Is all your survival gear ready to be taken quickly out of your truck?

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

e9999

e9999

Gotta get out there...
Moderator
10 Year 15 Year 20 Year
Joined
Sep 20, 2003
Threads
1,087
Messages
19,239
Location
US
no Toy, but an interesting lesson in desirable gear management and preparedness. Not to mention something rather amazing to watch and maybe worth remembering the next time you go out there by yourself.
Astonishingly, the guy films it all even from the beginning while some of us would be either rather busy or stunned. Kudos for him for staying cool through the whole thing, though. Note he was taking his gear out from the back with the fuel tank probably right under there... Some folks would have looked at it burn from a distance instead, I'm sure.

Goes to show you, stuff happens...

Me, I'm increasing the size of my fire extinguisher, and maybe of my shovel too.

Feeling for the guy...

Here:
(the interesting stuff starts around the 10mins mark.)

 
This is an older story...and if you read the comments on the vid lots of folks suggest it was planned.

That being said are you prepared to be alone for 2-4 days..lwhich is a great question.
 
Didn't read the comments but the thought that it was staged did cross my mind. It was just a bit surreal.
But the notion that you may need to grab stuff out in a hurry is interesting and I was thinking how I would have fared with my last trip packing, with many layers of junk piled in the back. So maybe not so well. I don't intend to be paranoid about this, cuz what are the odds, but having a backpack ready with a few essentials is a good idea, not just for the emergency but also just for the convenience of it. If the bag is there and ready, it's trivial to grab it and less chance you'll be lazy and go without anything out for that "short" hike when you get lost or break your leg...
 
e9999 said:
Didn't read the comments but the thought that it was staged did cross my mind. It was just a bit surreal.
But the notion that you may need to grab stuff out in a hurry is interesting and I was thinking how I would have fared with my last trip packing, with many layers of junk piled in the back. So maybe not so well. I don't intend to be paranoid about this, cuz what are the odds, but having a backpack ready with a few essentials is a good idea, not just for the emergency but also just for the convenience of it. If the bag is there and ready, it's trivial to grab it and less chance you'll be lazy and go without anything out for that "short" hike when you get lost or break your leg...
Click to expand...


I agree. This is what being practical and being ready for every situation means.
 
e9999 said:
I don't intend to be paranoid about this, cuz what are the odds, but having a backpack ready with a few essentials is a good idea, not just for the emergency but also just for the convenience of it. If the bag is there and ready, it's trivial to grab it and less chance you'll be lazy and go without anything out for that "short" hike when you get lost or break your leg...
Click to expand...

The Get Home Bag and Bug Out Bag fit this role. One or the other is in the vehicle wherever I go. One bag to grab that has the essentials. This can mean some redundancy (hey I like buying/making "stuff") but doesn't have to. In other words if I have the appropriate sleeping bag in the BOB I don't need to throw another one in the truck for a trip (tho I usually do.)
 
For all their problems and the foibles of their owners, I still have a soft spot for Heeps. And I'm sure envious of their aftermarket supply.
Gonna start working on a BoB when I get the chance. That and a jug of water and you're golden.
 
In Oz, vehicle fires aren't that uncommon in the bush. One of the big causes is folk that drive over lots of desert grasses, spinifex in oz is prevalent and when in the middle of the track and in seed can be a real problem.

What happens is you drive for miles and miles without realizing it is building up in the radiator (hence fly mesh is common there) and also on the bash plates. On a modern petrol vehicle the cats run extremely hot and can ignite the spinifex. A fire extinguisher is mostly useless since it isn't a raging surface fire, but instead something that can easily re-ignite once the smothering extinguisher stuff has run out. A decent garden spray jug that can be pump pressurized works much better since you can really wet down the problem area and it can be easily refilled.

Anyhow, here's a mitsubishi that went bbq mode out in the great vic desert in western oz. We were at least 200 miles from the nearest town/habitation when we came across it.

burned.jpg


Spinifex everywhere out there, but not in full 'bloom'. The stuff is also incredibly prickly and super painful.

pnc2.jpg


and here's a mate's latest model mitsubishi (god knows why he buys the things)... This is after removing a bunch of junk (body stuff) to get to the front to clean it out. He wasn't running a screen at this point...

mits1.jpg


This is just madness. Mitsubishi in their 'wisdom' mount the intercooler radiator under the engine and in front of the diff - normally there's a bashplate here, that he's had to remove to clear the spinifex out of the i/c radiator. Totally cookoo. Bashplate is on the ground in the pic.

mits2.jpg


The mesh I run on my patrol. Advantage of the old patrol is that there's very little junk in front of the radiator and behind the grill. So very easy to get in there to brush the debris off and it just falls down to the ground.

mqfly3.jpg



No idea what ignited the jeep, but assuming an extinguisher is golden is a major falsehood. Having quick access to get some basic protection (even if just space blanket/bags), food and especially water is essential. In this new modern world, not having some form of satellite based emergency communication would be nuts.

cheers,
george.
 
That's nasty stuff. I'm always careful on those two tracks not to park with the cats and exhaust pipe directly over tall grass if at all possible, but if you are loading up on dried stuff like yours on top of a cat skid plate while moving, that may be bad news.

Yes, it would be good to include a satellite based locator or communication device of some sorts in the emergency bag if you will be in one vehicle significantly away from civilization.

Indeed, the thing about a rapid vehicle fire like that is that it would negate many otherwise well-thought out plans for emergency situations. Like your powerful but built-in ham radio is going to burn with the truck, etc.
 
Wow, that's insane! How could someone keep their cool like that?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom