If you have problems with your car, it’s often very easy to sort them out yourself without calling either the tow-truck or emergency services, if you have the right tools in your car. What’s surprising is that most people have little or no tools in their car.
If they have problems, they have no choice, but to call for help. Remember, when we talk about tools, we’re not just talking about repairing a flat tire or a dead battery, we’re also talking about things like a lifehammer that could literally mean the difference between life and death if you get stuck inside your car, and need to smash a window to get out.
Location
Below are ten tools that I would highly recommend that you have in your car at all times. They are split into two sections, those that you need to be in easy reach and those that we would recommend you place in a plastic box in the boot of your car.
As an example, I would highly recommend that you drive around with a jump starter. This way, the next time you get a flat battery, you’re ready to go quickly and simply need to connect your car’s battery to another car. You don’t have to find a set of jump-leads, and then find another car and then start your own car. But as far as location goes, this is a great example of something that can easily fit in a plastic box in the boot of your car.
The lifehammer on the other hand, is the opposite. A life hammer is designed to smash windows in an emergency. Let’s imagine your car suddenly sets on fire and the doors are locked and will not open, how are you getting out? This is where the hammer comes into play, as it allows you to smash the window easily. Unlike the jumps leads above, you need to have the lifehammer close to your body allowing you to quickly grab it, smash the window and escape in an emergency.
Best Tools to Keep In Your Car
- Best Vehicle Escape Tool: Lifehammer Safety Hammer
- Best Car Jump Starter: NOCO Boost Plus GB40 Jump Starter
- Best Multitool: Gerber Multi-Plier
- Best Socket Set: DeWalt 34-Piece Socket Set
- Best Flashlight: J5 Tactical V1-PRO Flashlight
- Best Tire Inflator: Ring Automotive RAC601 Digital Tyre Inflator
- Best Folding Shovel: DMOS Stealth Shovel
- Best Tire Chains - Suptempo Universal Snow Chains
- Best Disposable Gloves - Venom Steel Rip Resistant Nitrile Gloves
- Best First Aid Kit - AA Ultimate First Aid Kit
Best Tools For Your Car
Best Vehicle Escape Tool - LifeHammer
The lifehammer is a 5.3 inches by 10.7 inches and 1.5 inches thick device that is either made of hard plastic or steel, that has two key jobs in the event of an emergency. It’s designed help cut your seat belt, and if needed, easily smash a window. If you have a car crash, typically the seat belts will jam tight, the doors will lock and it maybe very difficult to get out.
The lifehammer is designed to facilitate this problem. In the case you need to smash a window, the steel tip of the lifehammer easily shatters the window with very little pressure, while the Sharpe blade feature, easily cuts through seat belts in seconds. This a valuable tool that you should have in your car at all times.
Best Car Jump Starter - NOCO Boost Plus GB40
It’s that dreaded fear of everyone who owns a car. You go start it and the battery’s flat. If you’re in a city, someone close will have a set of jump leads that you can borrow and start your car, but what if you’re on your own. What if you’re in the countryside and no one is around you? This is where the NOCO Boost Plus GB40 Jump Starter comes into its own as it allows you to restart that dead battery yourself.
The NOCO Boost Plus GB40 is a fantastic car jump starter that can deliver up to 1,000 amps, be used up to 20 times on a single charge and ca easily start petrol engines up to 6 liters and diesel engines up to 3 liters. Best of all, it holds its charge for up to a year meaning that you only need to charge it up once a year.
It’s both highly recommended and easy to use. Essentially you connect the red and black wires out of the device to the red/black sockets on your battery, switch it on and you’re ready to go.
Best Multitool - Gerber Multi Plier
Multi-tools are an absolute life-saver and a total must-have for any car owner. If you’ve done any form of driving, you’ll know there are so many times when things don’t happen quite as you expect. Over the years my multi-tool has come into its own in a number of occasions from the hub caps being greased onto by wheels, the oil-dip being stuck on, the fuel cap getting stuck, cutting wires to re-plug my trailer lights and many, many others.
