I ride a scooter around my city for fun and often find people having car struggles. I'm skilled with automotive work, so I figured I'd fill a "go bag" with stuff to bring anytime I'm riding for pleasure and have extra space. My goal is to cover as many common issues as possible while fitting everything inside a 30 liter top box.
My current list is:
- Jumper cables or small jump back (interesting edit at bottom)
- Common wrenches (10, 12, 14, 17mm)
- Common screw drivers
- Maybe common fluids (5w-30 oil, distilled water or coolant, etc.)
- Tire plug kit
- zipties
- duct tape
Suggestions from this thread I will add:
- OBD-II Diag tool
- Telescoping magnet
- cig lighter charged air compressor
- Pliers
- wire stripper/crimper combo tool
- crimp terminals/splices
- multimeter
- fuses
- SNACKS!!!!!!!!
- gloves
- air-freshener/momento type of thing :)
Are there other super useful things I might have left out, or niche stuff small enough that it'd cost nothing to bring on the off chance it helps? Common spec bolts/o-ring sizes, or something like that?
I want to make sure when I stop to help someone I can actually help, and not narrowly miss an opportunity because of an oversight.
Thanks for the help with this :)
Edits:
- formatting list
- adding "?" to title
- added zipties and duct tape to list, added o-ring example
- added suggestions from thread list
Interesting edit at bottom: TL;DR is supercapacitors. Main story: My concern was the longevity and cost associated with jump packs; lithium batteries don't like to be stored at high charge and also don't do great in varying temperatures. Enter the TIL: supercapacitor jump packs, which seems absolutely perfect for my use-case. They're designed to be stored with no charge, and are super happy with offloading all their charge at once. The intended use is to be charged off of the dead battery just enough to breath life into the starter long enough to get it running, but they can usually be charged quickly by other methods like an outlet (plentiful in the city) or a working vehicle.
Another suggestion is to have multiple lights and rotate them as you charge them. Freshest charge in emergency bag, then the one previously in the bag is for day to day use until it dies and needs charging. Though this is mainly a concern if you rarely use it. If you're frequently stopping to help people, you might not need to do special battery management beyond just charging when it gets low.
Not sure if anyone has mentioned it but car adapter to USB charger can also help here (and in many other cases... My daughter isn't SOL when her DS dies because I got a USB charging cable for it).
Similar (to the first paragraph) for jump starter kits. The first time I needed mine after getting it, it was winter and the battery was dead and wouldn't even charge until it had warmed up. I leave mine in the car during the summer but leave it inside by the door in the winter now.