I have stopped a few times in the last few months to assist people on the side of the road. Most of them have been flat tires, one was a dead battery/non-operating alternator. On the flat tires, two for them didn’t have a jack to change the tire. One of them had a spare tire that was also flat. On that one we couldn’t air up the spare because the valve stem of the spare didn’t have a cap and it was packed full of dirt. One of them was an Army vet that didn’t have a jack and it was -4 F outside. He was nearly giddy that I stopped to help. He figured that he was going to be stuck for hours. One of them they had the tire off but couldn’t get the spare on. It was interesting in that it was a full sized spare and it had really deep holes for the lug nuts. I had to lay on the ground to line up the holes with the studs.
If you are prepared with a spare tire, jack, proper lug wrench, jumper cables and jump-start pack then you are miles ahead of most people.
Things that I carry and am thankful that I do:
Flash lights/Head lamps
Phone Charger
12 Volt Air Compressor
Tire guage
Spare fuses
15000 lb tow strap
Shackles and short chain for the tow strap
Small First aid kit
Small Collapsible Snow shovel
Military issue E-Tool
Work Gloves
Rain gear
Cold weather gear, including 0 Deg F boots
Poncho liner
Poncho
Mosquito repellent
Knee pads
Zippo Style hand warmer with extra bottle of fluid
Full Change of clothes
Topo and County maps of the state
GPS
Small Cooler with some water (keeps it cool in the summer and unfrozen in the winter)
I have used everything on this list on more than one occasision.
Hopefully that helps.
2Hut8
Edit: I have no idea how this post end up on this thread....... I wrote it for a thread involving a guy wanting to outfit two vehicles for SHTF. I knew that I wrote the post but never figured out where it went.