Prudent Prepping: Final Trunk III

The dust has settled and the First 72 Hours have passed. Follow along as I build a long term plan via Prudent Prepping.

The large and expensive part of the Trunk fix is here. What's left to do? You'll be amazed at what how simple it is!

At the start of my search for a way to keep things neat in my car, our esteemed and resourceful Editrix sent me a link to a Honda-designed storage system. It was originally for the Honda Pilot, but it will fit into the trunk of many different Honda cars -- and from looking at the measurements, just about any mid-size foreign or domestic car too!

Honda 08U20-S9V-101 
Cargo Organizer

Notice the short sides and how they will fold in

If you look at the lower corner, there is a barely visible strap and buckle. This is to attach to hold- downs already in Honda's SUV models. Since I do not have an SUV, there will have to be brackets of some kind mounted in my car to keep things from moving around.

What's really cool about the bin are the snaps holding the dividers in place. If the time comes that all my trunk space is needed, I can undo four snaps and the dividers move up and over. The short sides fold in accordion-style and the whole thing collapses to a one inch-thick package. Since it takes up almost no room collapsed, there will be no reason to ever remove it from the trunk!

The plastic bin originally mounted in the right corner is still there. My GHB is also where I'm planning to keep it, without any of the proposed mounts mentioned last week.

In the rightmost pocket is an overstuffed regular grocery bag; the middle pocket has a medium bag; and the left pocket contains my Goretex jacket. 

Three full-size bags will easily fit into the three spaces, which is all that I normally bring home from the store anyway. My lunchbox fits nicely into the biggest pocket, leaving plenty of room to carry other stuff, like a larger first aid kit and a fire extinguisher that won't be in the organizer (since the size I'm looking at is too long to fit into the pockets, even if placed diagonally). 

The overall size is big enough to carry what I take with me every day without presenting me with so much room that I'm tempted to overload things. I am very pleased with how everything is falling in place!

The Takeaway

• Once again, friends come through with useful information and resources 

The Recap 

• Purchased one Honda Cargo Organizer: $69.38 from Amazon with Prime shipping.
  

If you plan on buying anything through Amazon, please consider using our referral link. When you do, a portion of the sale comes back here to help keep this site running!
If you have comments, suggestions or corrections, please post them so we all can learn. And remember, Some Is Always Better Than None!

NOTE: All items tested were purchased by me. No products have been loaned in exchange for a favorable review. Any items sent to me for T&E will be listed as such. Suck it Feds.

Battery Failure Assessment

Last week, I had a very inconvenient failure of the battery in my truck.  I don't often expect things to fail -- my maintenance routine isn't perfect, but it's fairly solid -- so when they do, it's an unpleasant surprise.

At about 5:40 in the morning, I went out to start my truck and go to work like I do any other weekday. When I turned the key, I was rewarded with the rapid click of a low battery that couldn't spin my starter. I roused my wife and got a ride to work, but I was left scrambling to arrange transportation home and deal with a truck that needed attention.

The immediate fix for a dead battery is either a jump start or time on a battery charger. The way we park our trucks isn't exactly conducive to a jump start, and I didn't have the time for it that morning, so I plugged in the charger and hooked it up when I got home. An hour or so later the truck would start, but I still had a root problem to track down.

A dead battery is usually the result of some kind of a drain. The most common cause is a light or a stereo left on at a drive-in double feature. When I started the truck, nothing appeared to have been left on, so that got ruled out.

Old batteries can develop problems with holding a charge. Lead-acid car batteries average 3-5 years, depending on environmental and usage conditions. I replaced my battery sometime around Labor Day, so I could rule that out as well.

Diagnosing the Problem
That left just a few possible causes. Sorting those out is pretty straightforward, but requires a couple tools:

1. Start with a check of the battery itself (I explained how to do this in an earlier post). As I said before, my battery is new. The posts are clean, the water is full, and the clamps are tight.
2. After making sure everything is physically good, check to make sure that your battery is holding a charge and that your alternator is actually charging the battery. You'll need a multimeter for this; I use this one at work, and an older variant of this one at home. 
• While the Milwaukee is simple and quick, the Amprobe is half the price and will do anything you could want a meter to do. 
• A multimeter is a wonderful tool investment on the whole, as it will help with any number of projects around the house.
• For those of you who are a bit scared or confused using a multimeter, next week I'll go through the basic functions of a meter and how they work. Stick with me on this, you'll do just fine.
3. Following the instructions for your meter, set it to test 12 volt DC power. 
• With the car off, check the voltage stored in your battery by touching one test lead to each post. 
• If your battery is holding a good charge, you should see 12-12.5 volts. 
• Anything below 11 volts indicates a serious problem.
4. Now, start the car, and repeat the voltage test with the engine running. 
• If your alternator is charging properly, you should get a reading of about 14.5 volts. 
• Any reading more than a volt off of that indicates a problem you'll need to have addressed. 
• My battery gave readings of 12.4 and 14.5 volts, so the system is working properly.