The best Multi-Tool is firmly the Gerber Multi Plier. This is the one that I’ve had in my car for the last ten years. Its served me very well. The Gerber comes with a butterfly design and twelve different tools from a spring-loaded needle-nose pliers to a fine edge knife and scissors to a bottle opener. The Gerber is about 3.5-Inches long, and weighs about 300 grams. Perfect for your car.
Best Socket Set - DeWalt Socket Set
Most cars bought these days come with wheels that are attached with bolts. They provide both a spare tire and the tools needed to change the tire, but often they are cheap, and pretty or much useless. The minute you put any form of weight on the sock-wrench, it starts to bend. I’ve seen wrenches that are so bad, they’ve bent rather than doing any good.
This is where a good socket set, like the DeWalt 34-Piece can really make the difference between being stuck waiting for the AA to change your wheel and being able to do it yourself.
Best Flashlight - J5 Tactical V1-PRO Flashlight
If you’ve ever been out in the dark, you’ll know that night-time can often be very dark. This is great for a night’s sleep, but not much good if you have a problem with your car and need to see the problem in order to fix it. This is where a flashlight comes into its own. The problem with flashlights is that there is so much choice on the market,
Your choice for a flashlight is everything thing from a cheap light off amazon probably made in china, to a flashlight costing hundreds of pounds. The main problem with a flashlight is that often you will not use it for a while and when you do, it needs to work. If not, there is not much point in having it in the first place.
My favourite flashlight is the J5 Tactical V1-PRO Flashlight. It’s small enough to fit into the palm of your hand while being a bright enough (300-lumen) to provide light to objects that are 600-feets away. Most importantly it works in the rain and has been designed to use a single AA battery.
Best Tire Inflator - Ring Automotive RAC601 Digital Tyre Inflator
Having a portable air compressor pump in your car is a worthwhile investment if you don’t want to waste money checking your tires. Research suggests that drivers should heck their tires every month to make sure they are at the correct pressure. A 1% decrease in tire pressure will affect your car’s handling and fuel consumption by 10%.
With a Portable Air Compressor Pump in your car you can easily check your tire pressure from home. The best tire inflator is the Ring Automotive RAC601 Digital Tyre Inflator. It measures 5.5 inches wide, 8.3 inches long, and 3.25 inches high and can connect to your car's 12-volt outlet via an 11.5-foot cable. The unit comes with a maximum output rating for 150 PSI, and the LCD screen display lets you know the exact PSI of your tires and how much air you need to add.
Best Folding Shovel – DMOS Shovel
Having a folding shovel is one of those items that you probably will not ever use, but it’s very handy if you ever get stuck on beach, or you need to move some snow in the winter. The DMOS shovel is 31-Inches folded up and fully extended measures 56-inches long which not only gives it plenty of leverage but also means that it’s great for taller people.
It’s made from solid stainless steel which means its lights at 1.5Kg, while being solid enough so that it doesn’t bend when you put some weight on it.
Best Tire Chains - Suptempo Universal Snow Chains
Buying a set of tire chains for your car is a must-have item if you live in the UK. Sadly the minute it starts snowing, all hell breaks loose on the roads across the UK and with cars being designed for performance, and not snow capabilities, most cars these days perform terribly on snow and ice.
The problem is that rear-wheel drive cars are great for performance, but in the snow mean that you have no steering, while front wheel drive cars are great for steering, but you have no drive. Four-wheel cars are better, but they still lack the proper grip on ice that a pair of chains will give you
Best Disposable Gloves - Venom Steel Rip Resistant Nitrile Gloves
If you do anything to your car, I would highly recommend that you use a pair of disposable gloves. If you’ve ever tried to change a tire, check the oil or in all honesty do anything to you’re the exterior of your car, you’ll know how dirty this can be..
Best First-Aid Kit –AA Ultimate First Aid Kit
This doesn’t need to be major, but is a great idea to carry a few items to deal with medical problems along the road. Everything from a few plasters, to an emergency blanket to a full comprehensive first aid kit is easily achieved with a little planning. Either you take a plastic box and add a few items to it or think about buying a ready made kit.
Out favorite kit is the AA Ultimate first aid kit that comes with a range of plasters and medical aid to take care of everything but the most serious of problems.
