Folks that are in AZ and other hot as fuck places, what do you do gear wise for car preps? Cooking? Food storage that won't rot or explode? Fuel that won't combust for stove? Water amount and container?

Thanks. I know my snow preps, moving to the desert soon wondering what adjustments i need to make. Any other info appreciated.

Also interested, especially concerning food since DFW gets hot. MREs and rotate every year?

Nope. At 120 deg you have 1 month until expiration.  At 100 deg 6 months. AZ summers you'd need to rotate pretty quick,  but on the plus side you would have extra heaters you didnt need. Assuming a car is outside temp+ 20. MRE  isn't really viable in AZ summers.

1. what are you planning for? Off roading+getting stuck or just getting stuck on the highway. If its just the highway I would just take water, any off roading events needs to be planned much better

In the desert you don't need as much food as you do in cold climates

Water lots of it. I keep a couple gallons all time no matter the climate. Just the gallon plastic bottles from the store (pet plastic).

cooking=  mrs stove with a bottle of fuel, been there for years, in desert and winter climates

food= freeze dried and datrex bars, Freeze dried takes the heat fine IMO. change after a couple years, datrex will melt but its still good.

first aid= bandages go to crap as well as tape. I stock guaze + elastic bandages. Also any meds need to be rotated every summer.

If I'm going anywhere remote (no cell), I will through a 5 gallon MWC in the back.

Check on Datrex ration bars.  I nibbled a long expired bar (10 years past) and it hadn't gone rancid.  They definitely had many summers in the south.  But I just discarded them from my boat kit and am disposing of some marine flares which expired at the same time.

That said for a 100% reliable emergency food, get some glass jars of honey - pack carefully or go with the squeeze bottles - but remember plastic degrades in heat.  Honey doesn't go bad.  But it's only carbs.  But it's the best emergency food for no worry storage.  Freeze dried or dehydrated (low to no-fat/oil) are good to go for long storage in heat - so veggie mountain house pouches (or the like).  But honey is much cheaper.

Sealed factory water doesn't go bad even in high eat.  Use bottles with the harder plastic.

For food use the coast guard approved emergency foods bars last in high heat.  Multiple companies make them including Datrex and SOS Labs.  My local Wamarts have also begun stocking them from USF

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ultimate-Survival-Technologies-Emergency-Food-Rations/122858544

Strike anywhere matches also work in high heat after long periods of time.  Same with bic lighters.

Most other preps other than meds or take related items will last in high heat.

Thanks guys all good tips. The canister fuel says not to store above 120 btw which a summer car in AZ hits. Any issues?

Also this is mostly for every day use assume largest trip from Phoenix to Prescott or Tucson but in this case it needs to ALWAYS be in the hot car everyday which is the challenge. For one off remote trips I'll have 21 gallons of water or more, rifle, ammo, shit tons of food and sun shelter plus cooking fuel.

My biggest knowledge gap is in what can hold up to that all year hot car.

I personally wouldn't due to safety.  I know people do but I dont like keeping and kind of pressurized fuel in the passenger compartment or even the trunk.

There are many options like Esbit tabs, a rocket stove with some wood to burn, cans of sterno, an alcohol stove that will run of rubbing alochol or liquor.  Maybe even a multi fuel stove that runs off gas with an empty container to siphon it.

Yeah,  doesn't seem safe to me either.  Are the Esbit totally stable? I figure they are cheap and maybe i could solar cook too if its hot out.

Yes they are stable for the heat of a car.  Just keep them in a sealed container like a dedicated water bottle with a wide mouth.  They stink like fish.

it's hot as shit. I live in DFW and the inside of the car gets like 140+ sustained. Window tint with UV goes a long way, as does shade and shit. I cycle water since it bleeds/leaches plastic into the water. It will taste bad but be OK. I cycle every 6 months or so. I don't do much food as I'm in a city, I don't keep stuff in there regularly. I can go a few days without eating but not much time without liquid.

One thing to pay attention to is heat kills batteries way harder than cold does. We are averaging about 2 years/battery even buying good stuff. I would say a jump pack you keep on top of as well.

oh, and I researched it and car interiors do NOT get hot enough to set off ammo. so you're good there.