If I'd gotten low readings on the battery, I'd have taken it to an auto parts store and had them charge it and test it. If the alternator had given odd readings, I'd have pulled it and had it tested at the parts store, and replaced anything that testing showed as defective.

Why did my truck not start?
With all of my tests coming up negative, the question remains, what happened? The answer is twofold, and one of those folds is entirely my fault.

1. The weather had been brutally cold for several days leading up to this failure. Cold does bad things to battery output, and I hadn't started my truck for a few days to keep it charged. 
2. When I bought that new battery a few months ago, I gambled and bought one that was a bit lighter duty than I normally get, and this is the failure that I have to own. Car batteries are rated by Cold Cranking Amps, with more amps indicating a stronger battery. I normally buy 700-800 CCA batteries for my big trucks, but this time bought one in the mid-500s. 95% of the time I don't even notice, but when combined with the single-digit and sub-zero temperatures, the lighter battery just didn't have the gusto it needed. I learned a valuable lesson in false economy, and may look at buying a larger battery in the not-too distant future and swapping this one into my wife's smaller truck.

Lokidude

Palette's Product Review: PMC .223 Battle Pack

Not actually Erin.

Picture by KJ Photography

& is used with permission.

FTC Disclaimer: This product was provided to me for review purposes by Widener's Reloading & Shooting Supply. I was not paid for a good review.

I'm never entirely certain what to say when I am asked to review ammunition. One the one hand, free ammo is always welcome; on the other hand, what can I say other than "It did or didn't go bang"?

If I were a more skilled shooter with a dialed-in rifle, I could review match-grade ammunition by giving you ballistic data regarding how the ammo performed in comparison to what I usually shoot. If I were reviewing defensive rounds and I had access to ballistic gel and a high-speed camera, I could show you video of the gel bouncing and a post-mortem of the wound cavity.

Range rounds, though, either work or they don't. If they don't, then there's a fair amount to be said regarding why they didn't work: maybe the rounds didn't load properly, or didn't eject, or didn't fire at all even though the pin hit the primer. But if they do, there's not much to said other than "The rounds went bang and the bullet hit the target."

So with that in mind, here is my review of PMC Bronze 55 Grain FMJ-BT .223 Rem ammo: It went bang, and all the bullets hit the target within the limits of my marksmanship. This lack of commentary is likely disappointing for a lot of people, but I think of it as praising via lack of damnation -- everything worked the way it was supposed to, no more and no less.

I've had good experience with PMC ammo in the past. I've shot PMC Bronze 9mm out of my Glock 26 and Sub-2000, I've shot PMC Bronze 7.62x39 out of my SKS, and I've even used PMC Sidewinder out of a particularly finicky .22LR boltie that refused to eat anything else. I cannot think of a time when any of those rounds failed to feed or fire (although I did have an issue with the JHP 9mm experiencing setback from being kept in a drum magazine). Overall, I think the range rounds offer great value for their price ($8.85 + shipping for a box of 20 at Wideners, which is roughly in line with what they cost at my local gun store, $9.99 + tax).

Being unable to say much more about the ammunition itself, I have three points I'd like to make:

1) There's a zeroing chart on the box itself. 
While this may be old news or useless information to shooters more practiced than myself, I found this to be a very nice bit of reference material on what would otherwise be wasted space on the packaging.

https://www.wideners.com/rifle/223-5.56-ammo#pmc-battle-pack-223-remington-55-grain-fmj-bt-200-rounds

2) I received this ammo in a 200-count Battle Pack.

This means there were 10 boxes sealed in a plastic bag similar to what MREs come in. I found this very handy for transport -- when I evacuated Florida ahead of Hurricane Matthew last October, all I had to do was grab the bag by the carry holes and throw in my car -- and the sealed sleeve protects the ammunition from water (and presumably moisture in the air), which is good for the long-term storage that we preppers enjoy. 

3) The ammunition is manufactured in South Korea. 
In fact, while PMC might now stand for "Precision Made Cartridges", when the company was formed it was originally "Poongsan Metal Corporation" and that's still the name of the company which makes the ammo.

