How To Create An Off-Road Trail Kit

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This article was generously provided by u/Wranglicon, a member of r/Jeep over on Reddit. As I told him, this is why this community is so great. Jeepers helping Jeepers and eventually Jeepers helping everyone else because we have the only vehicle that can get out of everything – especially if we have a trail kit!

Hey Jeepers! That disconcertingly orange thing there is my Jeep, affectionately known as “lil’ Gorilla” – there’s a story to that name that I may or may not share down the line. I bought my JK in 2013, my first new vehicle, and it’s been a long, strange journey to this picture here. A journey filled with new friends, new places, and a lot more mud in unlikely places than I’m willing to admit. You can check out my build so far HERE. But today, I’m going to talk about something no trail rider should be without: a good trail kit.

I think the name trail kit is a bit of a stretch. I keep my kit in my Jeep 24/7. Emergencies and accidents can happen anywhere, so it can’t hurt to be prepared. My goal here is to help new Jeepers, or anyone interested in 4×4-ing to be well prepared. This will not be comprehensive by any means – you don’t need all the stuff I keep, and I don’t want to get so far into this where we start talking about things like rigging up emergency welds using car batteries in series – I want to talk about the basics – what you should have on any trail: from the gnarliest rock crawling, to the most basic almost-paved-but-not-quite trails. I’m also going to avoid supplies like water, extra fuel, and food – which are very important as well. So with that, let’s get started!

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Here’s a quick overview of my essentials. A tub to store all the goodies, replacement oil, tow strap, and an air compressor. Not pictured here are the oil filter, shackles, tire pressure gauge, zip ties, and tool kit. The tool kit is the only one I’m wishing I had on hand, as everyone on the trail should have a tool set with them. You don’t need anything crazy, but getting the standard + metric sets (Stanley 85 piece comes to mind) are a good start. Also, making sure you can get your wheels off your Jeep in the case of a puncture or popping a bead is necessary, if not mandatory on a trail run. Our first 2 rules are full-size spare and recovery straps. If you’re like me and have aftermarket wheel nuts, be sure you have the tools on hand to support it. So now that we’ve got a handle on what we’re looking at, let’s bust this open!

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That’s a lot of stuff, so let’s start from the top. If it’s difficult to see, #1 is around 11 o’clock in the image, and this list will work counter clockwise. (🔽 denotes low priority)

    1. Tire plug kit – every trail run demands a full-size spare. In some instances, a simple plug kit could save you a lot of grief since the tire wouldn’t need to be unmounted.
    2. Garbage bags – many uses for these. First and foremost, pack out more than you pack in. I could write a whole other blog on mitigating environmental impact while wheeling but this rule should be tops on any trail run. I’ve also had to dump soaked clothing in bags, dirty mud flaps, dirty boots, and tools, you name it.
    3. First Aid Kit – because you never know. There have been close calls on the trail but luckily I haven’t needed more than just some band-aids and iodine.
    4. Hammock – this is just a cheap-o hammock I got from Amazon. It could come in handy if something happened and were stranded for a night or if there was a serious injury and needed a method of stretcher, or fashioning up a sling by cutting it up. 🔽
    5. Multimeter – having electronics fail on a trail is a nightmare of mine, so I keep one on hand to at least diagnose easier. Add some spare electrical wires in the case, for any fixes we could do. 🔽


  1. Fire Starting Kit + Hatchet – Anything that may need to be cut, chopped or bludgeoned. Emergency fire (matches also live in this kit, not pictured), forgot a hammer, any reason you can imagine to need one! 🔽
  2. Headlamp – Even in daylight, there are dark places of a Jeep’s underbelly. 🔽
  3. Handheld CB – This acts as both as my primary and as a safety. When I head out, I keep batteries and the OEM antenna on hand. When wheeling, I have it wired into my jeep antenna and aux. power outlet. 🔽
  4. Safety Vest – We’ve had to do repairs on the side of the highway before (story below!), and being visible during the night is just good sense. Lights or cones are also a good idea to help you further. *Something I have, stuck between gloves and tools in photo, is a mag-back flashlight, with side LEDs that pulse red or white. Very handy for roadside emergencies.
  5. Spill Pads – Any fluids leaking on a trail are a bad thing (back to that environmental bit). These will soak up anything leaking from punctures or cracks. (Story Below!)
  6. Gloves – I keep a wide variety of gloves on hand but the basics would be a mechanics’ glove and synthetic for any fluid leaks.
  7. Seal/Gasket Maker – differential covers primarily come to mind. 🔽
  8. Air Compressor – I personally run a simple 12V battery connected compressor. Airing down is a normal practice for off-roading, so it’s only natural to have some way of airing back up! You can get away with a smaller system like mine or can scale all the way to something like the ARB dual onboard system that could power pneumatic tools! I’ve wheeled with some people that have onboard air tanks as well for the truly hardcore.
  9. Basic Tools – an assortment of pliers and crescent wrenches to compliment the sockets and screwdrivers.
  10. Ratchet Straps/Bungee Cords – for whatever your mind can come up with. 🔽
  11. Oil – Always have a full oil change with you on the trail. A cracked oil pan or flooded engine could be fixed on the trail that way. (Story below!)
  12. Storage tub – any cheap plastic tub to fit the small stuff. Things will get dirty, as will the tub!
  13. J-B Weld – It apparently fell over while taking the photo but trust me, it’s there! Can come in very handy in a pinch. (story below!)
  14. Folding Shovel – I can’t believe how useful this tool has been. From building a campfire ring, starting a fire (has flint and a sparker built in, among other tools), digging out a latrine, a lever… I could go on. It joins me on any adventures I can afford the space and weight to have it.

