Not the biggest set in the shop. The specific things that have fixed real problems at the side of a real road.
Everyone carries a socket set and nobody carries a torch that works. After enough recoveries you learn that the useful kit is small, specific and mostly not tools — and that the thing you actually needed was almost always a way to make two pieces of metal stay together for fifty kilometres.
A 1/2-inch socket set with deep sockets, a proper breaker bar, adjustable and mole grips, a hammer that is heavier than you think you need, a full set of spanners, screwdrivers including a stubby, side cutters, and a multimeter you know how to use. That is a bag, not a chest, and it covers most roadside work.
Cable ties in three sizes, self-amalgamating tape, a roll of wire, assorted fuses and bulbs, hose clamps, gasket paste, penetrating oil, a litre each of engine oil and coolant, a tube of chemical metal and a length of fuel hose. None of it is glamorous and all of it has driven a car home.
Carry the tools your vehicle needs, not the tools a catalogue sells. Undo one wheel nut, one sump plug and one hub nut at home first — if your kit cannot do those three, it is decoration.
A torch with fresh batteries and a headtorch as well, because both hands are always busy. Gloves, because cold hands make bad decisions. And a piece of board big enough to lie on and to put a jack on, which is the difference between changing a wheel and watching a jack sink into a verge.
The best tool in the bag is the one you have used before, in daylight, at home.
Ram Parts Workshop
Book it into the Ram Parts workshop, or order the parts and do it yourself — either way you get the same advice.
