what are must have tools and accessories for o/ ???i keep a jump starter battery pack with the emergency jack and spare tire along with run flat and tire plugs with a roll of toilet paper and flashlight.
>cosby in a can>axe (the tool)>pretty much a full selection of fluids>a decent selection of tools>a couple spare bulbs and a selection of fusesFuck a "first aid kit". You should be able to fix most medical issues with some duct/gorilla tape.
>>28207307first aid kitknifegloves/mittens/blanket/extra pair of socksseatbelt cutter/window breakerflare(s)tarpfishing line
>>28207307wrenching tools?>pick set>extendible magnet-on-a-stick>45 degree long reach needle nose pliers>electric ratchet is a huge time saver
>>28207316shit i never thought of fuses. i keep some spare headlight and brake bulbs though. whats the axe for? you gonna set up camp on the side of the road?
>>28207327>wrenching toolsim afraid of leaving them in my car because im poor but maybe i should buy some cheap chinesium harbor freight wrenches and sockets for trunk carry
>>28207320good kit for survival. you dont keep any car repair stuff though?
>>28207328> you gonna set up camp on the side of the road?I do pretty frequently. Sometimes I'll throw a steak or some bacon in my car and go for a cruise in the mountains. I'll pull over and cook over a fire in a chill spot. The flat end is also useful as a hammer.
HF mechanics tool set in the trunk
>>28207337that sounds really fun it must be nice to live in a red state
>>28207358>HF mechanics tool setthats not a bad ideahttps://www.harborfreight.com/hand-tools/tool-sets/mechanics-tool-set-225-piece-62664.html\$140 isnt too bad
>>28207334ahh right. i thought you were also talking about garage wrenching tools
>>2820736460% or more of that set is likely going to be pretty useless for your vehicle. I usually just piece together a set with the kinda shitty excess pieces of my main tool collection. That way I don't have any unlessassary tools and it's not a big loss if some 2 legged animal breaks in and steals them.
>>28207307The Dewalt DXAEPS14-Type2I have itI love itYou'll need it
>>28207382>>28207364There’s still some killer holiday deals on tool kits out there too that might be a better buy than the HF kit. Lowe’s has a nice Craftsman kit for $99 right now, 50% off.>>28207358Some of those HF sets are super horrible quality tho.The one upside is they actually come with pliers. That’s my gripe with so many “mechanic’s tool kits”, it’s all sockets and wrenches and when you have to rig up some roadside repair to limp the car home, it often requires a hammer, some vise grips, and a real screwdriver to use as a mini pry bar. There’s been a handful of situations where I have hammered on the end of the ratchet in this shitty $20 Meijer clearance tool kit in my car to get a vehicle home.Also it’s 2025, modern cars are a shit show, there’s no reason any reputable tool brand should be selling a socket set without fucking u-joints in there. One of the reason I’m down with Tekton and Gearwrench socket sets. U-joints are worth their weight in gold when you need to get anything done in the engine bay of a modern car.>>28207307Gooloo ftw. I’ve bought like half a dozen of them so far. Finally had to retire my first one from the cells bulging after 6-7 years of sitting in a hot Florida trunk. It still worked but made me nervous in the wife’s car.The 1500 in this pic has started 5.4L V8s with completely dead batteries, not even a chime when opening the door. I gave that to the wife and got the 3000 in my car now. Was tempted by the 4000 but the 1500 already handled the worst possible case V8s.
>>28207334I used to carry the tool kit hf puts on sale for $30 in my trunk.
>>28207364The $30-$39 kit is not just cheaper but it’s also smaller and lighter. How much wrenching do you expect to do on the road?
Lithium battery jump starters:- get a UL listed one. They cost the same. Otherwise it’s the Wild West as far as design for safety. One unit that was top rated on review sites a few years back had the cables socket directly connected to the battery - no fusing or cutoff relay. You do not want to short a lithium battery for any length of time. - self discharge/standby current draw on them is all over the map, and nobody measures it in reviews. Plan on recharging them at least twice a year. Daylight savings time days are an ok time. - Noco and Schumacher are good brands
>>28207590Could've ditched the extra screwdrivers and kept just one with swappable bits.
