[Travis McGee]

This is my own tip, and I plan to put this together in the next few weeks.

Use a small trailer as your emergency escape assistant. Keep in in your garage. Keep all of your camping and survival gear on it all of the time. This way, you will not have to scramble to assemble your survival gear, it will already be assembled in one place, ready to go.

Most critically, keep four or more 5 gallon jerry cans of gasoline on the trailer. These will give you 400 extra miles of evacuation range, before you need to stop for gasoline. This is super critical, because all of the gas stations within 400 miles of your home will be totally swamped with out of gas evacuees. If you have no extra gas, this is where you will be forced to stop and get into a line which may last for hours and hours, at best. At worst, the gas stations will be empty, and your vehicle may be trapped in a gridlock of out of gas cars. These gas stations will be insane bedlams. You may get carjacked, robbed etc while you are trapped, searching for gasoline.

If you have an extra 400 miles worth of gasoline in your trailer, you can refill on the side of the highway, and just keep on going until you are out of the emergency evacuation zone. You will be among the first to reach the unaffected areas, where their will be motel rooms at normal prices, supermarkets, etc.

And in a total national SHTF scenario, the extra fuel range will permit you to reach a safe haven, far from the chaos and violence of the zone of out of gas cars.

(Of course, you will need a plan to use the stored fuel in the cans on a regular basis, to keep it fresh.)

[SandRat]

Get a copy of the State Emergency Evacuation plan and know the contents. Plan to evac on your own good sense early. Do a google on NEO Packets and follow the guidelines that it talks about. Those are some suggestions you wish to add Travis.

[B4Ranch]

(Of course, you will need a plan to use the stored fuel in the cans on a regular basis, to keep it fresh.)


Todays gasoline that is stored needs to be used every 60 days at a maximum.

[King Prout]

good advice.
I'm considering making a small boat.
say, 12' long by 5' wide. shallow draft.
out of 2" insulating foam, plywood skeleton, and fiberglas shell. "unsinkable" pirogue, basically.

[Squantos]

As you do ...... I have a small utility trailer that I use the same toyota axels and wheel and lug patters as an old 85 Toyota 4x4 I bought last year to store as my "Oh Damn Ride" . It allows me to use the wheels as spare if I have to abandon the trailer etc. As to my little 4 banger 22R engine I have converted it to propane.

The propane is something I can leave in the two 14x40 Manchester tanks fitted on the vehicle and 3 spare 14x40's on the trailer without it going bad or varnishing up the engine etc etc .....

I converted the 4 speed manual tranny to an automatic as ideling in traffic and moving slow if caught in traffic is easier on a auto tranny with a cooler. Added electric boost fans on the tranny, oil and radiator makes such more reliable. I have a system that allows me to use the propane on the trailer first and the vehicle last.

My original mogas tank on the truck was removed and is now replaced with a 30 gallon water tank. The truck was an old beater I stripped down to bare metal and had the entire frame and body line-X'd. The interior has old corvette reclining seats that will be comfy to sleep or sit in for long durations. The entire cab is lined with dynamat insulation and rubber floor covering, stainless door panels cust custom for a no frills easy ride.

The dash was removed and gutted for new gages that I wanted. All wiring was repaired or replaced and waterproofed to the best of my ability . I added double door seal weather stripping and made it a pretty quiet little ride. Plans and work ongoing but that's just my last ditch plan as I believe my home is a primary shelter, the vehicle secondary with a ruck afoot is last.....

I have an old armored Suburban 4x4 I got a few years ago at a goobermint auction. It's trashed mechanically but the body is sound, It'll need new engine tranny , pretty much a complete drivetrain..... all the glass is OK with no delamination or other danage so I figure that's my next project.

Interior was clean but new carpet, seat covers, and painting some interior trim is needed. Frame off when I can find a way to lift that massively heavy body off the frame. Gonna have to bubba engineer that one carefully.....

[Mulder]

These will give you 400 extra miles of evacuation range

Good advice. The only thing I would add is to have plenty of maps and avoid the interstates.

The sheeple will flock to the interstates, creating massive traffic jams. The highways will likely be less crowded. Also, in the event of car trouble, I'd rather be stranded in small-town America rather than alongside the interstate in a SHTF situation.

[Noumenon]

Great advice, Travis. We just acquired a 6'x12' stakebed bumper-pull trainer that will serve in the capacity that you described. We're alerady in a fairly 'safe' area - as safe as anyplace is these days - but that doesn't excuse a lack of preparedness.

Since we use the trailer for other things - hay hauling, etc. - we've modularized the stuff we'll pile on, so load and go can be accomplished very quickly. As family loadmaster, it's my job to get it stacked, packed and ready to go in less than 10 minutes.

[Lurker]

We've added a couple of FRS/GMRS radios as well as a hand-held Marine Band radios.

I like the Marine Band idea because it's unlikely many folks will be using Channel 82 on the International bands. It also has all the NOAA weather channels built in, so weather updates and Emergency Alerts are available at the touch of a button.

The FRS with the sub-channels on it are great for short range comm.

Of course, spare batteries are a must and rotate them often. FIFO is your friend.

A couple of those small single burner Coleman propane or white gas stoves are handy to have around as well.

Don't forget latex gloves, or nitrile if you have a latex allergy. I get mine at Cosco. 10 bucks for 1500 of them. They have a myriad of around the house uses and there's a big wad of them stuffed into my CERT gear.

If you have it available in your area, I highly recommend CERT training. Not only will it enable you to help out your neighbors in the event of a disaster, but you'll meet all kinds of interesting people who are good to know if the SHTF.

L

[janetgreen]

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Personal responsibility BTTT!