Category: Vehicles

Western Washington — A Retreat Potential and Disaster Assessment, by B.H.

I am writing to you at length today about Western Washington and its retreat potential and Assessment of disaster scenarios. Last year I made a career move that required us to move to Western Washington from Eastern Washington. We moved into what is considered the South Sound area of Western Washington (WWA) this area includes the State capital of Olympia and its bedroom communities of Tumwater and Lacey. Lacey and South East Olympia border the “Argonne Forest” of Fort Lewis. On a side note the 3rd Stryker Brigade is starting to rotate back home—Great job to you all and were …


Choosing a BOV, by Brian B. in Iraq

There is something to be said about having a defendable retreat far from society with multiple routes to reach it and the preparations that go along with it. But all of those preparations are for naught if you haven’t considered the best way to get from Point A to Point B. With the ever rising fuel prices that we all are experiencing nowadays, it’s very likely that your Bug Out Vehicle (BOV) will also be your main means of transportation. Unless you are really squared away and have the finances to allow it, many of us simply can not afford …


Preparedness While on Business Travel–What to Pack, by LP

If you’re like me, there are times when you have to leave almost all your preparedness stuff behind as you journey by air to strange, far-off places on behalf of your employer. No access to your well-stocked SUV. You are alone, and home is hundreds if not thousands of miles away. But disaster will not be consulting your personal travel itinerary before it strikes. How best should you prepare? Let’s first discuss the objective, as it determines the approach. For most of us, we leave family, friends, and a (more-or-less) well-stocked homestead behind. This means Your primary objective is to …


Three Letters Re: The Importance of Making Your BOV Less Visible

Mr. Rawles, For those of us whose BOV is their primary POV, even using flat one-color paint would draw unnecessary attention. Even if your vehicle needs a “normal” (not flat) paint job, my recommendation would be that you keep your choices of colors dull, and earthy. Charcoals, browns and dark tans are good colors to use, generally popular and available, yet are much harder for they eye to detect than other colors. In daylight and low-light conditions, these colors blend with every background. Even at night, a moving, flat black vehicle will stand out more than a moving dark gray/dark …


Letter Re: The Importance of Making Your BOV Less Visible

Jim, I am a long time reader, and wanted to thank you for all of your efforts, hard work and dedication to SurvivalBlog and it’s readers, members and groups! Without you, your books, and your web sites, I would still be in the dark, running around without a care in the world! At least now I am prepared, ready, clear headed, dedicated, and ahead of the game! Many thanks again! All of us preparing to bug out, are stocking, loading, maintaining, discussing, prepping and planning. The subject I wanted to touch bases on, is your Bug Out Vehicle (BOV). So …


Letter Re: An Aftermarket “En Route” External Fuel Tank Filling Apparatus

Jim: Have you seen this “Freedom Fill” apparatus? It is for trucks that have extra fuel tanks in their bed and it feeds fuel directly to their main tanks. No need to stop for a refueling at an unsafe location. What do you think? – David K. JWR Replies: Other that its general high level of complexity with multiple points of failure–most notably that it uses EMP-vulnerable microprocessor–it looks captivating. Call me a dinosaur, but I prefer the traditional auxiliary fuel tank plumbing methods. OBTW, just think how long the O.J. Simpson “slow speed pursuit” could have gone on if …


Letter Re: Safety Tips on Hi-Lift Jacks

I’ve used my Hi -Lift jack for years. I concur with the writers’ comments. One extremely important part of using one of these safely was omitted. The rule while a vehicle is up off the ground is that you always place jack stands under the vehicle or you are placing your life in jeopardy. This goes for a Hi-Lift jack and any other jack. A short ‘it happened to me’: While making repairs on a very hot humid day, the asphalt didn’t hold the jack base (it sunk a little due to the heat), fortunately I completed said task quickly …


Letter Re: Safety Tips on Hi-Lift Jacks

Jim: Please warn your readers of the potential dangers of using a Hi-Lift jack (a.k.a. farm jack [or Sheepherder’s jack]). I am a member of a local Jeep club and while we require each Jeep have one on outings, we don’t allow anyone to use theirs unless they’ve been trained in their use. People have been killed by these crude (but necessary) machines and many, many, many have been injured. A fellow in our club had his jaw broken and cheekbone fractured years ago when lowering his Jeep after doing a trailside repair. When raising a load do everything to …


Are You Ready to Get Out of Dodge in Winter Weather?

