I have a big wheeled bag of tools that stays permanently in the back of
my car... mostly duplicates of tools I've acquired through the years. It
must weigh over 75lbs.

It sees service several times a month, however, very little is
automotive to tell the truth. Most of the time, it's over at a
friend/family members place, and they've asked me to take a quick look
at something for them. Seems to be mostly electrical, phone and minor
plumbing issues.

A couple of things I find especially handy to keep in the bag... a
couple of those plastic snap on lid food containers. One filled with
misc nuts, bolts washers, wire nuts, butt splices and all that. The
other is filled with an outlet tester, 120 and 12V test lights, phone
line tester, some misc wire scraps, a small roll of cloth backed sand
paper in a 35mm film can, about 10' of .032 aircraft safety wire and a
small cheap analog VOM without battery. (Batteries corrode too fast left
in the car, it's usually easy enough to scrounge up a AA when the ohm
meter is needed.)

A selection of vise grips, and a pair of those giant Channel Locks...
you'd be amazed what you can do in a pinch with the big Channel Locks.

The rest is pretty much a big selection of screwdrivers,
pliers,fractional & Metric combination wrenches, 1/4 & 3/8" socket sets
in old tube socks, claw and ball peen hammer. About a 30' piece of 3/8"
rope too. Don't forget the rags...

There is more, but you get the idea... I wouldn't leave home without
that bag...

Erik

I also have a pretty nice little HF clamp on vise, and high tension
hacksaw

My take? Wouldn't have it any other way!

I don't carry *ALL* of my tools, but the passenger side floorboard of my
ride does bear a striking resemblance to a combination toolchest/parts
store.  

Of course, I offer the excuse that I make my living by having the car
rolling down the road under its own power, so if something relatively
easy to fix breaks, I want whatever is needed to fix it readily
available. Brakes starting to grind at 3 in the AM out in the middle of
nowhere, with 20 miles of downhill in front of me? Pull that puppy over
to the side, plug the spotlight into the lighter socket, pull the spare
set of brake pads out from under the passenger seat, and do a pad change
right there on the spot. U-joint starts howling in a similar situation?
It just so happens that I keep two spares in the glove-box, and can swap
in a new one with the driveshaft still on the car in just under half an
hour. Alternator goes tango-uniform? Surprise! I've got a spare (and
spare belts) in the trunk. (right alongside the ziploc containing a full
set of fresh plugs, a plug-gapper on the keyring, the plug wires from
the last change, and a fresh distributor cap and rotor)

At one point, I even had a freshly-rebuilt spare carb riding around in
the trunk! Never mind the gallon of Delo that fits perfectly into the
space between the passenger-side headlight and the front wheel well,
right  next to the windshield washer reservoir, and the tire-plugging
kit tucked into the passenger door pocket, and 12 volt air compressor
under the driver's seat, along with the full-size spare *AND* the
"donut" spare that are in the trunk at all times.

And then, of course, I've got "The ultimate toolbox" in the console: A
fully-charged AAA-Plus card. Saved my bacon a few times now - Ever
busted not one, not two, but *THREE* lug-wrenches while trying to break
loose a frozen lug so you can change a flat? I have...

Of course, then there was my last call to AAA - No (reasonable) amount
of tools and spare parts could have fixed it. Rear countershaft bearing
in the 5-speed stick tranny puked, dropping the back end of the
countershaft so that it didn't mesh with the output shaft gears, leaving
me with 3rd and 4th gear only. Sing along, boys and girls! (To the tune
of "Jim Dandy to the Rescue") AAA to the rescue, AAA to the resssscue!
Go AAA, Go AAA! :)

(Fortunately, I had a spare tranny sitting in the garage, so about 2-3
hours after the AAA flatbed dropped me off at home, the car was back on
the road under its own power)

I almost did that with my Rangerover, but there wasn't space.

These days I carry the toolkit that came with the car, and a cellphone.
Cars just don't break down these days (compared to 20-some years ago)
and if I can't fix it with one wire or one hose clip, I'm almost
certainly looking at a towtruck, even if I had brought a full toolkit
with me.

