Survival Kits – Before you buy

A lot of people buy survival kits only to be disappointed when it arrives or throw it in a closet without knowing they bought a bag full of toys and gimmicks, so here are some tips on do’s and don’ts so you will know what you are getting before you buy.

Let me start by saying I keep seeing new survival kits and terms coming out all the time. BOB bug out bag, GHB get home bag, CSK car survival kit and now I see WEB work emergency bag. These are all created to make you think you need a bunch of different kits. YOU DON’T they are all the same thing.  A well designed survival kit kept in the trunk of your car wrapped in a blanket to help protect against the heat, will work for all these scenarios.

Kits advertising the number of pieces in them.
This is a sign to look closely at the kit. As with most things that advertise many pieces survival kits are no different. You will usually find that they have a few necessities and lots of cheap pieces you don’t need. You see this a lot with first aid kits advertising 300 pieces and when you look at the contents, there are 150- ¾ x 3 inch and 125- 1 x 3 inch bandages and who needs 275 regular bandages in a survival kit. So when you see a kit advertising a high number of items take a close look.

Items in the kits.
Most kits will all cover the basics of survival fire, shelter, first aid, warmth, food, limited water. It’s sometimes hard to know the quality of the items but one thing that is easy to spot is the food. An average man requires between 2000 and 3000 calories per day, so when you see 1- 3600 calorie food bar and it’s called a 72 hour kit, that’s usually a sign of trouble. I have had people say “it’s survival so you only need 1200 calories per day”. This is incorrect, you are under stress and if anything you need more calories not less.

The bag the kit comes in.
You would not think this is an important issue but it can be. If you are buying a disaster or car survival kit then you want it in one container if possible both for storage and portability. Buying a bug out bag is where most of the mistakes are made. A lot of 72 hr. or bug out bags come in small school size backpacks. If you buy one of these then that’s all you can carry on your back so you have no place to carry extra clothing etc. The other mistake is putting your survival gear in your large main backpack. This means you have to remove your pack to get to your survival gear and if you need to drop your heavy main pack you do not have a way to continue with your survival gear. The best way is to have your survival gear separate from all your other gear and either be in a messenger bag, drop leg bag or another good option is the new Ribzwear frontpack. All these options allow you to still carry a backpack separate from your survival gear. You can read more on the two bag system here two bag bug out.

There are a lot of toys and gimmicks in the survival industry so if you have had an experience good or bad with survival gear please leave a comment and help out our readers.

Dan Rivera uses his military survival training to help design custom survival gear for Rocky Mountain Survival.