What's in your trunk?

[ZLoth]

OK, I admit it. About a week or so ago, I did a major cleaning of my car including the trunk. I figured it would be a good time to restock my trunk with supplies, especially after watching the coverage of Atlanta, Georgia. While I don't expect the same situation in Sacramento, CA, it doesn't hurt to have some stuff in there "just in case". So, here goes....
Main Trunk

• Ice chest containing water and soda. Much cheaper to get the drinks at the supermarket verses the convenience store
  
• Gym Bag
  
• Reusable bags
  
• Yellow tool box containing: LED Road Flares, LED FLashlight and Head Lamp, AA and AAA Batteries, Paper Maps, Cig charger for microUSB and Galaxy Tab, USB Battery, USB Cables for MicroUSB, MiniUSB, and portable audio players, spare earbuds (unopened package) and earphone splitter, screwsdriver
  

Left Pocket Area

• Gloves
  
• Ice scraper for windshield
  
• Roll of towels (unopened)
  
• Aerosol glass cleaner
  
• Box of tissues (unopened)
  
• Roll of Toilet Paper (unopened)
  

Right Pocket Area

• First aid kit
  
• AM/FM/Weather Radio with hand crank
  
• Box of GermX Wipes
  
• Blanket
  

My assumption is that, if something major happens, my car with be close by.

[NE2]

junk

[oscar]

For my car (my truck has no trunk):

fire extinguisher
can of fix-a-flat
squeegee
safety vest
first aid kit
sunshade for windshield
flashlight
toolbox
roll of toilet paper (for remote places where the facilities don't always have TP)
rope
jumper cables
siphon
funnel
other junk in the spare tire compartment I haven't seen or used in years, including the donut spare and its tools
various reusable shopping bags

in winter:

tire chains (never used, though I did practice using the ones for my truck)
plastic snow shovel
snow brush/scraper

in summer, or when visiting Florida in the winter:

sand chair

[Takumi]

Car number 1 (daily driver):
Dad's birthday present
Emergency roadside kit
Bottles of water
Spare tire and jack and stuff

Car number 2 (driven a couple times a week):
a couple spare parts
Spare tire and jack and stuff

I've gutted the trunk of my project car. No spare or anything, not even the liner. Because race car.

[jeffandnicole]

Spare tire and jack and stuff

A sweatshirt or shirt that I've thrown back there.

1 glove.  The match is probably inside the house.  They will probably never meet again.

Old windshield wiper...I guess just in case I screw up the good one.  In that case, I will have forgotten about the old one and buy a new one anyway.

(And a story based on that: one day, I noticed my wife's front right tire was missing 3 of 5 lugnuts. Maybe they were stolen, but the more likely possibility is I had just had the car in for service, and the shop forgot to put 3 of them on, or had put them on so loose they fell off.  Anyway, I had to drive a good distance to buy the new ones.  Suddenly, months later, it dawned on me - I have tire lock lugnuts on each tire.  I had 4 spare lugnuts sitting right with the lugnut key.  Ugh.)

[Jardine]

LOL, have a pickup, van and an SUV, no trunk!

[Takumi]

junk

twerk team

[corco]

Besides the dead body, a change of clothes, two gallons of washer fluid, a small piece of plywood, a gallon of water, a box of granola bars, hat, gloves, tow strap, jumper cables, sleeping bag, four healthy pieces of firewood, newspaper for kindling. I drive over isolated  mountain passes often enough in winter that I stay prepared to survive for a day or two if I do happen to go in the ditch.  In the Honda, I will throw the tow strap, washer fluid, cables, water, and plywood if I take it for a winter trip, since its not going anywhere stupid. Otherwise im kind of picky about keeping clean cars so no junk.

[Brian556]

"Bubba Keg" full of water-for hand cleaning or other uses.
I 18 inch cone

supply kit with:
air compressor
triangles
flares
windex.
paper towels.
hand tools
tire plug kit
6v LED flashlight
2 LED flashlights w/ blue flashing handle
duct tape
ect

Stuff for work:
hat
gloves
Gatorade
coveralls
safety vest

[1995hoo]

In my regular daily driver, I have one of those reflective sun shades for the windshield (don't use it often at this time of year!), a reusable grocery bag or two, several umbrellas of varying sizes, an air compressor, a tire-pressure gauge, and the black case containing the car owner's manual and related things. Donut spare is underneath the trunk floor. That donut spare actually looks kind of sporty (it's on the rear in this picture)! Picture from July 2006. Manual-shift TLs got a different style donut spare than automatic-shift cars because the larger front brakes require more clearance.



I don't keep a lot of stuff in the car itself–in the driver's door pocket I have a Swiss Army Knife, a No Fog Mitt, and a booklet for recording gas mileage; in the glove compartment I keep my sunglasses, the wheel lock key, and several DVD-Audio discs; in the shelf underneath the radio I have a bunch more CDs and DVD-Audio discs; and in the center armrest I have driving gloves, an iPhone car charger, several cassette tapes, and (only when I'm in the car) my wallet and regular glasses case. A pair of my wife's sunglasses is in the passenger-side door pocket.

