Category: Vehicles

Two Letters Re: Some Thoughts on the Survival Vehicle

Hi James, Regarding the article “Some Thoughts on the Survival Vehicle” – I couldn’t agree more with the choice of an older Ford truck. I love mine. The only part I take exception to is converting permanently from electronic ignition to a mechanical point type distributor. I understand the EMP and other concerns, but there is a caveat readers need to be informed of. Some/most Fords with 302 or 5.0 liter engines in the mid- to late-1980s and on were equipped from the factory with a hydraulic roller lifter camshaft. The roller cams are made of very hard steel, harder …


Six Letters Re: Some Thoughts on the Survival Vehicle

Jim – Read the article [by OddShot] about the BOV and wanted to add a ranching note. Some of us ranchers have pickups with a trailer hitch mounted in the front as well as the back. This makes pulling trailers out of awkward situations easier without having to turn the truck around. Added to a substantial front bumper, it makes front ramming an interesting proposition, as that hitch – with a draw-bar but no ball – would do some serious damage. Kind of like the bronze prow on a Greek warship. Just an idea. – Geoff in ND JWR Replies: …


Some Thoughts on the Survival Vehicle, by OddShot

I recently had the opportunity to read JWR’s novel “Patriots” . As a former professional automobile mechanic with 25+ years of experience and having a similar history building, restoring and racing British sports cars (MGBs), I became intrigued with a certain aspect of his book: the preparation of a “survival vehicle.” This is intended to be a vehicle rugged enough, durable enough, and simple enough to be an important part of anyone’s survival program. My first consideration was to define this vehicle. Next, I set out to list a number of modifications to this vehicle that would increase it’s simplicity, …


Aids to Mapping Your G.O.O.D. Routes

Mr. Rawles, I appreciate everything you do to keep everyone working toward preparing. To that end I would like to supplement your notes with a product I have been using for a few weeks now that have greatly improved my Get Out of Dodge (G.O.O.D.) plans. Along with US Geological maps I have used the excellent Delorme Atlas and Gazetteer to plan my back road escape routes. Recently I found that they now offer ($29.95 plus the cost of the software) an “all you can use” annual subscription to their entire map collection in digital format. Unfortunately you do need …


Depression Proof Jobs for a 20 Year Depression – Part 2: Developing a Home-Based Business

Yesterday, in Part1, I discussed the “safe” and counter-cyclical occupations for the unfolding economic depression. Today, I’d like to talk about one specific approach: self-employment with a home-based business. I posted most the following back in late 2005, but there are some important points that are worth repeating: The majority of SurvivalBlog readers that I talk with tell me that they live in cities or suburbs, but they would like to live full time at a retreat in a rural area. Their complaint is almost always the same: “…but I’m not self-employed. I can’t afford to live in the country …


Perspectives on Prepping on a Very Low Income, by Kuraly

I was raised in a missionary family, on nine different mission fields around the world. At the age of nineteen, I went out to serve the Lord on my own in the former Soviet Union. I had no formal Theological training, but was accepted by the missionary societies of my denomination because of my experience under my father and my willingness to go to dangerous areas. I married, and my wife and I have now six children. A few years ago, due to some changes in my theology, I fell out of favor with my denomination and had to return …


One View on the Ultimate Vehicular Bug Out by Jerry the Generator Guy

There hasn’t been much discussion regarding what might be a well-planned bug out. The following is an overview of our vehicular bug out plan. This overview is offered to assist others in fleshing out their specific needs and plans. If you are like us, then you believe that the local area is not viable for long term personal survival. Thus we are forced to consider quickly getting to an alternate location. I won’t present our criteria for the destination as everyone has different needs. We selected a locale for serious consideration and visited there. The “boots on the ground” impression …


Letter Re: Diesel Motorcycles Coming to America?

