With the advent of warmer weather, it’s time to test our equipment and swap out our clothes and food. I’m doing a short series on our Semi-Annual Bug-Out-Bag Check and Swap-Out. Today we’re going to focus on making sure that our equipment functions properly. If you’ve never built a Bug-Out-Bag before, you should check out these articles here, here, and here on building the right Bug-Out-Bag for you, your child, your parent, or even your pet.
I’ve seen article after article on what you should be putting into your Bug-Out-Bags, but I’ve never seen any articles on what to do when we swap out the contents in our Bug-Out-Bags. So we are going to tackle a series of articles on what we should be doing when we check and swap out items from our Bug-Out-Bags.
When we swap out our Bug-Out-Bags, we need to do several things every time.
- Check out equipment for defects or issues that we can solve ourselves.
- Determine if we should upgrade any of our equipment.
- Swap out for temperature appropriate clothes.
- Swap out expired or expiring food.
Housekeeping tidbits:
In this article, I’m going to distinguish between ECD and BOB equipment. For example, I carry a pocket knife with me daily, so I’m not going to discuss that here. I also carry a cigarette lighter with me daily – not because I smoke, but as a firestarter – so I won’t mention those types of things here. I’m just going to discuss equipment that is specific to a Bug-Out-Bag. If you’d like to learn more about EDC, you can find an article here.
Checking Out Equipment
Bug-Out-Bag 
When you get your Bug-Out-Bags out in order to swap items out, we should be evaluating all our equipment, but nothing is more important to evaluate than the bag itself. If your bag fails on you, you won’t be able to carry everything by hand without being hampered at every turn, so let’s jump into what you should be evaluating in your Bug-Out-Bag.
Clean
Start by completely emptying your Bug-Out-Bag. Once you do, open every pocket and shake the bag out. This will remove most of the crumbs and other debris that falls to the bottom of the bag.
More than that though, you should run your hands through the pockets feeling for crusty places where something may have spilled and dried onto the fabric. I know from experience (just days ago even), if you leave your bags outside, that critters can eat through parts of your bag to get to the food that they smell. So if you find any soiled, stained, or crusty places in your backpack, please send it through the washing machine!
Not torn/holed
Check out every seam in your Bug-Out-Bag. Are any of them unraveling or are holes developing in the seams? You may be able to stitch them up yourself – saving yourself money in replacing your bag, but you don’t want to lose your compass or whistle out of your bag because there is a small hole in the sides or bottom of the bag.
Also, check over the rest of the bag for holes. Did something eat a hole through the bag? Fortunately for us, one of my daughter’s bags, just had the handle chewed on. We can repair that easily, but if there was a hole chewed into the side of the bag, we would have wanted to replace the bag.
Working straps/clips
When we talk in the next article about whether or not you should upgrade any of your equipment, I mention that I prefer Bug-Out-Bags with chest and even waist straps. It balances the bag better. If your current bag has clips for your waist and your chest, do they work? Do they work easily?
And as for your shoulder straps, do they sit properly on your shoulders? Do they need to be adjusted? if they do need to be adjusted, can you adjust them? Or are they stuck?
Functioning zippers
You should open and close every zipper completely on your Bug-Out-Bag. Are any torn? Do they all work? Do they work well? Or do they stick?
If they do stick, you can run a bar of soap across the teeth of the zipper. This should help it slide smoother. Just make sure that you use a bar of soap that will not discolor the bag or your clothes. You can also use graphite, crayons or WD-40 to accomplish the same thing, but I would be concerned that they would leave stains on clothes.
Lighting
Does it work?
The first thing you need to evaluate when you’re discussing your lighting – whatever kind that you have – is does the light work? I can’t tell you how many times, I’ve gone to get a flashlight and it didn’t work! Now this could be a problem with the light itself, or it could be a problem with the . . .
Batteries
You need to know if your batteries are fully charged.
First off, let’s start by saying, you should never store the batteries IN your flashlight. Batteries not only degrade, but they corrode. This leaves a residue behind which can hamper your flashlight’s ability to properly function. Store your batteries in a zippered baggie which has been secured with packing tape.
So, assuming you didn’t store your batteries in the flashlight, slip them in. Do they work? Well? Make sure you use a battery tester to make sure that your batteries are fully – or mostly charged.
Is it bright enough?
Once you know your batteries are strong enough, you need to ask yourself is the light bright enough? Does it have multiple brightness factors allowing for different lighting needs? Make sure that your lighting is adequate for different tasks.
If your light is a headlamp (which I recommend) does it stay up?
Does the strap on your headlamp keep your lamp in place or does it fall down? There are some headlamps that have a strap that goes around your head and another that goes across the top of your head to keep the lamp up. But no matter which way you go, your strap should be sufficient to hold the lamp up – it shouldn’t have lost much of it’s elasticity.
