Tools to Keep in Your Car

For the most part we all take a functioning car for granted. We go to and from work, we take road trips and we expect our cars to work. With as much as we pay for cars, we should expect our cars to work and they do…most of the time. Unfortunately we live in an imperfect world and on rare occasions we need to be ready for an automobile emergency. If and when one happens, you’ll be happy you kept some of these important tools in your car. This is just the tip of the iceberg, so keep an eye out for future articles on this topic.

A lot of these recommended tools are good to have in ANY motor vehicle, cars, trucks, motorcycles, jeeps and RVs. However, there are certain situations for each of those vehicles where other, specialized tools will be needed as well. The tools mentioned here are things to keep in addition to standard no-brainers like a spare tire, jumper cables, a jack and a tire iron that you should already have in your car.

Starting off, as far as tools go the first thing you’ll likely want to have is a flashlight. Maybe a few different varieties. The reason for this is because if you happen to have car trouble at night you want to be able to see what you’re repairing. Even during the daytime, sometimes it’s hard to see under the hood and a bright flashlight can be a great help. A flashlight also helps you to be seen by other motorists at night. A good flashlight or head lamp like one made by Pelican can be quite useful and investing in one of their right angle lights or some of their specialty flashers will make you and your car more visible in the dark. You should probably have road flares and a red, reflective triangle too, but a couple flashlights will be invaluable.

As far as actual tools go, everyone should have a good ratchet and socket set on hand. You’ll want a high quality set like Stahlwille, or Hazet to help you get a good fit on your fasteners and keep them from stripping. You might not think that’s important now, but try tightening or removing nuts and bolts when they’ve been stripped by cheap tools. Wera’s Zyklop ratchet might be a good choice as well given that its head swivels to get work done at odd angles making it less likely your fasteners will strip and that you’ll have the right amount of torque to do the job. The Zyklop easily does the job of several tools so having one with some sockets will save you space and keep you prepared. A good ratchet set will be useful for just about any possible fix on your car, so it’s good to have a set on hand.

There’s also something of a grab bag of assorted tools and things that would also be helpful in an emergency. A multi-tool like a Life Hammer, basically something that can be used to break the window open, cut seatbelts and have a few other functions in case you crash and fly off into a lake or something, is something you might like to have in an extreme situation. A good knife is essential too as, in general, having a knife is always handy, you can use it to cut hoses or you can use it as a tool or worst case, for survival situations. Duct Tape is great too, not just for jury rigged repairs, but for legitimate emergency repairs like fixing a leak on a hose temporarily or temporary fender bender repair to keep your fender off the ground while you drive to get help. Duct Tape has become something of a joke as a fix-all, but it’s somewhat warranted because it can fix a lot of things.

There are an untold number of tools you should keep in your car to handle emergency situations and this can change somewhat if you’re in colder weather because you kind of need a lot of extra stuff there too just to stay alive. Having a flashlight, a basic socket set, some Duct Tape and emergency tools will get you a long way to rescuing yourself when your car meets trouble. The tools mentioned here are just a starting point, things that can help you on the road. We’ll be taking another look down the road at more tools you should keep in your car, and in other vehicles.