Now let me be very clear here: I have absolutely zero problem with buying South Korean ammunition. The Republic of Korea has been a longtime ally of the United States, and given that they're still technically at war with North Korea I trust that their ammunition will be top-notch (again, see how I haven't had a problem with any of their range ammo). I bring this up only because many preppers want to buy American products whenever possible, and individual boxes you buy in stores say "Houston, TX" as if the ammunition was manufactured there, when in reality that is only the American branch of the business.

With all that said, I feel comfortable recommending Battle Packs of PMC Bronze ammunition ($94) to preppers. The price is good (47 cents a round), although you will pay a touch more for the convenience of having the rounds sealed in plastic than you will if you buy the boxes separately (47 cents per round vs. 44 cents per round) Alternately, you can get better value (36.5 cents/round) by purchasing a 1000-round Battle Pack for $365.

Gun Blog Variety Podcast #129 - Berzerkeley

Rioters and California get along like a house on fire.

• Anyone can carry a gun... but what if you want to protect yourself AND look good in your clothes? Beth tells us about the upcoming Realize Concealed Carry Fashion Show in Cleveland, Ohio. 
• Two suspects are on the run in Charlotte after stabbing a third person. Sean introduces us to the cast of characters.
• Barron is on assignment and will return soon.
• In the Main Topic, Sean and Erin think it's a "Time for Choosing." How will you help people choose sides?
• Tiffany uses Colonel Cooper's "Principles of Personal Defense" to evaluate a defensive gun use... using the robber's own gun.
• This week, Erin isn't talking to you. Instead, she has some advice for what the rioters should be prepared for.
• Last week's episode of the anti-gun "Loaded Conversations" podcast was so insane that Weer'd is still talking about it. Stand by as David Hemenway gets re-Loaded.
• And our plug of the week is St. Augustine Distillery Pot Distilled Rum. 

Thank you for downloading, listening, and subscribing. You are subscribed, right? We are available on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, and now on Google Play Music!

Listen to the podcast here.

Read the show notes here.

Thanks to LuckyGunner and Remington for their sponsorship, and a special thanks to Firearms Policy Coalition for their support.

Blue Collar Prepping Transcript:

Be Prepared for the 

Consequences of Your Actions

I’m going to be honest with everyone: what I planned to talk about today has been totally short-circuited by what happened in Berkeley last night.

I was up too late last night following the breaking news, and I’ve spent too much of my day today either aghast at what happened or irritated at the hypocrisy in display.

So I’m going to break with format here and actually deliver a prepping segment that isn’t aimed at you. It’s aimed at the people who were rioting last night. I hope the rest of you will bear with me.

Dear Berkeley rioters: last night you fired the first shots in a war. You really, really don’t want a war. I am begging you, with tears in my eyes, to please back off and think about what you’re doing. It’s not too late to stop this.

But if you and other radicals persist in doing what happened last night -- well, you’re going to need to be prepared for a few things.

Be prepared to have your tactics used against you. Last night, you demonstrated that felony violence was an acceptable method to prevent someone from speaking. You need to realize that once this genie is let from the bottle,it won’t be long until others decide that it’s equally acceptable to use force to silence you.

Be prepared for jail, injury, or death. You have raised the stakes significantly. I don’t have a problem with free speech opposing free speech, so protests are fine, but assault and arson are felonies. Committing felonies in the name of protest is a very good way to get hurt or killed,either by police or by people acting in self-defense.

Be prepared to lose. Let me tell you a story, taken from the blog “Status 451” in the post “Days of Rage”:

In 209 BC, two Qin Dynasty army officers, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang, were ordered to lead their troops on a march to provide reinforcements. Massive flooding delayed them. They couldn’t make their rendezvous time. In the Qin Dynasty, this carried the death penalty. No excuses.

“What’s the penalty for being late?” one asked.

“Death.” replied the other.

“What’s the penalty for rebellion?” asked the first.

“Death.” answered the second.

“Well — we’re late.” said the first.

And that’s the story of how the Dazexiang Uprising began.

If you are not stopped by the police or the military, eventually the civilian population which you are targeting will have enough and decide that if you’re going to riot and burn and attack regardless of whether or not they’re innocent, some are going to decide that “Hey, if I’m going to be thought of as guilty, I might as well go out and really be guilty.” And that’s when the rule of law disappears from America.

You think things are oppressive and unjust now? Wait until thing become full-on

“Might makes right” anarchy. Survival of the fittest will not be kind to you, because you are not prepared for it.

So again, I beg you: don’t continue down this road. The moment you make it acceptable to respond to words with violence, the moment it is okay to deny someone their rights because you don’t like them, you will start this country down a path that will not benefit you, and you are not equipped to live in that world.

Please: let’s all take a deep breath, back away from this precipice, and talk about this.

Thank you.