Water Filter – and Storage Container 
Everyone should have some kind of water filter – whether a personal straw-type filter or another kind of water filter. There are several things that you want to check for.
Water Flow
No matter which type of water filter you have, does the water flow through it. Some types of filters require a little more suction than others, but the water shouldn’t require so much effort to get it through that you tire yourself out when you use it. This goes for hand crank or for suction filters.
Moving parts
Do the moving parts all function properly? If there’s a crank, does it turn easily? If there’s a lever, does it go up and down correctly? Make sure that – in all ways – it’s working well.
Check for Leaks
Now for whatever liquid container you have for your But-Out-Bag, you should check it for leaks. If you have a hard-sided container, you should fill it and then shake it up. Turn it upside down. Make sure that there is no water coming from anyplace that it shouldn’t.
If you have a soft-sided container, like a water bladder, fill it up and give it a squeeze. You may need to let this sit for a bit. If it has a small leak, you might not notice it right off, but you may find it if you leave it for an hour or two. You wouldn’t want water leaking all over your clothes, food, and other equipment.
Emergency Radio
Do All Parts Function
With an emergency radio, there are so many parts that you have to test out.
Does it power up correctly?
If it’s solar-powered, does the panel work? Is it battery-powered? Does it work when appropriately charged batteries are inserted? If it’s hand-crank, does the crank actually power the radio?
Do the moving parts move easily
Many emergency radios have a hand crank – some as a last resort. Does the hand crank turn easily? If it has another moving part – like a small solar panel, does the part move correctly?
Does the radio and the cell phone charger work?
Most people buy an emergency radio for several reasons – they want to be able to hear emergency broadcasts and listen to announcements on the radio AND they want to have an extra way to charge a cell phone – in case the battery died unexpectedly. So do both of these parts work?
Small Equipment often found in a Bug-Out-Bag 
P-38 and P-52 can openers. Please try to open a can with these. See how it’s supposed to work and determine if it does so in a safe manner.
Whistle. Does the whistle function properly with adequate force? Is it loud enough that people further away could hear it?
Toiletry bag. You should have a zippered bag with personal-sized toiletries in it. Is everything full, and it is a brand that you will actually use?
Paracord
Zip ties
Wet/Dry bag – Do you even know what a wet/dry bag is? This is a bag that you can keep your clothes, equipment, and firestarters in, so that you don’t have to worry about them getting wet . OR you can put wet clothes in a dry bag, so that the rest of your items in your bag don’t get wet.
Check these over to make sure that all the seams are sealed.
Work gloves – Do your work gloves still fit your hands well? Make sure that they don’t pinch or rub. Check them over for holes.
Tac Bivvy – Roll this out and check it over for holes, tears, and other problems.
Rain Poncho – Just open these up and check for holes and tears. It may be that if there’s a hole a piece of duct tape is all you need.
Knife sharpener – Have you tried yours out? Do you know how to use it? Does it function properly?
What I don’t carry in my BOB because it’s a part of my EDC
I said at the top of this article, that this article is specifically about my BOB and not what I carry in my EDC, so on my EDC list, you’ll notice some things that people suggest that you carry in your BOB are not listed? Why? Because these are a part of my EDC. These include:
- Knife
- Multitool
- Mirror – for signaling
- First Aid kit
- Bandana
- Fingernail clippers (these are great for cutting cordage!)
- Survival kit (which includes a compass, hand chain saw, tactical pen, and more)
- wet wipes
- Cell phone charger and charging cord
What I don’t carry with me because I keep it in my vehicle
There are other things that people carry in their BOBs that I do not for several reasons. Most of these items are both bulky and heavy. And I also keep these in my vehicle. For more information on how to prepare your vehicle for both big and every-day emergencies, you can go here. The items that I carry in my vehicle and NOT in my BOB include:
- Folding shovel
- Hatchet
- Small tent
- Mess kit (for eating from)
- Cooking kit (to cook in)
- Portable stove (to cook on)
Before You Replace a Broken Item . . .
Find something wrong with one of your items in your Bug-Out-Bag? Don’t just replace it. Next week, on the blog, we’re going to talk about deciding if it’s time to upgrade any of our Bug-Out-Bag items – make sure you read that post before you head to Amazon and just buy the same thing you had before.
What About You?
Have you taken the time to go through your Bug-Out-Bag recently? If you have, have you even thought to check over your equipment? When you did go through your equipment, was everything working as necessary and not broken?
Leave a comment below. I’d love to hear some stories in the comments below – both funny stories and disasters averted because you took the time to check over your kit.
