New car, new look at emergency supplies

[Tallpine]

You ain't kidding.  A couple of years ago I checked the spare on my 95 truck (stored under the bed in the OEM location). It was holding air just fine and the side I could see looked fine, no dry rot.  I took it down any way - or tried to.  The winch was jammed.  After a couple of days soaking in oil it decided to work.  The side of the tire I could not see was badly dry rotted, no way that tire would have been safe.  Now I oil that winch once a year and it still works fine.

I keep the spare up in the pickup bed, but not everybody can do that.

[KD5NRH]

I tend to agree with that, but not to the point of its being silly. Bics do get hot if you have to produce a sustained flame to ignite something, though.

Sparkers won't produce a sustained flame at all.  Burn your fast food bag or a few useless pages from the manual ("Starting the vehicle" "Selecting a gear") if you need something to burn for a minute or two.

They also explode if left on the dashboard in bright summer sunlight.  Actually happened to me, but not while driving.  Lucky me.  Just yellow plastic shrapnel all over when I got back in the car to go home.

Had it happen in the open tray of the console, but I've had them in the bottom of the console and a backpack in the trunk for over a year and they still worked.

[zahc]

Iodine tablets?