Sir: Take a look at the E.V.A. Track Turbo Diesel Adventure Tourer Motorcycle. Here is a description from Motorcycle Daily: “The Dutch company E.V.A., builder of small diesel engines as well as an interesting two-wheel-drive system for motorcycles, intends to bring such a bike to market in Europe, and perhaps even the U.S.A. this year. It’s called the Track, and it may be just the bike to have for the apocalypse.” Here is a link to the E.V.A. company’s web site. 73s, – Steve


Letter Re: The Gray Man in the Coming Storm

If the next few years go the way some are expecting, and the country moves in the direction of an authoritarian socialist state, the gray man will do some things his friends may not expect nor initially agree with: The gray man will put a pro-government bumper sticker on his vehicle, in contrast with the beliefs in his heart. The gray man will smile when the police come to his door to collect his firearms. He’ll happily hand over his registered weapons at the door and thank the officers for their work, while his cache of unregistered weapons is safely …


Letter Re: Military Surplus Watertight Containers for G.O.O.D. Vehicle Boxes

Dear Jim: I’m a 10 Cent Challenge subscriber with an idea that may help folks with their storage items. I was out the the shed looking for my box ‘o bullets to catch up on some reloading and came across an empty 81mm rocket box. Sprayed it off with the hose and let it dry and started thinking that it looks like the same height of a #10 can, I tried it and it was. So since I dislike storing survival items in cardboard, not sturdy enough or water proof, started loading it up and lo and behold the Mountain …


Survival Gardening: Growing Food During A Second Great Depression, by H.I.C.

By God’s grace I was born and raised on a small family farm. During the 1960s and 1970s we were trying to pay off a 340 acre corn and soybean farm in northwestern Iowa and we were flat stinking broke. So we raised nearly all of the food to support our family. This required a large garden (80ft x 120 ft), an even larger truck patch (48 ft x 1,200 ft), a small fruit orchard (12 trees), livestock (caves, sheep, hogs, and 300 laying hens). With some of the best and most productive farm land in the entire world, with …


Letter Re: Waste Vegetable Oil for Fuel in Diesel Engines

Sir, I purchased a 1982 Mercedes 240D diesel. These old diesels will all run on used cooking oil [also known as waste vegetable (WVO)]. I have run mine for more than a year on 100% used cooking oil with no modification other than a larger fuel filter. You do not have to spend hundreds of dollars for a large capacity diesel filter. I bought a large water filter at the hardware store for around $30. I use the wound rope or string insert that you can buy for less than $20 per pair. It works great for a fraction of …


Life On the Road Presents Preparedness Dilemmas, by Wandering Will

As I sit in the front seat of my motorhome looking out at the beautiful hanging Spanish moss, feel the warm breezes and know that all I have to do for breakfast is walk five feet and pluck a fresh grapefruit from the tree beside my campsite, I once again know how blessed I am. However, as idyllic and normal as the situation appears, I know full well that it can all come crashing down at a moments notice. I have always been a preparedness freak to some extent and even finished up my career as an emergency management specialist …


Letter Re: Observations on Preparedness from a Gulf Coast Hurricane Veteran

Mr. Rawles, I just wanted to let you know how much I have enjoyed your site. I had no idea that there were whole survivalist communities out there until I stumbled on a link by accident. In fact, I didn’t really know that I fit into that category myself. My wife and I live on the Gulf Coast and we discovered the hard way during Hurricane Rita that a bag of trail mix and a bottle of water, was not preparing to evacuate. Eighteen hours in traffic in a hundred and fifty mile traffic jam taught us to find the …


Letter Re: Bureaucratic Restrictions on Defensive Wire and Obstacles

Sir [Regarding your recent mention of the ban on barbed wire in the city of Newark, New Jersey,] they aren’t the only ones. I am currently in Kabul [, Afghanistan] doing contract security work and we wanted to improve the security of the compound we live in. We are doing so by adding HESCO bastions made into fighting positions on the outside of our perimeter wall. As our workers were finishing the last of them, the police came by to tell us that we could not put up HESCOs on the street. When I got out there I asked the …