Camping / survival thread

z31maniac wrote: I think I would survive longer hunkered down in a closet being quiet, ala Anne Frank style than in the wilderness. Us city boys don't know what were doing out there.

+1

I carry a backpack for work that besides having my work related papers tools and such also has a roll of tp, small first aid kit, duct tape, crazy glue for when the band aids aren't enough, d-cell Maglight, pills( Motrin, immodium, ect.) clean socks, underware and t-shirt. a pack of Old Spice shower in a box, bailing wire, zip ties, dust masks, a refelctive vest, a throwaway camera, and a small book to read, and a ring of keys I've accumulated to breakrooms and bathrooms at various places around the city.

Beyond that I've got a locker back at my depot and one in a subway station I could live out of for about a week if I needed to. I've only needed some of this stuff once or twice, but when the E36 M3 does hit the fan when I'm at work, I'm suffering as little as possible.

As far as all the doomsday things, like Mr Maniac I'm staying put. I am out in the country with some well armed farmers. I will stay at home and if someone tries to remove me from here I'm staying until I'm out of shells. I'm not a very good runner, so why eat leaves until I get shot in the back.

During the week long power outage, my mother asked me about looting. Given that in L.A., NOLA, NYC or other really nice places like that, looting starts up at any excuse. Oh, look, it's Saturday. Let's go loot some shoes. Anyway, we had no problems like that at all, despite the entire section of the state and surrounding areas being without power. I mentioned that everyone here is pretty well armed.

Miata! If the E36 M3 hits the fan, I might as well have fun driving away from it.

Chuck your battery powered flashlights and get one of those ones that charges itself whenever its moved around..... the shakey type. It should be good till the bulb burns out.

I have one of those shaker ones. Unless you really want to do a lot of shaking for a minimal amount of light, you're better off with batteries. I'd say they were best used to find your battery flashlight.

Dr. Hess wrote: I have one of those shaker ones. Unless you really want to do a lot of shaking for a minimal amount of light, you're better off with batteries. I'd say they were best used to find your battery flashlight.

+1 the shakey ones suck...even the cheaper cranking ones only put out a really good beam if you crank them constantly.

I've got a crank one with 3 large LEDs in it and its actually REALLY good.

I find the CHEAP shakeys to have better light than the exspensive ones. But my new light is a $5 9-led from the front of walmart. 3 AAAs and that thing is probly the best bang-for-your-buck flashlight.

I carry a Multitool (Leatherman Skeletool) and a Surefire (A2) wherever I go. Thats roughly the extent of my preparedness. The idea of a bug out bag sounds good, though.

I have a small crank LED lantern.. Sure it's not perfect and you need some cranking to get it going, but I lke it a good deal. It'll even charge cell phone with the adapter.

neon4891 wrote: I find the CHEAP shakeys to have better light than the exspensive ones. But my new light is a $5 9-led from the front of walmart. 3 AAAs and that thing is probly the best bang-for-your-buck flashlight.

you can find ones that are 1 bigger LED that provide something like 24+ hours of light out of a set of 4 AA batteries. i got one for camping (i like to read before bed) and a set of batteries will last me a long time of steady reading. granted a multi-led will give more light, so having one of those in conjunction could help if you really want more light. however, my 1 led does me fine.

I got a Red Cross combination survival radio/triple-LED flashlight as a gift from my aunt this Christmas. It has a solar panel, multiple input jacks (USB and wall-wart) and a crank for power. Works like a charm; the LEDs are very bright and since it has multiple power sources, it never runs out of juice. Plus, I can crank my favorite rock stations while I'm using it to look for whatever I drop when I'm working on something.

As for camping, I plan on going to at least one hillclimb race this year and the regulars tend to rough it overnight since these are weekend events at national parks. I plan on sleeping in the hatch of my FC- I can sleep just about anywhere.

ArtOfRuin wrote: As for camping, I plan on going to at least one hillclimb race this year and the regulars tend to rough it overnight since these are weekend events at national parks. I plan on sleeping in the hatch of my FC- I can sleep just about anywhere.

i went to corner work at polish mountian, and even though i live <40min away i choose to crash in the back of my exploder (they did need me at 6am for a road closing) im thinking about doing it again this year, but im not sure, the bugs were a PITA

Tommy Suddard wrote: I carry a Multitool (Leatherman Skeletool) and a Surefire (A2) wherever I go. Thats roughly the extent of my preparedness. The idea of a bug out bag sounds good, though.

Forgot to mention them. I always have my Gerber pocket tool and pocket knife, hand sanitizer, lotion and chapstick on me.

I have the same 3-led + radio +charger light...and it works pretty well, but if you stop cranking it the beam starts to die down fairly quickly. The radio would shut off almost immediately.

I have the previous version crank radio, the one with solar, crank, battery power, wall-wart (which I don't have for it), AM, FM but no light. It has built in batteries that will charge off the crank or solar, plus you can add some AA's if you want to. I've found that it will play the radio a pretty long while off of a minute or so of cranking. We used it during our week of no electricity. I put a couple AA's in it so I wouldn't have to crank it.

The problem is that today all the radio stations are remoted off the satellite. You can't get any local news from them. For that, you need TV, thus the inclusion in my list of a radio size battery powered TV that will get digital signals. We have an analog one that's 10+ years old, but analog TV is going away "any minute now." Our TV stamp converter won't work with the little radio sized TV, and has no battery provision, of course.