• Days of Rage - https://status451.com/2017/01/20/days-of-rage/
• Hard Hat Riot - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_Hat_Riot

Guest Post: Ham Radio

by Tim Kies

I have been a ham (amateur) radio operator since I was just 12 years old. Back then, the only way that I could use my license was by using Morse code, with a very simple transmitter that ensured I didn’t accidentally interfere with any other frequencies by broadcasting my messages into my neighbors' television programs or the airport control tower's flight instructions.

Morse Code
Things have come a long way since 1972, both technologically and in the way that the FCC licenses ham radio operators. My first transmitter was one that I built myself, using hand wound coils and crystals to control the exact frequency that I could transmit on. This precision was required by the FCC for my license class (Novice), which no longer exists under the present licensing system. Novice class also only permitted continuous wave (CW), or Morse code, transmitting.

Nowadays, Morse code isn't even a requirement for amateur radio operators, although many of us do use it as a practical and sometimes desirable method of communications because it requires less power and a less stable signal to make contact. Imagine that you  can hear someone speaking, but you can’t quite make out the words that they are saying; with Morse code, you can still communicate with that person. In this manner I have contacted someone in Lima, Peru all the way from Michigan using only 3 watts of power, which is about what it takes to light a tiny light bulb. Of course, for this to happen you need a proper receiver and conditions must be very good. 

Why Preppers Need Ham Radios

First, they are so incredibly inexpensive that they could be considered a legitimate substitute for phones for those on extremely tight budgets. The Baofeng UV-5R only costs $27 dollars from Amazon; for that money, you can buy two and give one to your significant other, communicating for no monthly charges and needing only to pass a simple test.

The best part about the Baofengs is that not only can they listen to FM and weather bands, but there are also local repeaters nearly everywhere. You can set your radio up to link into these repeaters, and the repeaters then send your signal out at a significantly stronger and more efficient range. This means that your inexpensive handheld 2-5 watts radio can communicate up to several hundred miles if you get into a linked repeater system. I live in the middle of the Lower Peninsula on Lake Michigan, and I have spoken with someone driving on the Mackinac Bridge using one of these little radios and the linked repeater system. 

Ham radio is often used when all other means of communication fail. A few years ago, the FCC auctioned off some frequencies that were to be used by the cell phone industry, which brought in billions of dollars. Clearly, the air waves needed for radio signals are worth their weight in gold, so if the FCC has allowed ham radio to keep their frequencies -- there is no sense of nostalgia in Washington D.C. -- they obviously have a healthy respect for the service that hams provide. When power goes out, cell phones tend not to work, so in times of disaster, ham radio operators are often the first to set up communication into and out of an area. 

The computer age has actually improved ham radio. Hams have always been on the cutting edge of technology, and now there are radios with no dials at all, just computers to control them. Some hams are bouncing radio waves off the moon to contact other hams, and some bounce signals off meteors or comets. Anything that can be sent over the internet can also be sent over the radio, so there exists something known as slow-scan television, where hams send pictures over the radio. Ham operation a hobby that is limited only by imagination and, of course, the wallet.

Licensing
A license is required, and the FCC has decided that the best way to handle the process is to let the hams take care of the whole thing themselves. The hams that do the testing are called the Amateur Radio Relay League, also known as the ARRL. They have been in existence since the early days of radio, and are a great resource for anything you could want to know about ham radio. They have lists of ham radio clubs, ham fests where they sell used equipment, and so much more than I could begin to tell you in this short article. 

Additionally, hams can obtain higher classes of licenses which grant more operation privileges, which enable you to talk to people pretty much worldwide. I have my General Class license, and so I have the ability to use more frequencies and methods of communications than Technician license class operators. In the same way, the class of license called the Amateur Extra has the all the options available to ham operators.

One thing that you of course must remember is that radio waves are not secure from anyone listening in, and it is illegal to use codes and ciphers to talk over ham radio. I doubt that it matters to most of us, but it is a consideration for some.

Hams are an important part of national emergency planning, so preppers ought to give it a look. Visit the ARRL webpage for more information, and directions on how to get started on your own ham radio adventure

Ashes

One of the side-effects of burning wood for heat is the production of lots of ashes -- about 20 pounds of ash per cord of wood burned. Wood ash is treated as a waste product by a lot of people, but it has a few uses around a homestead.

Warning:

• Please use common sense and only work with cold ashes. 
• When cleaning out the wood stove, place the hot ashes in a metal container. The metal container should then be taken outside and placed on a surface that will not burn. 
• Keep children and pets away from the ash bucket, since there is likely a hot ember or two in it that will stay hot for many hours.

Food Storage
If you don't have a local source of salt to preserve meat (such as salt pork and corned beef), you can use clean ashes instead.