Here in the northern hemisphere, winter is rapidly approaching. So it is timely that I write about vehicular mobility in winter weather. Every well-prepared family should have one or more four wheel drive vehicles with snow tires or chains. For those of you that have “11th Hour” Get Out of Dodge (G.O.O.D.) plan, I trust that you have pre-positioned the vast majority of your food and gear at your intended retreat. Towing a trailer on icy winter roads is a dicey proposition even in the best of times. In my estimation, piloting an overloaded vehicle with an overloaded trailer WTSHTF …


Three Letter Re: The Recent San Diego, California Wildfires

Jim: I have the rest of the day off due to the wildfires in the area so I am at home. The firefighting aircraft have been grounded due to wind until a couple of minutes ago. The evacuation zone is currently a 1/4 mile east of me. My northeastern and southeastern escape routes are currently out of the question. I figure that by the time I get told to Get Out of Dodge (G.O.O.D.), the Northern route will be closed off or too crowded to take. Going South into Mexico is currently not an option due to the makeup of …


Letter Re: British Army Surplus Ferret Armored Scout Cars

Jim, I was reading in the SurvivalBlog Archive and it seems that you used to own a Ferret armored car. It piqued my curiosity and I have researched it all over the Internet. I found out that it had 8-to-16mm of armor but nowhere does it say what projectiles that [armor] will stop. What ordnance are these resistant to? To .50 caliber. To .30 caliber? Bugging out in one of these would be interesting. Ideally you would want two Ferrets to bug out so you could rake the mutant zombies off of each other but will your gun punch holes …


Letter Re: Bugging Out: Taking Your Home and Gear with You, by Bob. H.

Jim, I read the 18 Oct. 2007 posting concerning Recreational Vehicles (RVs) as a retreat vehicle. Your posting’s of August 10th 2005 titled Batman Fantasy Land, Vehicular Retreating and Sea Retreating were interesting and very confusing to say the least. After reading your August 10th 2005 post here are some thoughts. With all the talk about BOVs, BOBs, and G.O.O.D. it seems like a waist of bandwidth on your part since you advocate the Siegfried or Maginot Line, Atlantic Wall type system. You know–fixed fortified emplacements. Does this mean that you would stay in your fixed retreat no matter what? …


Bugging Out: Taking Your Home and Gear with You, by Bob. H.

I am a 23-year veteran of the Recreational Vehicle (RV) industry. I have been in survival mode since the early 1980s after seeing the movies Mad Max and Red Dawn. I started selling RVs in 1984 and thought they were really cool. As the world changed and my concerns grew I started looking at them as a great survival tool. RVs have changed a lot since then. any RVs are fully self contained, meaning you have on board water for drinking bathing and cooking, toilet, climate control, refrigeration and sleeping. Many have onboard generators, deep cycle batteries, power invertors, AC …


Two Letters Re: Freeway Gridlock and G.O.O.D. Route Planning

Sir: In response to the article you posted titled: “Nightmare on Schuylkill: A first-hand account.” I can tell you first hand exactly how awful that highway is. I’ve lived in the Philadelphia region my entire life, and from the earliest memories of driving on that highway as a passenger with my mom, I can remember her calling it the “Sure Kill”, but I was too young to understand why. Now I know and understand all too well. Planning a Get Out of Dodge (G.O.O.D.) route in this area is extremely difficult, let me tell you. My current job has me …


Letter Re: A Learning Exercise with “Get Out of Dodge” Applicability

Dear Jim, I thought I’d relay an exercise I learned from last year. Every year, I do a large historical re-enactment in Pennsylvania. I take two tents totaling 300 square feet, my forge, tools, clothing and gear for a family of four down to a four poster bed, tables, chairs and workbench, plus merchandise to sell. This fills a conversion van with rear seat removed and a standard kit-built trailer. It’s great rehearsal for bugging out. Packing takes about 8 hours. Before I left, I realized the brakes were a little soft. I made a point of leaving lots of …