Hugh,
In all the material I have read over the years, I don’t think I have ever seen info about every prepper needing a bar. It is one of the most important items that you can have. You will need it often, and there are times it will be critical to have one.
My bar has many names. My dad called it a cheater bar. My neighbor calls it a digging bar. I call mine a pry bar. Oh, we are talking about a TOOL bar, not the kind where you get juiced. With all the various projects that will happen around your place, you will find this tool a handy, if not imperative, item to have around. Here are some pictures of various types that are available.
In the past week or so we have used my bar to get rocks out of post holes we were digging, to lift and hold a plow that we were replacing a broken bolt in, to pry and force open a door on a conex container, and align corner posts on a fence being built. While this is a tool that is seldom mentioned, it is one that will be regularly used.
Mine is 72″ long, weighs about 20 pounds, and is carbon steel, so it will not bend under load. I think I paid about $40 for it several years ago at a local farm supply store. Don’t think you can use a piece of galvanized pipe in place of this bar; that simply will not do the job. Get serious. Get yourself a bar. – Bison Billy at the end of the dirt road