Off-road is different, as then you're looking at survival ablative
impact damage.

I was driving down the highway, and there was a VW bus by the side of the
road with people staring in the engine compartment.  Since you don't see
very many VW busses on the road these days, I pulled over and asked if I
could help.  Now, for clarity, let me say that I drive an early-eighties
BMW to work every day which was not cared for well by the previous owners
and I am slowly working out various problems.

I asked if I could help, and the guy asked if I had a wrench.  "What size?"
"Ten."  "Ten millimeter?"  "Yeah."  "Open-ended, box, socket, or spanner?"

The man looked at me like I was out of my mind for driving around with a
full tool kit in the back of the car.  Given the car I was driving, I would
have been foolish not to have it.  Given the car HE was driving, I thought
he was out of his mind not to have a full toolkit....

And in the end, I was especially glad to have penetrating oil too.
--scott

I carry a small old metal toolbox, about 12"x9"x9".
In it are enough tools to do just about anything except remove the transmission.
It has saved me more than once.
I also keep record of all my tools on an excel spreadsheet and when I travel for
the company (about once per month) I take a copy of the spreadsheet and stop at
pawn shops in industrial areas to replenish lost and broken tools.

I used to.  Now I carry a cell phone.
My other strategy is to have multiple cars.  The Beretta and the truck
are both 16 years old so they need repairs on a regular basis, but if
properly maintained they don't leave me on the side of the road, and
you've always got one running vehicle when one does break.
And with one kid and another on the way, I'll probably be adding a
Subaru wagon over the winter to the "fleet" so I have two spare cars and
the Beretta can be "retired" in a year or two.

I just found that either nothing happens, or when my car breaks, it's
not something that can be fixed on the side of the road - (timing gear)

OTOH, if it's a project car like my buddy's Nova that seems to require
perpetual attention, we don't go to 7/11 without a full trunk of tools.

Ray

Not really relevant, but one time I was moving from Michigan to
Virginia.  I had all of my "prized possessions" and essentials in the
car with me (read: my collection of tools, and a couple changes of
clothes.)  Of course, the same car that I'd been driving to work every
day for years had an alternator failure on the Ohio turnpike.

Having all my tools with me helped the poor bastard that had a flat
tire and pulled over at the same place I did (he needed a breaker bar
and "cheater pipe") but changing an alternator at the side of the road
in the pouring rain was a bit much for me (it's underneath the engine
on a VW Scirocco with A/C.)  I wimped out and had it towed to a shop.

So much for my "badass mechanic" credentials.

nate

I guess my cars are maintainted to the point that I don't worry about
being stranded.  It would be pointless to carry around 200 pounds of
tools in the trunk.

I keep a very small toolkit in the car, jumper cables and some paper
towels. Of the bunch the two most commonly used are the jumper cables
and paper towels.

I used to carry everything but the kitchen sink including oil, PS
fluid, extra jacks, shovel, all kinds of tools, flares, etc and never
needed any of it.

My brother used to do that.  Someone broke into the trunk one night and
cleaned it out for him.  Take care where you park.

G

I keep a modest amount of stuff in the truck.

A $3 Harbor Freight DMM (leave the good Fluke DMM at home).

A Craftsman tool kit that contains regular and phillips screwdrivers,
1/4" driver handle, 3/8" ratchet, a good selection of inch and metric
sockets and a couple open end wrenches.

A selection of spare light bulbs and fuses.

A quart of oil and gallon of antifreeze premix.

An old serpentine belt as an emergency spare.

A cheap spotlight, a good maglight and an amber strobe with a long cord.

A liter of water and an MRE.

A GPS, cell phone and AAA card.

I figure all of that is perhaps 30# which is pretty irrelevant to a 1T
truck and should be enough to handle common issues.

Pete C.

