Note: I am really not sure where to post this. If it needs to be moved, please just let me know where it gets moved to. If any group is likely to see value in this, odds are it is here.

For a couple of years now I have been carrying the first iteration of this kit. It has proven itself worthwhile, and I decided to create a second one for my wife’s vehicle. Not that I expect her to necessarily find use to all of it, but I am occasionally there too.

The kit is contained in a Bucket Boss Jumper Cable and Tools bag. This bag has a divider and some pockets and a pouches. It is not to be confused with their bag which is for jumper cables only. Wanting to build a second kit I started out by ordering a second bag.

Apparently the bean counters got to this design between when I purchased the first one and now. While I can see where they have shaved their pennies I can’t complain too much because the changes mostly affect elements which I wasn’t using in the first place. Here are the two bags, side by side:

You can see that the two D-rings have been deleted. I wasn’t using these to begin with, so no real loss to me there. You can’t see that the old one had an exterior pouch both front and back, and the new one only has the pouch on one side. Again, I have yet to use the pouches, so no loss there either. You also can’t see that the old one has two zipper pulls while the new one only has one. That’s a minor detail though. If anything, I am most disappointed in the new fabric. The old one is Cordura, or a reasonable facsimile thereof. The new one is some sort of rip-stop material and is noticeably thinner. That difference is annoying because I expect the wear and tear on this item to be a matter of chafing as it rides around in one spot in my truck for years on end. I don’t need rip-stop in that situation. I need more wear resistance. I think the older material was superior. Oh well. They didn’t ask me.

Let’s start with building the kit. Here’s layer #1:

The box of sockets deserves a closer look:

The green box is going into the new kit. Note that I have both standard and metric in this set. I really prefer to do it the way I have the blue box set up, but the green one was already designed for both, so I am keeping the cheap plastic organizer for now. We’ll see how well it holds up. The rails in the blue box are just the relatively common socket rails, but cut down to fit the box and carrying a mix of 1/4″ and 3/8″ clips so that I can organize the sockets as I want them. For the most part the sockets, ratchets and extensions are not the ones which originally came in those boxes. I troll garage sales and swap meets for decent sockets on the cheap and upgrade my sets as I find better tools. That green handled ratchet is actually a Horror Freight item. I’m giving it a shot. The handle telescopes. The question is will I bend the handle first, or strip the gears? We’ll see. Note the blue rag to help keep the rattles down and provide a way to clean my hands.

Now lets take a closer look at the contents of the mesh pouch:

Zip ties, nitrile gloves in a ziploc sandwich bag, another small ziploc bag of driver bits and a magnetic screw starter are in the original kit. I rounded up zip ties and gloves for the new kit, but I don’t have yet another set of driver bits, nor another magnetic screw starter available at the moment. I did however rustle up a set of both standard and metric allen wrenches. The allen bits have been some of the more useful inserts from the original kit.

Flip that divider over and we get to the last portion of the kit:

Here’s a closer look at how I am managing the wrenches:

The old Craftsman pouch contains a set of standard combination wrenches, held together with a zip tie is the metric combination set, and the 4Sevens ziploc has open duplicates for when I need two of the same size wrench. Note that the smart way to do the ziploc is with a releasable ziploc. I have been using a knife to release the standard ziploc here, but picking up some releasable ones would make a lot of sense.

The new kit received a cool set of wrenches which I picked up at a swap meet a few weeks ago:

I like that little set all bound up neat and tidy with a pair of brackets and a thumbscrew. I don’t know if that sort of thing is on the market anymore, but packaging doesn’t get much more compact. I know that’s a pretty anemic set of metric wrenches, but that was all I had available in the box of extra wrenches. I’ll have to focus on tracking down a few more to round out the set.

Besides the wrenches there are crescent wrenches, screwdrivers and a driver for the inserts (the original kit). Some pliers too.

I am not going to overhaul an engine with this kit, but it will take care of a number of issues.

From my experience with the original kit, it is not just working on my own vehicle that makes this worthwhile. It is my ability to compensate for the fact that so few people seem to have their own tools anymore. It seems everyone is handing that sort of work off to the professionals. My most recent use of my toolkit was to adjust the chain tension on a friend’s chainsaw. It had nothing to do with repairing my vehicle, but it was essential to getting a job done safely. That is typical of how I find myself using this kit.

Here is the final shot of both of them packed up and ready for service:

The nice thing about this package is that it fits under a seat and stays out of the way. Note that this is not a lightweight package. I haven’t weighed either of these, but it’s definitely over ten pounds, and maybe over fifteen. It’s a vehicle carry item.

Also note that this is not meant to be comprehensive, but rather complementary to other items which are carried elsewhere in the vehicle and on my person. There are also some items which I would still like to add. I know that Gojo/Fast Orange can be had in individually packaged wipes, and I think a couple of those belong in each of these bags. I am sure I will continue to adjust contents over the years.

I do think these are a good start, and I hope they provide some inspiration to someone.