It’s a horrible feeling. I had been feeling some weird vibrations for several minutes but couldn’t figure out what it was. Then suddenly there was a loud bang followed by grinding, a lot of grinding, not good. After getting under the Jeep I finally saw it, I had completely grenaded my front driveshaft, a common problem with lifted Jeeps. There was snow on the ground, and I was on a busy road, so I decided to take the easy option and called AAA and would deal with it at home. Over two hours later I was still sitting there, so frustrated that I grabbed my tools, crawled under the Jeep and had it out in about 5 Minutes, thankfully without getting run over.

I had options and could have waited for AAA to take their sweet time and get there. But if this happened while deep in the North Maine Woods it would be a completely different story. If you travel alone in remote areas you need to be self-sufficient. You need to know your vehicle and how to do basic maintenance and trail repairs, and in order to do so, you need to make sure that you have the right tools with you at all times. I have learned this the hard way, so don’t share tools between your garage and Jeep. If you have to use your tools from your truck, make sure to put them back when you are done.

An overland toolkit is a delicate balance. It needs to be specific to your vehicle, and allow you to do a variety of different trail repairs. But space and weight are at a premium in an overland vehicle, so you can’t just bring your entire tool chest. So what tools should you bring? That’s the million-dollar question. I could write a whole blog post about what I think you should include, but I figured it makes more sense to cut out the middle man.

I am not an expert, and consider myself a constant student, learning not just from books, Google, and Youtube but also all of the people that have come before me and have already learned from experience. One of those people and someone that I have an incredible amount of respect for is Jonathan Hanson. Jonathan is an explorer, author, and overlander who has years of experience traveling the globe. He also founded Overland Expo with his wife Roseann and has collaborated with Tom Sheppard on a reprint of the seminal Vehicle-dependent Expedition Guide. I have leveraged his experience extensively over the years.

One of his more famous works is the One Case Tool Kit. He set out to build a tool kit that could support almost any trail repair possible, while still all fitting in a Pelican 1550 case. It is a multi-part series that has been published in a variety of publications. In it, along with what tools to pack, Jonathan goes into detail about where you should invest a little more money, and where it is OK to not go with the top of the line. It is a fascinating read.

You can read the entire series online on Jonathan’s website Exploring Overland. I have included the links below:

Part 1: http://www.exploringoverland.com/overland-tech-travel/2012/8/25/the-one-case-tool-kit-part-1.html

Part 2: http://www.exploringoverland.com/overland-tech-travel/2013/1/20/the-one-case-tool-kit-part-2.html

Part 3: http://www.exploringoverland.com/overland-tech-travel/2013/2/4/the-one-case-tool-kit-part-3.html

Part 4: http://www.exploringoverland.com/overland-tech-travel/2013/3/28/the-one-case-tool-kit-part-4.html?rq=tool

Tool storage: http://www.exploringoverland.com/overland-tech-travel/2018/3/27/tool-storage

If you are more of a visual person, check out the full video series as well:

https://www.exploringoverland.com/overland-tech-travel/one-case-tool-kit-episode-1

https://www.exploringoverland.com/overland-tech-travel/2020/11/1/one-case-tool-kit-episode-2

https://www.exploringoverland.com/overland-tech-travel/2021/1/22/online-workshop-dissecting-the-one-case-tool-kit-tool-rolls

The One Case Tool Kit Lite is also an interesting read:

Part 1: http://www.exploringoverland.com/overland-tech-travel/2017/9/4/the-octk-lite

Part 2: http://www.exploringoverland.com/overland-tech-travel/2017/9/11/octk-lite-part-2

More on the OCTKL: http://www.exploringoverland.com/overland-tech-travel/2018/1/20/more-on-the-octkl

Once you all have a chance to check them out, come back as our next post will cover what we bring, and the items that we pack that are specific to our Jeep.

So stay tuned!