Some kind of charger for your cell.  Sidewinder makes a hand-crank model with many different adapters for most cell phones, and it has a little LED light too.  A solar charger might be a viable choice, but much more expensive.

I think energizer has designed an instant cell battery charger too.  Don’t know what it all works for I’ve only seen the commercial where the guy skydives and his chute doesn’t open so he uses the energizer product to charge his phone to call someone to tell him what to do.

Magnesium Fire Starter. Great for all of your survival and pyro needs.  Walmart sells them for $5.00 here in Texas.

good smart list, but you forgot a 12 gauge pump action shot gun and 25 rounds.
and or 357 mag handgun with 2 boxes of .38 Softnose and 2 boxes of .357mag hollowpoint

w00t!

bgeek - EXCELLENT suggestion.

Harley - smart if you are in your own state and have a permit, but transporting guns across state lines is such a nightmare I figured I would just leave it off the list

If you haven’t seen it, put the show Survivorman on your tivo season pass list. Excellent program related to just this topic.

Sean - just added it.  Looks like a totally cool show!

It is excellent. Les Stroud is one crazy canuck. He’s working on season 2 right now, and is also doing an urban version inspired by the Katrina tv footage.

For emergency food supplies, I would recommend a trail mix - low in bulk, high in protein, high in calories.

One pound unsalted peanuts
one pound raisins
one pound semi-sweet chocolate chips

Mix well. Store in a clean, dry place. It’ll be good for months, if a trifle stale.

I do a lot of flying and I’ve been meaning to make my own survival kit in the unfortante event of a crash. This looks like my new shopping list.

But where are you driving that you’d need all of this stuff in a car!?!

My favorite survival tips:

1) Live in an area where the greatest winter environmental hazard is getting an uneven tan.

2) Only visit places that are even more pleasant (mmm… Jamaica!)

Works for me, anyway.

Bad luck Erik, there aren’t any safe places on Earth. Pick one and I’m sure we can find something dangerous things about it. I’ll start with Jamaica - hurricanes.

Years ago I took about 6 months off from college and work, having saved enough to pay for my apartment and necessities for that period of time.  My goal was to be able to do whatever I wanted on the spur of the moment (mainly fishing).  All I needed was a tank of gas upon the whim and I was gone....

Amongst the items above--minus the obvious technological gap between now and then--that I would have in my Bronco I also carried:

Several Ramen Noodle packs--break up the noodles in the pack, open one end, empty the contents of the flavor packet into the bag, shake up and eat raw.  It did make you very thirsty, so drinking water was a necessity--but it really took the edge off of those hunger pains after a long day of walking.

A couple of canned hams---the smaller kind that don’t have to be refrigerated.  Eat cold or just open the can and slide it in the coals of a fire.

I always carry a firearm of some sort.  That, of course, will depend on the state you are in.  Here in Wyoming in you’d be hardpressed NOT to find a gun in a vehicle.

The magnesium fire starter mentioned above is an excellent idea---I’d practice starting a couple of fires before having to rely on it.  Dry tinder is essential.  I make my own waterproof matches by taking Strike Anywhere matches (NOT strike on box) and dipping the heads in candle wax, and keep them in a Mini M&M;’s container.  You can leave one of these homemade matches submerged under water overnight and they will still light.

I’ll stop there as I don’t want to take up a lot of room here.  Something pretty cool you all may want to look at is starting a fire with a pop can (soda can for you easteners.... :) ) I’ve done it--it actually works!  But be prepared to put a little elbow grease into it!  Fire from a can of Coke

Don’t forget to use your rear view mirrors as signal mirrors too....

Matches are also useful for those embarrassing in-flight “turbulence” moments.

One of the most important low tech pair of items I’d put on that list is a simple compass (good ones run about $30 and a map.  TomTom isn’t going to help when you stuck out in the middle of nowhere on foot.