>>28207364The one I posted is actually the 301 piece set that you could buy for $160 with a coupon. I bought it as my first quick and dirty set when I had to do a vacuum pump. I've since bought various Tekton sets as better replacements so I can just keep this in my trunk for emergencies. I still dig it out sometimes because it has some bits the tektons are missing.
>>28207601See >>28207515It’s real nice to have a few actual screwdrivers. You’re going to want a proper slotted driver when you need to start popping crusty wiring harnesses and such. The precision drivers are basically picks.But the kit anon posted >>28207590 is kind of terrible. Those cheapest possible round ratchets explode for no reason, that hammer is probably the one with the threaded on head and the shaft is a thin ass pipe. The grips on those pliere start sliding off as soon as you put any pressure on them. It doesn’t cost that much more for some proper tools.
>>28207515was gonna get the 4000 beacuse was afraid of being underpowered but your post sold me on the 3000 since its only 60 bucks
>>28207641Nah you will be good with the 3000 for sure unless maybe you’re trying to start a semi truck in winter in Alaska. I bought I believe 3 of those 800/1200 ones (black with the red button) and those all cranked 4L V6 and smaller no problem, can’t remember if I ever used them on anything larger than that but I do remember fucking up the charger on the pack after starting the 4L engine like 5 times within 10min troubleshooting something and then plugged it in real hot. It worked great but I don’t like those because they use like a laptop style charger plug instead of USB-C like the rest. Even that smallest Gooloo, I gave one to this old lady friend and she had a 3.0 V6 with a completely shot battery, 4V-7V and wouldn’t even run the car, the black pack started that thing a dozen times before we got a new battery in it later that day.And then the 1500, there was a Ford van at work with the 5.4L V8 and a real bad parasitic drain and I would drive it once every month or two and the 1500 pack jumped that no problem even though the battery was always so dead that there was no hint of lights or chime without the pack and the engine would die without revving it for 5-10min to get some juice in the battery. So many times I would help coworkers and strangers who couldn’t get regular jumper cables to crank a car and the 1500 cranked them no problem.Meanwhile my brother got that Noco GB40 for $100 and that thing wouldn’t start his 2.3L 4cyl Focus. Noco packs are nice but not a lot of balls at all unless you spend $200.Oh and I just remembered the Isuzu box truck, I think that’s a 6.2L? I jumped that one 3 times in a morning with the 3000 and it didn’t struggle at all.ProjectFarm on Youtube tested a bunch of jumper packs in multiple videos and he uses the 4000 as the one to beat because it would crank and crank a diesel tractor right out of the deep freezer. He did the 2000 in a video too and it was plenty for any passenger car.
>>28207307In the truck I keep;>Noco GBX155 jumpstarterI take it inside during colder nights>Bahco tool kit>small sledge hammer and crowbar>ratchet straps of all kinds>hi-lift jack>bottle jack>breaker bar>fuse set>bulb set>air compressor>tire plugs>winchAnd more
>>28207626I posted that kit and can vouch: it is indeed terrible. You should not buy it for your only or primary tools, unless maybe you are a "household tool kit" sort of person. The one I have is even worse, because it is going on 20 years old, from before generations of product improvements from Harbor Freight. Incidentally, mine is the older lighter grey type that is flatter and wider with two doors that fold out - some of the tools are different, but not many. I could write a whole review of the tools in it. Most of the tools are pretty ok by 1980-2010 Chinesium standards. Some are barely fit for any purpose: the hex wrenches were hot garbage you can bend with your hands. I have only rounded over one of the sockets and that was entirely my "I'll try it with this cheap socket" abuse.The pros: - it is a nice minimum selection of tools and sockets in both metric and fractional inch. I like the selection enough that I based the mix of real tools in my portable toolbox at home on it.- it is cheap enough you won't care if the tools get rusty, smelly, broken, or stolen- the tools are shitty enough that I am never tempted to bring it out of the car at home and forget to put it back- the case is very well organized, no digging through a tool bag or bucket. Even more true for the older version, btw.Again, only you know how much wrenching you might do on the side of the road. It's not what I would pack for high adventure Where There Is No Tow Truck, either.Honestly, too, I don't recall having had to do a roadside repair since the Clinton administration and have only brought it out of the car for non-car-related "if we only had tools" sorts of moments. Tools you have on hand are better than tools that are back in the garage.
