A product review of the Survival Hax Roadside Emergency kit

Every once in a while a company offers to send us a product if we will review it on our site. We usually turn these down, because the products they offer often aren't anything we would be interested in using ourselves. But we just bought a new (to us) 2006 Ford E350 van as our new road trip vehicle, and not ten days later, got an offer from Survival Hax to review their new roadside emergency kit.

Since it included a few things we decided that we needed to buy, we agreed.

A few days later the kit arrived in the mail. The kit claims to include 92 pieces of emergency equipment, but that's only true if you can every Band-Aid and cable tie as a piece of emergency equipment. So here's what the kit has that we thought was helpful:

It does have a basic first aid kit, with 4 Gauze Pads 20, Band-Aids x 20, 6 alcohol Prep Pads , a tourniquet, 4 Antiseptic Wipes, Scissors, First-Aid Tape, Metal Tweezers, a Mylar Blanket, an Elastic Bandage (small), an Elastic Bandage (large), PVC Gloves, a Triangle Bandage, 5 Cotton Balls and 6 Safety Pins. OK. No aspirin/ibuprofen--in fact, no medicines at all. But still, a decent basic first aid kit that might get you through a few scrapes, cuts, and bruises. Anything worse than that, and you should probably get medical attention any way.

And then there is the rest of the contents of the bag: What we liked most was the jumper cables (although they are light and cheaply made, they would work in an emergency) the 8" Crescent wrench, the hand-powered flashlight, and the light sticks, reflective triangle (you can never have too much visibility) and reflective safety vest. All of these items are pretty basic, bottom of the line quality, but they'll all do in a pinch.

And then there is the rest of the kit: 3 Bungee Cords, 15 cable ties, a candle, some light cotton gloves with rubber nubs, an imitation Swiss Army knife (key element there is the emergency corkscrew!) a tire pressure gauge, a thin plastic rain poncho, an emergency whistle, a glass breaker and seatbelt cutter (I don't even want to think about that) and a very short, light 9 foot tow rope that would work only if the tow vehicle is close enough to kiss the vehicle being towed.

Is that everything? I think so. And the list price is $50--which seems a bit high, but maybe in the ballpark. Given that the jumper cables, crescent wrench, flashlight , knife, and light sticks/triangle might each sell for $5 or so, and the first aid kit probably closer to $15. That's about $35-40. And then add in a few bucks each for the bungie cords, glove, poncho, etc, and you'd get close to $50. At that price it's not a bargain, and since you'd be paying for at least some things you either wouldn't need or wouldn't want, not a great deal. But they also sent me a code for a discount that will give you 50% off---so the total price is $25, and should include shipping.

At $25 we think it's a pretty good deal. Again, if you run a tow truck service or are an EMT, this is not for you. But if you just want to have a simple basic kit that gets you through a few minor scrapes and struggles, this could work.

Here's the low-down on the discount:

As for the $25 OFF discount code, it is OFROAD50 and here's how your readers can use them:

1. Go to Amazon.com

2. Search for “survival hax roadside kit”

3. Add the ‘Roadside Emergency Kit with Jumper Cables’ to your shopping cart and then checkout.

4. On the last screen where it says “enter a discount or promo code” use discount code OFROAD50