I certainly never carry *all* my tools in the trunk. What I carry
depends on where I'm going and what I'll be doing. For everyday driving,
I have a basic driver-and-wrench toolkit in the trunk. I've rarely ever
needed it for my own car, but its come in real handy helping folks
who've had a breakdown. For long trips I carry a fairly complete set in
a small chest and a few key spares (ignition module, ballast resistor-
little stuff like that.) Plus duct tape, hose clamps, wire, and a tire
plug kit (even though I don't like plugged tires, its a good 'beside the
road' kind of fix). Can't strand me as long as I've got those! :-)

Yeah, I'm sure someone says "I carry an AAA card." Well, I've seen how
much time you can spend waiting the hours it takes AAA to respond, so no
thanks. :-p

Moe : Go Get The Tools!

Larry : What Tools? ( Moe slaps Larry )

Moe: The Tools We've Been Using For The Last 10 years.

Larry : Oh.....Those Tools.

I've carried a tool box in the trunk of the Bonneville for 15 years.
The car never broke down on a road trip - but have helped others out.

When I changed the serpentine belt & radiator & heater hoses the
originals were fitted in around the spare tire well. They were there if
I needed them, Never needed them though.

Also carried a bottle of Prestone in a five gallon bucket that was tied
to the Jack box that stood upright in the RR Quarter panel. Also had two
quarts of Oil, one quart of trans oil & a small bottle of power steering
fluid. 3 Castrol GTX oil bottles fit snuggly in those white Rubbermaid
ice cube tray bins you put ice cubes in.  

The tradition continues with the Park Avenue.

harryface
05 Park Avenue 49,889
91 Bonneville 307,334

I carry a small eclectic selection that I know from experience will
get me through the sorts of predicaments that I could realistically
expect to fix at the side of the road.    Some generically useful tools
and some that solve annoyances peculiar to that car.   I stash the old
belts that I've replaced, and in addition to tools and parts, I carry
some supplies useful for MacGyvering my way home or at least to the
next town.    I figure the deluxe kind of AAA membership will get the
hulk back home from my usual trips, and I also have various options for
having people bring me things or even grumping to the rescue with  a
tow dolly.

On long trips, I've occasionally bought tools where I bought the parts.

With the beaters, frankly, I'm also ready with a last-ditch option in
the event of catastrophic failure of something important and expensive:
sack up everything I really want out of the car, have it towed to its
eternal rest, and make my way home.

(I've always  thought it rather poignant  how some of the cars in
junkyards were plainly  in the midst of a long trip -- often a move,
judging from the contents; and perhaps involving owners who didn't have
a whole lot of resources.  Always makes me wonder if they got where
they were going, or went back home, or reinvented themselves in the
town where the car died, or what.)

I used to do some off-roading; the tool selection, the spares, the
vehicle capacity, and the range of troubles I figured on having to fix
by myself were all proportionately larger.  

--Joe

.357 magnum + spare tire.
CCW

I use a 3-tray fishing tackle box by Plano to hold the tools I always
carry in the trunk of my ride. I have done this, or similar this, with
every car I owned, more so with college [when I bought a ride to get
around there]. Since the weight is only around 20 lbs., no mpg to
weight issue there.

I agree with most of the others in one instance, I have a hydraulic
scissors jack and a solid wood board in there. I'll trade the jack's
weight off the mpg anyday. At least I know, over the board, the car
will go up. :) .  Along with that goes a 4-way lug wrench and cheater
pipe.  The board also fits well over snow, mud, water, other less than
pleasant environments.  And it keeps assorted tools and nuts away from
that stuff.  As well as my knee.

My box is influenced by 4x4 time, so I won't include the ancilliary
items for 4x'ing.  Elec. tape, duct tape, screwdrivers, Torx bit set,
fuses, light bulbs, screw clamps, set metric and SAE sockets.  A
Vise-Grip, pliers of different sorts, hammer, knife, some general
flotsam [extras from packages, wires, plugs, that sort of thing].  I
added a cardboard box with various fluids for the ride, some gloves,
rags, sprays and a mean Crescent Wrench:lol: .

I believe in having tools in the ride for those "times", :smokin: , but
I also feel that working on a ride begins at home.  My own philosophy is
"what can I reasonably do if I have a problem on the road".  My
ancilliary is "what can I do at home to reduce problems on the road".
Part of what I carry in the trunk is mostly used at home, just looking
around the ride, and doing what I feel should be done, with the "stuff"
I use for regular look-overs.

Cheers