So once again, this isn’t meant to be an end-all be-all list nor do I feel this is complete. Rather, I hope I can help a few people new to their journey with some insight gleaned over my few years on the trails. I’ve been fortunate to ride with some amazing and experienced people over that time and sometimes I was ready for what was thrown at us. Other times, I was the recipient of some well-deserved derision. Story time!

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screenshot from random YouTube video at Alberta Falls for context

In 2016, there were five jeeps on a trail run down one of my favorite places in the world: Ruby Falls, Alberta. This is a beautiful area in the mountains that is about 80% river rock, so it’s rough and occasionally very wet. It was my first time in the area and this trail has a bit of a reputation (on our 2017 run there were the charred remains of a side-by-side on the trail). I needed my jeep the following weekend for a long road trip, so I was running navigator with a friend. Most of the day was great and we made it to the falls without any concern. The ride back was going ok but then things were getting ominous when we came across a quad-pulled trailer with a snapped axle. About a kilometer later, we came to our secondary staging point which was still about 7km from the trailhead. At this point, one of the Jeeps came to a sudden stop at the crest of the water crossing. He had cracked his oil pan and it was leaking fast.

We don’t know exactly where it happened, the best guess was a rock on the embankment coming out of the river. Finding out was far from our minds, however. We were beginning to panic a little bit – how do we get this vehicle out? It’s 3 pm and 2.5 hours to the nearest town where stores close at 6 pm and half of that is a gravel road, plus a good chunk of trail in front of us! We decided to split up – our Jeep was designated the supply run, the rest of the crew were tow-support. They towed the broken Jeep off the trail and down the gravel road until they hit the pavement. Our supply Jeep ran to the nearest town to pick up JB weld, oil and some food and coffee for everyone and meet them back at the pavement to attempt a field repair. Bad news for us, the hardware store didn’t have JB Weld! We got a high strength epoxy to try; everyone was fully prepared to tow this vehicle home if need be.


We finally met up with the tow crew several hours later and started our fix. It was a tense couple of hours with the epoxy, unsure if it would hold or not, and it seemed dire. We tested it out on a short drive after an oil change and there was a small leak, so we gave it a little more time. It did eventually hold but he had to keep driving to keep the epoxy cool. As soon as he stopped, the heat of the oil weakened the epoxy and it would start leaking again. Thankfully it was all highway to within a few blocks of his house. My day started on the road to my driver’s house at 5 am on Saturday, and I got home at 2:30 am on Sunday. This is normally a day run that was complicated by an ill-prepared group.

This single event went terribly. The dozen or so other trips I have taken with my Jeep never had a sniff of issues of this magnitude. Some beads were popped, tires punctured and several recoveries but those were relatively easy to take care of. This one event spurred me to research the necessities for trail runs to a larger degree, and I am by no means finished. U-joints, driveshafts, trail weld kits, 6th tire and more. I do have hopes of getting my Jeep into some of the more well known, crazier, trails out there. I have several trails in Moab on my to-do list as well as the Rubicon Trail in the Sierra Nevada. Some of these call for more robust preparedness. Do your research if you’re unsure about where you’re going. Talk to experienced drivers. Get involved in local groups if there are any. The Jeep community is vast and generally willing to share their experiences and expertise. My personal first rule of thumb is to make sure you can get out of shit before you can get in.

Thanks for reading! Want to give huge props to “Invader” and “Chirp” for their input on this and of course to JeepDaily for the post.

  • “Sure, you can go faster, but I can go anywhere.”

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Our successful 2017 group for Ruby Falls. Photo credit Nanette Samol.

Big thanks again to Wranglicon who took the time to write this for the benefit of all of us. It’s also nice to see that he cares about the environment in which we all wheel. I don’t think I’ve ever read an offroad article that mentioned bringing something with you to clean up oil leaks. If you’d like to write an article for JeepDaily, please hit us up!

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