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A hat tip to fireba11 for his help with this list. Any major brainos are mine, not his.

Now that I have trunk space worth talking about, I'm in the process of putting together an automotive emergency kit worth talking about.

If something goes badly wrong with your car, your first priority is to remain safe and healthy while waiting for help to arrive. Even if you're in the middle of nowhere it's overwhelmingly likely that someone will be driving past within the next few days: so if you can make it that long, you're golden. To that end, the kit now contains:

• A spare cell phone charger, so as to get help more quickly
• Food and water for three days
• A sleeping bag
• A reflective triangle
• Road flares
• A fire extinguisher
• Trauma dressing, QuikClot, elastic bandages
• List of allergies, emergency contact persons and other medical directives

A couple of these might warrant some discussion.

The list of allergies, contact persons and whatnot needs to be taped to the side of the bag where a first responder can see it. If the EMTs show up and find you unconscious with a QuikClotted wound and the bag is lying right there beside the car with an "ALLERGIC TO PENICILLIN" on the side, the EMTs will probably be smart enough to conclude they should inform the doc about your allergy.

A lot of people don't give road flares and reflective triangles the respect they deserve. This is a shame. One of the most dangerous places to be is in a vehicle that's parked at the side of the road. Drivers tend to not see you and may in fact plow into you. You need to give yourself every edge possible, and that means a reflective triangle an appropriate distance out -- and flares if it's nighttime.

Although automotive fires are rare occurrences, they do occur. The car is your shelter and safety until help arrives, and if it goes up in flames it won't be much use to you.

Forget those "77-piece Red Cross certified first aid kits." A good rule of thumb is that bleeding can be divided into two categories: not worth worrying about and oh God oh God I'm gonna die. If your accident is so severe that you're put in the latter category, rest assured, somebody heard you wrap your car around a tree and the paramedics have already been called. You just need to stay alive until they get there. QuikClot and trauma dressings will help a lot with that.

Once the life-threatening-emergency stuff is taken care of, it's time to worry about the comparatively smaller stuff.

• Multitool
• Ratchet set
• Pliers
• Flashlight & spare batteries
• Multi-tip screwdriver
• Gloves (both cloth and nitrile)
• Spare fuses
• Spare headlamp bulbs
• Fusebox schematic
• Tire pressure gauge
• 4-way lug wrench
• Lug key (if needed)
• Shop rags
• Jumper cables
• Garbage bags
• Duct tape, electrical tape, superglue
• Paracord

… If you don't know how to use these tools effectively, learn. Nobody's saying you have to become a complete gearhead who changes his own oil. Here's the thing: although most cars do a remarkably good job of staying together, sometimes they don't. If you pop the hood and discover something is flailing around loose, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know "hey, that's not right, that needs to be tightened down." If a hose bursts, it doesn't take Click and Clack to realize that with enough duct tape you can probably make it reach civilization. The purpose of your toolkit is not to make permanent repairs, but to make field expedient ones that will keep you going another 20 miles. There are certainly some things that will wreck your wheels right then and there (blown head gasket, timing chain snapped, differential pin sends you a postcard from Mexico where it's landed after blowing its way out of your transmission), but the vast majority of severe problems can be mitigated enough to keep you going if you absolutely must.

Don't get me wrong: if your vehicle is at the side of the road and you've got the reflec triangle and road flares out and you've got a choice between calling a tow and breaking out a ratchet set, you will almost always be better served by calling the tow. However, if you're 20 miles from nowhere with inclement weather coming in, well… grab the flashlight and get cracking: and once the inclement weather hits, stop working, grab the sleeping bag and the food and the water, and hole up in your car until it passes.

An important note about jumper cables: manufacturers lie like shameless, lying, low-down dogs. If you hit Amazon it's not hard to find vendors hyping 10-gauge jumper cables as being "heavy duty." Okay, sure, maybe, if you're jump-starting a Vespa. You want at least 4-gauge cables and at least twenty feet of them. With 4-gauge cables you can jump start the Incredible Hulk if you really need to.

An important note about tire pressure gauges: old-fashioned pencil gauges are fairly inaccurate. You can do better. That said, there's a lot to be said for keeping a pencil gauge in the car with you: it makes it easier to get in the habit of checking tire pressure. Make sure to check pressure before driving: as you drive the wheels heat up, which affects the reading.

Depending on where you live and your local laws, you may want to tuck some sort of tool worth swinging in there. If you're stuck on the side of the road there is a nonzero chance the goblins will mark you as easy prey. Tucking a baton, a baseball bat, a crowbar, something like that, into your kit can be useful. Remember, though, that if the goblins come your job is to run the hell away, not to stand your ground. The tool you keep around for social work is a last resort. It is incumbent upon you to know your local laws, too: if it's illegal to have X in your trunk, no police officer is going to look kindly on your explanation of "but it's part of my emergency kit."

If you're stuck at the side of the road for a few hours, you're going to be bored out of your skull. Pack a good book. Further, a change of clothes, a small bar of soap, a comb and a toothbrush can make a big difference in your quality of life. The first step towards no longer feeling like five miles of bad road is to wash yourself clean of the road.

Mechanic's soaps, like Gojo, are often available in single-use packets. It's worth tossing a couple in there. Your Dove bar with moisturizer will flee in terror at some of the gunk you'll get on your hands, but Gojo backs down for no grease.

Finally, tuck a few $20 bills in there, too. There's a big difference between being in a roadside emergency while completely broke and being in a roadside emergency while you have $50 in your kit. If you run out of gas and have to walk to a station to get more, it helps a lot if you can actually pay for it when you get there, and maybe have enough to buy yourself a soda, too.

So, what are y'all's thoughts? Have you put together your own automotive emergency kits? Are they similar to this, different?