Here are some good survival kits from Field & Stream.  I’ve linked to the survival kit in an Altoid tin, but they show larger kits too. http://www.fieldandstream.com/fieldstream/photogallery/article/0,13355,1225788,00.html

Survivorman is less valuable than Man vs. Wild. Survivorman, while a good show, is a little more “set up"… he knows that there’s someone looking for him, and that he basically just has to survive for a week or so and make some attempt at signaling the rescue party. Man vs. Wild, the guy’s not only a trained survivalist, and gives voiceover of survival tips rather than just his own personal thoughts and feelings at the time, no one is looking for him. He’s solely responsible for finding his own help. (It also seems a little less “TV magic” because, since he has a camera crew following him, he doesn’t have to go, set up a camera, then actually do his survival stuff like they guy on Survivorman.)

Also, Jim, for me clicking on the “more” links is broken, dunno why.

A steel signal mirror, a couple of heavy duty highway orange trash bags like DOT uses, and 18-inch squares of closed cell foam.

A flash from a mirror can be seen for miles.

The closed cell foam gives you something to sit on if you’re on foot.

The orange puncture-resistant trash bags can be worn poncho-like, so if you sit down to rest on your closed cell foam you can wear that bright orange bag and give searchers a chance to spot you.

Personally I think a Mini-14 should be part of such preparedness, because while a mirror isn’t much use on a cloudy day, 3 shots from a rifle will carry over a distance.

Flare Gun

Chapstick or like-petrolium jelly made product. It can be used to help start/keep a fire going if put on a strip of clothes and wrapped around some wood.  Hey--it’s petrolium, you know?

One of the most important low tech pair of items I’d put on that list is a simple compass

Even more important would be able to determine directions from the surroundings, day or night, clear or cloudy. Many things of this nature can be found in the Boy Scout Handbook or Army Survival Manual.

I would recommend Camping & Wilderness Survival by Paul Tawrell (amazon link). It has a lot of information, very useful and interesting. I bring it anytime we go traveling to somewhere even remotely described as wilderness. Glad I’ve never had to use it but still it’s nice to have. I also pick it up and read through it every now and then, it’s a good read.

All these ideas are really usefull.
I personall am an avid Canadian offroader and carry a alot of gear in my truck that most people wouldnt. so i cant really weigh in on this one as i carry the usuall stuff thermo blankets, extra food, flashlights that can be shaken to rechrage them i also carry some extra clothes in a large water proof container as you never know when u might end up wet. i dont really carry signal flares as they are 1 time use if you want to signal someone just rip the rearview mirror off the windshield of your car and use that. thats some the usual stuff i always have in my truck and i also have some unusual stuff. I have 4 batterys in my truck for extra power plus its a diesel so you need them to start it and since i have so many i also cary some arc welding gear so i can weld an axle or what have you enough that u can “limp” to safety as well as i carry alot of tools and a virety of easily replaceable parts for my truck. I also outfitted my truck with with an extended fuel tank so it now carrys 250L’s or fuel up fromt he 157L’s it carried from factory so now it can just sit running idle for approx. 2 weeks on a full tank. But i mean this is all last minute resort stuff since my truck also has 4x4 a 6” lift kit and some heavy duty 35” swamper tires.

Oh and i forgot to mention i also carry some of those solar panel chargers i have 2 incase 1 breaks i use them for cell phones and what have you while im on extended trips and i want to charge something while the trucks off those would also be very very handy in a car survival kit as you could charge your phone during the day and try to use it

Potskie, your truck sounds fricking awesome.  I want so much some day to build out a big old rock-crawling, mud-defeating monster. :)

What about a Personal Locator Beacon (PLB)?

Cell phones work at too high a frequency for a long wire antenna to do any good. You have to get up high with the phone and its antenna to have any chance of a long range signal.
Kim showed a major lack of common sense. If you have decent survival skills and the right equipment - and you have a pretty good list - then back country driving is pretty safe. Foolowing a GPS map’s directions into what looks to be obviously unsafe territory (judging from the news photos) unprepared and with a young child is just plain ordinary stupidity.