Recovery gear is a great thing to have around. You never know when and how you will get stuck, so it's important to be prepared. I figured I'd mention all the stuff I keep in my Ridgeline's trunk in the hopes of never being trapped when I'm off the grid.
- 20' long heavy gauge jumper cables
- Maxsa traction mats
- 20' long off road recovery rope
- Smittybilt receiver hitch shackle and lockpin
- Set of tire chains
Taken together, I can get a jump and help jump cars, I can dig myself out of snow and get more traction to be on my way, I can float over sand if need be, and if I do get myself stuck, the rope and shackle should get me pulled to safety easily. My hope is to never need anything in the above list, but once you've got the stuff, you'll probably find yourself using it quite a bit. I've used jumper cables more in the past six months than the last ten years, and that's because I don't dread it when you've got lots of high gauge cable to work with.
The best part is everything easily fits in the Ridgeline trunk, and only takes up about 1/2 of the space there.