ...
Gore-tex is a thin semi-permeable membrane that allows water vapor to pass but not liquid water. Keeps rain/dripping ice out and allows water vapor from the skin out, hopfully.
I wear it over wool to hopefully prevent sweat from collecting in my clothing. Pit zips too!
Under extreme exertion and or when dirty it will let you down.
You must take the time to remove a layer or two.
Each year a newer better version arrives...
A nice Dachstein sweater and Gortex shell VERY NICE WARM,$$$
I was in the blizzard of 77 in Buffalo too.
I was at the Air Force Base in Niagara Falls. They told me I could go home early because the storm was coming.
I dawdled around a bit and then left.
10 seconds after pulling out of the driveway it became a total white-out. If I had left a minute sooner I would have been out on country roads in Niagara. stuck for days.
It took me 10 seconds to drive down the road, but nearly 15 minutes to make my way back to get back into the base.
At one point I thought I heard beeping- and I got out of my car to look and there was A CAR right in front of me.
Never saw anything like it.
Thank you!
Your excellent advice reminds me of a couple of air force cadets headed back to CO Springs who got derailed off the road during a snow blizzard in W. Kansas/E. CO on I 70 several years ago. They lost their lives to CO poisoning.
MFO
The commute the night before, Thursday night, was horrible. It took us an hour to make our usual 15 minute ride.
My ride told me they would not be going in the next day. The next morning as the last minute, since conditions had improved so much, they changed their mind but were not willing to wait for me. So I just took a call in vacation day.
About 15 minutes later, between parking the car and walking into the office, my ride said the storm hit. Got in safely by seconds and was stuck there all weekend.
I was never so grateful for being stuck at home in my life. I had food and my own bed to sleep in which I would not have had at work.
There were a lot of bad storms that year and the following winter, ‘78.
“Your excellent advice ...”
Good advice. ... excerpted from article.
The Army poncho liner is not mylar. It is a stuffing-filled nylon blanket and done quilted style.
Heh, I didn’t mean to turn this into a point of contention!
The mylar survival blanket will do two things: stop the wind, and slow the escape of heat.
I look at it like being in a plane and having some kind of major issue where you lose all your instrumentation. The first thing you should do (I am told, I am not a pilot, but this makes sense) is to reduce speed to obtain maximum fuel efficiency so you can stay in the air longer while you figure out what is going on.
I would think a survival blanket might help along those lines...:)
I think that was the one where the Ohio gov rolled out the National Guard with tracked M113 armored personnel carriers to rescue folks trapped in cars on the highways.
Good additions to the list.
Basically, one wants to carry the basic essentials to survive outside of shelter (vehicle/building) in the climate/weather for as long as necessary.
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