But i hear they can warp cheaper kydex

I was thinking of canned still water for the standard preps. And i have the bug blue 7 gallon with spout for long trips which is a hard seemingly less leaching plastic. Thanks for the battery tip... i guess its killing the emergency jump battery too though.

Water is your most important necessity.   Some way to make some shade would be useful too.

100% car interiors can get above 180 here. I would not keep any fuel inside of your car. I typically only carry water, first aid, and a glock.

Bottled water, micro start, something for shade, rotating MRE was not hard for me since I eat them at work. Mountain house meals are good but you'll need a little extra water. Fuck those dry emergency food bars.

Don't forget, deserts can get extremely cold at night.

The cheap, paper-thin plastic bottles will lose their seal and the water inside will evaporate. Nalgene bottles are the best bet.

I've left MSR fuel canisters in my truck in high heat with no ill effect.

Clif Bars and jerky seem to handle the heat well, although I rotate out the truck supplies yearly, so I can't speak to any time frame beyond that.

If you're getting into a situation where you need preps traveling between these locations, then you better keep on moving quickly because a whole lot of people are going to be looking for supplies as well.

Seriously though, water is the biggest thing.  You can go a few days without food but without water you'll be done in a few hours in the summer.  Decent strength sealed containers from your gorcery store will do fine honestly.

ETA: As some others have stated, granola bars of some kind and jerky make for small and effective emergency food.

And for goodness sakes, don't store big, clear water bottles in your car (or anywhere else) where the sun can hit them. Otherwise this can happen:

Oh shit!

I'd put the cardboard carrier (no lid) out on the driveway because I was doing some clean-up in the garage. Gave not a single thought to the sun being out. About 5 minutes later, I smell what I think is something burning. Look all around and finally see a waft of smoke coming from the box. Thank gawd I didn't decide to carry that in the car!

Some people don't think optics be like it is, but it do!

Mountain house or other Freeze dried should live in the trunk for at least a summer

true but the jump pack I have is easy to come into the house, charge, and test. Truck battery is more annoying to pull and charge.

edit because I quoted weird. Also have a change of clothes. I have to wear pants to work, but if I need to hike home there's no way I'd keep wearing them. shorts and sneakers

Water, try and find AquaBlox or Aqua Literz.  Pricey per ounce, but sterile and able to withstand wide temp variances.

Honey, invest in Tupelo.  Does not crystalize like others.  And taste is pure heaven...

Food, Millennnium food bars.  Wide variety of flavors, texture like Datrex.  400cals per bar, but are lifeboat rations, so these too withstand wide temp swings.  Have not had a bad flavor, not have any gone rancid after leaving in car console for 2 years in Ohio weather.

If you have room, storing gear in a dry cooler will greatly slow down how hot the equipment gets.

It routinely gets into the 90s here and over 100 isn't that uncommon, and I have a black truck, so interior temps get high.  My truck has a shell on the back but I've kept a Jetboil and two canisters (one in use, one new) along with a 1# propane cylinder, sometimes two (small Coleman lantern but also the Coleman stove with propane adapter if going on a trip), for years now.  I did the same in my last Tacoma which was dark red with a shell and also in various other vehicles including VW buses/campers, a VW Beetle and several Land Cruisers.

For food, I've been keeping a couple Mountain House or other brand freeze dried foods in my vehicles for extended periods as well.  I don't particularity like to eat those things as they have a lot of sodium so they tend to go past their use by date but I've eaten them far out of date, and having been in my truck for a couple of seasons, with no issues.  As noted above, you need to carry extra water not only for cooking them but to offset the high sodium levels.  Dried noodle packs from the Asian grocery (also high in sodium so I only use about half the seasoning pack) will last a long time and can be dressed up with practically anything extra you can find.  Whole Foods and Earth Fare stores carry other dried soup bowels, some of them lower sodium.  If you like Indian foods check you local Indian store.  In addition to the regular stuff you'd expect to find, the ones near me also have some packaged foods in foil packs that have long shelf lives.  Kitchens of India is one brand, another is Tasty Bite.  They're supposed to be good up to eighteen months.  I've tried a few of them when camping and the ones I've had weren't bad.  If you don't have a microwave just toss the packet in a pot of boiling water for like five minutes.