>>28207661how often do you have to keep it charged up? the one i currently have is a CAT brand from costco and its a piece of shit that failed the only 2 times i needed it. first time i thought i left it in the car too long without charging but the next time i literally charged it up to 100% and tried to use it to start a dead battery and it didnt do shit and the battery after trying a couple times was like down to 17%. i dont think it uses lithium though which is why i wanted to upgrade.
>>28208357pic related. dont buy one its a piece of shit.https://www.walmart.com/ip/CAT-1200-Peak-AMP-Digital-Jump-Starter/319758373
>>28207307I've been told these are dangerous to keep inside the car during hot weather as theres a chance they might pop
>>28208361I only keep mine in the car in the winter, when I'm most likely to need it.
I’m currently pretty light on my equipment. Jumper cables, blanket and a roll of paper towels.
>>28208357>>28208360Lead acid is outdated. Healthy lithium, you can leave those things in the trunk for 2 years and still have 3/4 bars. I’ll check mine every 6mos or whenever I remember it. I mean the one in the wife’s car probably gets stuck on the charger once a year to go from 3 bars to 4 bars.The only thing is lithium isn’t great in the cold. So if you have a truck that doesn’t like to crank on 0F mornings, bring the jumper brick inside for the night. But lithium also heats up when you pull a big load, so trying to jump the car with a frozen pack once or twice might get the cells warm enough to jump it.>>28208361I’ve bought I think 6 of them so far in different cars across South Florida. I don’t recommend keeping them on your dash in the sun, but they are fine in the trunk.I mentioned before I finally trashed my first one. Those pouch cells will swell after some years. I believe I bought that first one in 2018 and the cells started swelling enough that the plastic case was starting to split, so I discharged it dead and tossed it. They are a consumable, but $50-$70 for 5-8 years of use, I’m happy with it.
>>28208573>Healthy lithium, you can leave those things in the trunk for 2 years and still have 3/4 bars.It depends on the "vampire" current draw of the device, but yes. Badly designed devices will draw the battery down in about a year.
>>28207307Factory jacks tend to suck ass. Even a cheap aluminum Harbor freight chink jack can be a huge help on an uneven, dirt shoulder.
I like to keep a pair of light plastic wheel chocks in my trunk, too, for a bit of peace of mind. You might not get to choose whether you stop on a hill.
>>28208628really good tip m8 im gonna pick up an extra set next time im at harbor freight for the trunk
>>28208583There shouldn’t be shit on the typical Chinesium power bank. If you get inside of them, there’s a BMS for charging with the USB In and often a USB Out to use it as a power bank. It’s not like a laptop or car that are running stuff even while turned off. The actual output for the jumper clamps are two fat wires and then a plug and all of the circuitry for the jump start function will be on the clamp end that you plug in when you’re ready to use the thing.Lithium cells themselves will self discharge no matter what they’re connected to. Shitty cells will die fast. Good cells will last years.
>>28209134There shouldn't be, but design values vary quite a bit across these things. What current draw does it take to draw down a 4 Ahr power bank 50% in a year?
>>28209311Shitty cells or a terrible design.Meanwhile I’ve got unused power tool batteries i biught for the cells that are 5 yesrs old and sill holding 4 bars.
Major power tool brands are much more serious about quality hardware design than pretty much anyone in the jump starter space. Any brand of lithium battery jump starter that doesn't have patents on jump starters is private labeling something assembled from basically shanzhai ecosystem parts. So yes, design will be all over the place and shitty design is not uncommon. Probably more common than you think crappy cells are.