In the trunk of the convertible, which is currently safely under its car cover, I have another small umbrella and a set of jumper cables. That car usually needs a jumpstart at least once or twice a year. I keep a portable jumpstarter in the garage plugged into the wall outlet, but sometimes that doesn't do the job and I need to use the cables to jump it off one of the other cars. The spare tire is much harder to access: It's inside the passenger compartment underneath the rear shelf (the area where the top folds when I put it down).

[Truvelo]

"Bubba Keg" full of water-for hand cleaning or other uses.
I 18 inch cone

That wouldn't be the cone of an 18" speaker would it? The sort of thing you can hear coming from a mile away with the distortion getting louder as it gets nearer

[US71]

I have a van, so, no trunk.

[roadman]

I carry in my trunk -

Spare tire (donut) and jack
Jumper cables
Set of triangles
Gallon of washer fluid
Gallon of coolant
Gallon of water (summer and other above-freezing months only)
Bag of Kitty Litter (winter only)
First Aid Kit
Emergency CB Radio (in case CB in car goes on fritz)
Basic Mechanic's tool kit
Wire Ties
Bungee cords various lengths
Large flashlight

I carry in my glove box -

Tire Gauge (dial type)
Spare Fuses (blade for car, barrel for radios)
Small flashlight
2010 HazMat Guide (the orange book)

And yes, I carry a snow brush and scraper.  During winter months, it resides on my back seat - all other times, it resides in the trunk.

[Takumi]

Manual-shift TLs got a different style donut spare than automatic-shift cars because the larger front brakes require more clearance.

My two 5th gen Preludes, although both factory manual cars, are like that. The older one (the Type SH, which is car number 2) has slightly larger front calipers than the newer one (the project car), a base model. I don't know if this was a factory thing, but it could be, because due to the electronic differential the SH weighs 50 pounds more from the factory. It's also possible that the larger calipers are from an Acura Legend, a mod I plan to do on the project car. The 4th gen, car #1, has upgraded brakes.

Boo, not a Type S. Still looks good though.

[briantroutman]

I've almost always had wagons or hatchbacks, so the concept of a trunk has been largely irrelevant. But in the hatch area (or trunk if I had one), nothing that doesn't fit neatly into a concealed compartment or bin somewhere. Unless of course I'm on a trip or transporting something and have some luggage or a parcel in the back.

I absolutely hate debris rolling around in a car.

[1995hoo]

Boo, not a Type S. Still looks good though.

There was no Type-S when I bought that car in August 2004.

I've almost always had wagons or hatchbacks, so the concept of a trunk has been largely irrelevant. But in the hatch area (or trunk if I had one), nothing that doesn't fit neatly into a concealed compartment or bin somewhere. Unless of course I'm on a trip or transporting something and have some luggage or a parcel in the back.

I absolutely hate debris rolling around in a car.

My wife's car is a hatchback (a 2003 Acura RSX Type-S) and we view the area in back as being a trunk because the car has a black mesh cargo area cover that's largely opaque and that attaches to the hatch (we normally leave it in place and remove it only for transporting either large items or large amounts of stuff).

[signalman]

Pretty normal stuff really, all car related
-squeegee
-glass cleaner
-snow brush
-spare tire
-jack
-lug wrench
-flashlight
-basic hand tools (screw drivers and nut drivers)
-jumper cables
-tire plug kit

[formulanone]

Jumper cables, ice scraper, squeegee, rain poncho, some third-rate hand tools, paper towels, plastic bags, a first aid kit, two plastic "milk crates" (for storing bags of stuff I buy at a store). All of it, except the crates, goes in the compartments below the hatch's trunk floor.

In the glove box: gloves, map, pen, notepad, folding pocket multi-tool, owner's manual, flashlight, tire pressure gauge, and a SunPass.

[agentsteel53]

I think the only thing unusual I have is two flashlights.

just in case one goes out in the middle of a roadside tire change or whatnot.

[SSOWorld]

Air, along with garbage.

[cjk374]

The car battery is located in my spare tire cubby hole (2011 Dodge Challenger). Other than that & all of the spare tire accessories, my railroad bag I have to have at work is all that I have back there.

[Alps]

small children

[DaBigE]

In the trunk, all the time:
OEM spare and jack; adapter for the capless fuel filler (also came with the car); 2 crates that fold "flat"; cheap emergency kit: basic set of tools, spare fuses, electrical tape, clamps, HD jumper cables, razor blade; work safety vest; work gloves; engineer's tape measure; umbrella

Added for the winter:
Tire traction plates (much lighter than kitty litter); small shovel; telescoping scraper/brush/squeegee combo; HD knit hat and gloves; work boots

Added for the summer:
Small cooler

Glovebox 24/7/365:
Owners manual/warranty, registration and insurance info; tire gauge; small Kleenex and first aid kit; paper map, state parks map; notepad; wind-up LED flashlight; small binder of misc CDs; pen; center punch (to break out the windows in an emergency)

[Laura]

Air, along with garbage.

Pretty much. This, plus a bunch of random crap that isn't worth naming in full. General categories include books, clothes, shoes, random papers, vodka, and important car stuff like jumper cables and a tire inflator. I need to clean out my car because I plan on camping it in this weekend, which is much more comfortable when there's room to put the backseat down.

[jeffandnicole]

...random papers, jumper cables and a tire inflator, and important stuff like vodka.

Fixed for you. 

BTW, where's the cranberry and/or OJ???