This stuff rides on a small Rubbermaid tote along with some packets of hot sauce (it'll turn brown but it's still good), some honey, a seasoning kit, a small bottle of olive oil and some other stuff I can't recall at the moment.  I rotate the oil out when I think about it along with other items like tuna fish foil packets.  I usually have a couple of packs of unsalted nuts in the cab that I replace as I nibble on them and sometimes some of the granola bar things.  I'm not going to carry some gas station chicken salad sandwiches around but honestly I think folks make a bigger deal over it than it needs to be.  There are lots of preserved foods in the average grocery store that will last a long time, just check them periodically and don't eat anything that's suspect.

Something else that lives in my truck is a Camelbak bladder for my pack.  I can fill it if I feel the need to add to the water that resides in the truck.  In the event of a breakdown I can fill it from the water bottles in the truck.  I do try to rotate the water bottles out; usually I use Desantis bottles since they're thicker and the local Publlix seems to put them on sale periodically.

Not a bad idea

Always keep bottled water in the vehicle at all times. Longer trips or trips to the desert, I'll keep a couple 1gal water jugs, or fill up a 5gal water can. That's saved my ass a couple times with radiator and coolant issues.

Cliff bars will last a summer. By the end, they'll be like rocks, but edible.

Hat and sunscreen.

Window sun shades. They do a good job of keeping the interior of the vehicle cooler, plus it's just another source of shade.

Alcohol stove, and a couple bottles of Heet (yellow bottles are better for stoves than the red). Not pressurized. Store it in the aluminum bottles used for camping (you can use fuel bottles, but the aluminum bottles for water will work fine. Label them to ensure no one takes a sip).

Learn how to make pop can alcohol stoves. In a pinch, you can make them from any aluminum pop cans.

It will warp ANY kydex. I lost a nice G Code that way.

On a related note, some of the Wal-Marts have the Mountain House 2 Day Just In Case boxes clearanced for $9/box:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Mountain-House-Just-In-Case-2-Day-Emergency-Food-Supply/50819698?u1=&oid=223073.7200&wmlspartner=PxE

ETA- looking at the package, of course California says they cause cancer so buy at your own risk.  

Mountain House freeze dried food lasts fairly long in high temps. Rotate frequently, consume the old and replace with the new?

I live in the Nevada desert, I rotate out MREs and freeze dried about every 6 months or so, I had one MRE I left in there for 2 years, ate it, it was just as good as new.  I just keep a closer eye on my food preps in the vehicle and they are rotated out more often.  I do park in my garage when I am not out so that might help too.

Although almonds can reportedly go rancid, I've never seen it personally - even in vacuum-packed examples that rode around in a south Texas vehicle for years.

AZ native. Millenium bars hold up pretty well. Nothing with liquid is going to be OK for more than a month, if that.
A lot of the drier MRE stuff will turn to dust with just a couple months in the car in the summer (things like MRE
cookies, or bridgeford sandwiches)

If I actually get into those millenium bars, things have gone very wrong.

I also travel with multiple 10L Scepters in the back during the summer, and at least one other times. The rest of the supplies
are car fixing type stuff that doesn't go bad very fast -- tools, belts, duct tape, zip ties etc.

I also have a pack that I transfer with me -- it doesn't stay in the car -- with a day's worth of rations, tools, flashlight,
first aid kit, sunscreen, InReach etc. Pretty much anywhere I go, it does, outside of meetings in the city.

I've found leaving preps in the car isn't really practical so I have a few packages of things set up in large zip locks I can
pack depending on what I'm doing and where I'm going. During the summer at least, set and forget preps aren't
realistic.

It gets very hot in the summer around here (SoCal).  I have a bunch of those lifeboat rations in my bag along with a Camelback full of water.  I rotate the water every few months.  The kids generally leave half-full water bottles all over the car, so I have quite a bit of water .

