A look at 'personal disasters' - Part II

IMPORTANCE OF WATER IN A VEHICLE BREAK DOWN SITUATION

Water – In a breakdown situation, it is uncertain how long the event may last. Water is very high on the priority list for humans, but is also a requirement for vehicles (unless your vehicle has an air cooled engine). Under extreme circumstances, survival from a broken down vehicle may require days. I think it is prudent to start with one day, and work from there. The general rule of thumb is one gallon of water per person per day. It is assumed that this personal disaster, is truly a personal one, and only one person is at risk. It is also assumed that cooking and hygiene will not be very high on the priority list either.

Vehicles use a water/propylene glycol mix in the coolant system. The coolant system keeps the engine from overheating when in operation, and prevents the water in the engine from freezing when not in operation. Different vehicles have different coolant capacities. In a breakdown situation where the vehicle has overheated (primarily from a stuck thermostat), the engine can not be filled with coolant directly. The driver can re-fill the radiator.

Water left in plastic for extended periods of time (especially in a closed up vehicle in the summer) will start to take up the plastic taste. This water should be rotated monthly. Some plastics seem to do a better job than others. Milk jugs, even if cleaned properly, or even if they never contained milk at all; make the water taste so bad that it is nearly undrinkable after very short periods of time.

I am currently experimenting with different forms of water storage. I am working from the no/low budget perspective. So far (and tests are still in progress), the lowly 2 liter soda bottle seems to be the most stable. Roughly 2 two liter soda bottles will give you a gallon of water storage. Be sure to clean them thoroughly, as any remaining sugar residues can and will reek havoc on your stored water.

I will be the first to admit that having a couple of soda bottles full of water rolling around in the back of the vehicle is not my idea of a good time. There are commercially available potable water containers available at most discount type department stores. I am sure they will store water just fine, but I have not tested them. Perhaps, someone else could chime in and review one?

Now, we have stored our water, which can sustain us should be become stranded, and it may even get us back on the road if the vehicle failure is overheating. Refilling the radiator of an overheated vehicle may be only a temporary measure unless the root cause for overheating is addressed.

It can happen, that the radiator simply runs dry of coolant. There could be any number of minuscule leaks in the coolant system, or the loss could be simply from neglect and evaporation. In these events, simply re-filling the radiator will get you back happily on your way (assuming you did not run the engine in an overheated condition long enough to do damage).

Most of the time, when a vehicle overheats, it is because of a stuck thermostat. The thermostat is a small valve like device that opens and closes to allow more or less coolant to be exchanged between the engine block and the radiator. Hot coolant is pumped from the engine block to the radiator, where the passage of cooler air through the vanes of the radiator cools the coolant before returning it to the block. Most thermostats are 'set' to actuate at between 180 and 190 degrees. If the coolant is below the 'set' temperature, the thermostat is closed, and does not allow coolant to pass to the radiator. Once the coolant temperature raises above the 'set' point, the thermostat opens and allows coolant to pass through to the radiator (thus cooling it before returning it to the engine block), Thermostats fail by 'sticking'. The failure that leaves you stranded on the side of the road with an overheated engine is the thermostat sticking in the closed position. As such, as the coolant temperature rises above the set point, the thermostat does not open (it is stuck closed). Since the coolant can not get to the radiator to have heat energy taken away, the engine itself overheats and eventually fails as metal parts struggle to operate in a hotter environment than they were designed to do so in (engine tolerances are quite tight!). A thermostat can also stick open, or somewhere in between open and closed, but rarely do these conditions result in a breakdown.

Thermostats are fairly inexpensive parts. The last time I bought one, I paid well under $20 for it. Many vehicles are very easy to change thermostats in. I once owned a vehicle that the thermostat was located in the upper radiator hose housing. Two 10mm bolts was all that held the part in place. Once the housing was unbolted, the thermostat would fall out into your hands. The new one could be popped in, and the housing bolted back into place. Changing that thermostat literally only took 10 minutes. Not all vehicles are that easy. Do a search on Youtube for replacing a thermostat in your make and model of vehicle. It may be that a 'breakdown' can be repaired with less than $20 of spare parts and 10 minutes of labor. The thermostat, the appropriately sized wrench, and perhaps a small tube of 'liquid' type gasket material could fit in a container the size of a 12 ounce soda can. If you are fortunate enough to have one of the 'easy' vehicles, this one is almost a no brainer prep.

Action plan -

- Buy 5 gallon potable water container – If buying a container doesn't appeal to you, shoot for keeping a gallon on hand. You never know when you may need to top off that radiator.

- Store 5 gallons of potable water in the vehicle – Again, at least a gallon.
Research how to take out the thermostat – This may be extremely easy on your vehicle.

- Store tools in the vehicle required to remove a thermostat – A basic tool kit is a good idea, and may be fodder for a future blog entry, but if changing the thermostat is easy in your vehicle, and you have purchased the spare part to carry with you, make sure that you have the right tool(s) to do the job on hand in the vehicle.

- Purchase a new thermostat to keep in the vehicle – A thermostat for your vehicle, a gasket, and/or a small tube of gasket forming material will cost you FAR less than a tank of gas for most vehicles.