How to Use Your Vehicle as an Amazing Bug Out Vehicle (BOV)

Your vehicle is not perfect.  It may be perfect for something, but not for EVERYTHING.  If you have an imperfect vehicle for bugging out, that doesn’t mean it won’t work.  It just means that you have to pay attention to what it can and CAN’T do.

The other day I saw a guy in a Toyota Camry Hybrid trying to drive through a water puddle.

He stopped at the puddle, and stepped out to assess the possibilities.  Then he got back into the Camry, backed up a ways, and commenced to hit the gas.

He hit the puddle, got about a third of the way through, and sunk straight down.  His car was covered to above the bottom of the door, and the engine had stalled out.

Understand Your Vehicle and Its Capabilities and Your Bug Out will be Great

At first, you will need to use the vehicle you own as your Bug-Out Vehicle (BOV).  There is a great chance that many people don’t have a good vehicle for off-road or all-terrain driving.

This is ok, but don’t think that you can go anywhere in anything.  That just isn’t going to happen.  If you own a Prius, you are pretty much stuck to road driving with little terrain.  That doesn’t mean that this is a horrible choice in vehicle.  It depends on your plans.

Where are you at? Where are You Going?

You will need to choose a vehicle that can get from point A to point B, with your gear and people in tow.  If your home is in Dallas, TX and your Bug-Out Location (BOL) is in the Texas foothills, down a poor dirt road with steep banks that gets muddy during the rainy season, then you aren’t going to do it in a Hybrid.

In this situation, just about any vehicle will get you from Dallas to you location, but you will never make it all the way to your Bug-Out Location (BOL).

Great Bug-Out Vehicles (BOVs) Will Get You There

If you are in the city, by yourself, you may consider a dirt bike to get around in an emergency.  This way you can get through stop-and-go traffic.

If you will be going through much snow, ice, mud, or clay you should probably consider a four-wheel drive or all-wheel drive vehicle.  This will allow you to power through different traction problems that any other vehicle would surely be stuck in.

From A to B and Everything In-Between

This is how you should think of a potential bug out vehicle.  Each vehicle needs to be able to work where you are at, where you are going, and any terrain or disasters that could happen in route.

Fail to think ahead about this, and you could easily be that guy with a supped-up Jeep that overheated or ran out of gas and broke down in stopped traffic.  That amazing off-road vehicle isn’t so amazing anymore… is it?