That’s when my car Preps came to the rescue!

I grabbed my puncture repair kit from the truck, pulled out the rasper tool and shoved it in the nail hole while twisting it left to right and up and down.  When I extracted it, the tire verified I’d done a good job by beginning to leak at a much faster rate!  I quickly grabbed the needle tool and pulled a patch strip from the patch card and threaded it through the eye of the tool.  Then I applied the rubber cement to the patch strip and shoved the needle tool deep into the tire.  Once there were just a half inch or so of the patch sticking out, I extracted the tool by quickly pulling straight back on the needle tool.  The split in the eye of the tool gave way and left the patch in the hole while letting the tool come free.

The rubber cement needed to set for a minute and I needed to refill the tire with air.  So, I grabbed my 12V mini air-compressor from the truck and plugged it into one of my cigarette lighters and turned it on so it could start building up air.  By now the rubber cement should have set up well enough so I grabbed my leatherman and cut the hanging ends off of the patch.

Finally, I hooked the compressor up to the valve stem and filled it back up with air.

In less than 5 minutes I was able to plug the puncture, refill the tire and get back on the road.

Being a Prepper is awesome!

Phil’s Series on Winter Driving: [1 (Prepping Your Vehicle), 2 (Gear Supplements), 3 (Driving Tips)]

Building a Vehicle Emergency Kit – Do you have what you need in your car if you were stranded?

My top things to always remember:

• Never drive with less than half a tank of gas.  You don’t want to get stranded because traffic is stopped for hours, especially in a storm
• Make sure your tires are in good condition.  The best thing you can do to make sure your car stays in the correct direction on the road.
• Know your routes.  If you know a road isn’t safe, take some alternates that you know.
• Have your “get home bag” ready.  You never know when you might be on the wrong side of a roadblock from an accident, or plowing.  Who knows what worse could happen.  Be ready to sit it out, no matter the conditions.
• Just *having* chains won’t do you much good if you don’t know how/when to use them.