Some of the other food ideas here would work well, such as beef jerky and nuts.

I use window visors and don't worry about it

A cars interior actually gets about 150 in direct sunlight. It's to store nothing in your car during summer if you can't park under covered parking at a minimum.

Anything compressed like pepper spray or propane tank is a really bad idea. Water is about the only thing that last and really the one most required items.

If you must keep food inside the hot car, only dry food like peanuts or chips will last.

Things I kept in my car:
5.56 ammo can
-couple of fatwood sticks (carve off chips for easy start fire)
-jute cord (tie things, kindling)
-paracord
-backup multitool (not EDC)
-sewing kit
-cheap ponchos
-glow sticks
-finger lights (tiny light with 3 cells that seem to hold up pretty good)
-signal mirror
-Fresnel magnifying sheet (flat from wallgreens)
-firesteel set
-whistle
-compass

Folding saw (get a fallen tree out of the way, or cut small branches/trees to help get traction in mud, make a shelter, firewood, etc.
folding shovel, roll of toilet paper
Canvas painters tarp  (good to put on the burning asphalt when you change a tire, also good for shelter, holds up pretty good)
paracord
plastic tarp

boonie hat
thin easily collapsible but comfortable backpack
maps
tow strap  (handy to have when you or someone else gets stuck)
road side work/warning lights

small first aid kit (had to recycle the contents often, put in a Very good set of tweezers, comb for pulling cactus off, duct tape for the can't see em stickers )
several bottles of water (think I had 4 gallons)

12v inverter, chargers, tire pressurizer

Most of that fit behind a seat.

Didn't keep a lot of food in except for some hard tack I made and was testing to see how it would hold up, but usually had food along with me in a day bag if I was going somewhere.  Hard tack didn't care btw.  Didn't mess with any cooking, usually didn't when out camping short term, just carried stuff that could be eaten directly.  Also had EDC stuff in there including more first aid.

Parts of it got used from time to time, often to help others.

ETA: Space blanket.  Never used but deserts can get cold at night.

As a desert dweller I love freeze dried meals for camping and car storage. The life boat rations people talk about here are not very good to eat in my experience. The Mountain House/Alpine Aire stuff is so good in this capacity that I don't know why you would look anywhere else for other solutions.  For the fuel I use the Esbit fuel bars. And for water I use store bought water and just rotate it out every outing it gets replaced. Don't be to focused on just protection from the sun in the desert . It can get brutally cold here as well so hypothermia could be an issue.

Does anyone have a thermometer with a high / low indicator?

I would be interested to see if storing regular items in a cooler would provides enough insulation to serve as a buffer and smooth out the extreme highs in the summer and lows in the winter.  The theory being by the time the interior of the cooler starts to heat up towards the extreme temp inside the car, the sun is already on it's way down, and by the time it cools off to freezing on nights that end up dipping below freezing, the sun is coming back up.

Obviously if it's continuously below freezing throughout the day and night, this would not work...

For now I'm going to use lifeboat rations and the coast guard bagged water.  Inefficient,  but since it's already designed for this sort of thing and I'm very unlikely to need it at all, I can just forget about it and change it once a year.

These do

https://www.datrex.com/shop/browse-products/datrex-emergency-water-ration-2/

A few gallons of water left in the car with a good habit of a EDC bag that you can keep some bars or what not in. A battery bank in your EDC that can keep your phone on for a few full charges worth and I'd think youd be ok for a extended breakdown. Its 120 degress...  are you really gonna go off the beaten path for any reason? If you do you still have a few days worth of water and calories with a powered phone that's pinging.

I have found that freeze dried foods last.
I would go with canned water for water storage as the plastics leach toxins into the water after getting hot.
We like to keep a case of bottled water in the backseat and we use it buy another case monthly.

And after we discovered fasting for health reasons we know know that we can go weeks without food and that fear of starving is gone so I no longer worry about car food preps just water.

It gets hot enough inside vehicles here to loosen up the adhesive they use on the internals of some optics...

Thanks for this read. I have only been to the southwest twice. I grabbed a case of water for the rental car before we left town.