I've just put together an article about essential items that should be included in any 4x4 kit:

4WD Traveller.com -- 4x4 Travel, Adventure, News, and Reviews: 4X4 Essentials: Preparing your 4x4 Kit

This isn't expedition or region specific, but a minimum list of what I think are some of the required items for general 4x4 trips. But I'm wondering if I missed anything?

Any thoughts?

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Spare socks.
Don't you just hate it when yours get wet and smelly. Plus they are useful to do puppet impressions to keep the kids amused whilst you're digging out.

I would like my machete or axe in there as well

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- On the road since 2003 in a vintage Land Cruiser

Once youre in the soft stuff you will wish you had your compressor.I recommend Bushranger from Oz.Very reliable.Clamps to battery.I agree the cig lighter type are useless.

And a tyre pressure gauge to keep your boots in perfect order.

Great suggestions--and much appreciated! Can't believe I forgot to include an axe or saw and tire pressure gauge...

Any thoughts on keeping drinking and vehicle water separate? A few folks on other forums thought this was a bad idea...one water container for all kind of thing.

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What about one of those big blow up bags for lifting the vehicle up when in soft sand etc, can't remember what they are called though.

I bought an 'unused' 2nd hand air jack from someone who had completed their overland trip.

It blew up in our faces the very first time we used it. Luckily we had taken lots of precautions and no one was hurt, but obviously my opinion of air jacks is low!

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Ollie

www.jollyfollies.com

Land's End to Sydney 2009

If you buy a $99/49 pound "one size fits all" exhaust powered air bag, made "somewhere else", that's one thing.
If you look at a reinforced Matjack low pressure bag, designed to lift 8 tons @ 9 psi a height of 48" complete with regulator, that's another thing altogether - suitable to lift a Unimog.
Of course you always get what you pay for, and vice versa.
Matjack (Matjack) also makes 1.5, 2.5 and 5.8 ton low pressure bags. Compressor not included.

Charlie

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Unimog U500 w/Unicat

Read through your article and I've a few comments.

Hand winch - the one illustrated will be useless, they just collapse, the length of pull is much too short, a Tirfor style is a far better option, has longer levers, longer cable, etc, etc.

Puncture repair kits - a bicycle pump??? you'd be a dried skeleton before you could pump a modern tubeless tyre back onto its wheel bead. That said I have always fitted tubes to tyres on the assumption that sooner or later a puncture happens and with a tube you can fix punctures easliy and reseat the tyre onto the bead. BTW a jack can be used to break the bead, but you'd need a good set of loooooong tyre levers to remove a modern tyre from its wheel. Some liquid soap is always handy here.

Tyre lug - plus a length of steel pipe to give greater leverage - 1 metre does the job nicely.

Spare belts - know beforehand how to change them, I've been working on a Merc this week and to change the power steering belt you have to remove a lot more than a few spanners can cope with. I'd be more inclined to leave the belts at home and carry some universal radiator hose lengths.

Oil and Filters - if you get a hole in something, you need to plug it. Plastic metal, thick epoxy and a few pieces of alloy or even coins will help out in a really tight situation.

Water is water, just dont waste drinking water on an engine that is rooted.

Some sturdy wooden blocks to put a jack on is a must, if you are in sand/mud then the blocks need to be wide to distribute the weight of the jack. I've seen hilifts sink into the ground.

Great suggestions - thanks Roger! And yes I took quite a drubbing for including a bicycle pump in the original list...

Cheers,
Dan H.

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You have to just be careful extending wheel spanners. Six stud Toyota and Nissan are not the strongest! I have sheared off many Toyota and Nissan studs just using the std wrench and I am certainly no Arnie...

Landrover ones on the other hand are massive and I have yet to see one shear off. Recent Toyo 5 stud pattern are also a bit stronger but not LR tough.

I have actually been in a situation where with a D22 pick up I had to rob studs off other wheels to get home. That reminds me to get a few spare studs in my tool bag!
Gil

Another good thing to have that's small and light is a bicycle tube the same diameter as the wheels, to help seal the tire beads when re-inflating. Lubricate with dish soap and pull out when tire has 3-5 psi. It works on Unimog tires, it should work on smaller tires.

Charlie

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Unimog U500 w/Unicat

CornishDeity

Did you put a cloth under the bag by any chance...has happened before whre the gound ruptures the bag. We had no problems using it...even in a river

Yes we put some rubber matting under it. It was on a gravel pathway, so I think that probably had some relationship to it. we even had an 'adult' overlander hold our hand whilst playing - still bang!

It could have been the cheaper variety as mentioned above. As I said we bought it second hand, and hadn't really thought about what quality it was.

Never mind eh, you win some you lose some

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Ollie

www.jollyfollies.com

Land's End to Sydney 2009