1. Lay down a thick bed of ashes in a container, then place a single layer of meat on top.
2. Cover the meat with more ash at least an inch deep, then place another layer of meat. 
3. Repeat until you run out of container, meat, or ashes. 
4. You'll need to rinse the meat before preparing a meal with it, just as you would if you were using salt. 

The ashes or salt preserve the meat by absorbing moisture, dropping the water content of the meat below what is needed for bacteria and fungi to grow. Common recipes from a century or two ago included boiled salt pork and "Bully beef".

Melting Ice

While not as good as salt, ashes tend to be dark in color and will absorb sunlight (and thus get warm) better than salt will. Ashes also tend to have insoluble parts that provide a bit of traction on ice. Being basic on the pH scale, ashes and the lye they create are also easier on concrete (which is basic as well) than salt is.

Soap-Making
One of the main ingredients needed to make soap is lye (potassium hydroxide), which is easily made by running water through wood ashes. I'll leave the art of soap-making to one of the experts, but knowing that you don't have to buy lye is a good thing.

Cleaning Agent
Lye is a strong base and will react with anything acidic, so it makes a good cleaning aid for oils (slightly acidic by nature). Diluted mixtures of lye were once used for washing floors, linens, and clothes. Dry ashes applied to oil spills on concrete will break down the oil and absorb it, making it easy to sweep up.

Wood ashes mixed with a bit of water to form a paste combine the action of the lye with the mild abrasive nature of the ashes, and make a good metal and glass polish.

Gardening
Since ashes are what is left over after all of the carbon has been burned out of the fuel, wood ashes are rich in minerals and trace elements that plants need. Be careful that you don't add so much that the ash raises the pH of the soil, though.

Ashes also repel slugs and snails by irritating their skin. A light dusting of fine ash on and around your plants will last until it gets washed off by rain or watering.

Recycling is not a new concept; our ancestors used everything they had until it wasn't useful any more. Re-purposing the cleanings from a wood stove just makes sense.

Prudent Prepping: Trunk Junk and the Box of Holding

The dust has settled and the First 72 Hours have passed. Follow along as I build a long term plan via Prudent Prepping.

Many thanks to loyal reader Matt Rodgers for the suggestion to put Velcro on the bottom of the storage box I have in my trunk! This is a temporary fix until I can afford a more permanent solution.

The Box
First, I needed to figure out what size and shape box was necessary to fit into the corner of the trunk. This Sterilite box , designed for storing 8.5" x 11" paper with an overall size of 14"x 11"x 6 1/4", is almost perfectly suited to my task -- it even has clip latches on the lid, which will keep things in the box as secure as possible.

The box is just a little too long to fit flat into the available space, so I used a pack of heavy duty Velcro in the area with the best chance of sitting flat on the carpet. This Velcro has a pretty strong rating, so if the box has to be removed I'm afraid it will pull off the carpet and not 'unhook' from the loop side.

With the box tucked into the corner, I can put my larger pieces of gear in the trunk while still being able to reach everything I have in this box. Right now that's window cleaner, microfiber towels, air freshener spray and my faux-Batman utility pouch.

There will be an upgrade to my trunk storage very soon, when finances settle down and I can see exactly how much extra money there is for prepping purchases. There could potentially be several boxes of the same brand and type, but in different sizes, in my trunk. Depending on how soon improvements are made, a fire extinguisher and a larger first aid kit will go back here. I do have to resist the temptation to fill this larger amount of available space with gear, though

My next project is figuring out how to secure my GHB and lunch box while keeping as much floor space as clear as possible. I think my bag will fit well into the side opposite of the Box of Holding, but it will need a way to hold it up to the side of the trunk. The floor panel might be able to support a small screw-in hook, and the upper lip of the trunk may have enough of an edge to take a bungee strap of some kind as a way to keep everything from sliding.

More experimentation looks to be necessary.

The Takeaway

• Don't reinvent the wheel! Other folks have faced your current problem; look for advice and take suggestions.
• Keep It Simple and Cheap. My trunk boxes are to hold important gear; they aren't the important gear.

The Recap

• One Sterilite storage box from Home Depot: $8.97
• One package of Velcro brand hook and loop tape from Home Depot: $2.97

If you plan on buying anything through Amazon, please consider using our referral link. When you do, a portion of the sale comes back here to help keep this site running!

If you have comments, suggestions or corrections, please post them so we all can learn. And remember, Some Is Always Better Than None!

NOTE: All items tested were purchased by me. No products have been loaned in exchange for a favorable review. Any items sent to me for T&E will be listed as such. Suck it Feds.