For the car
A bit back, I mentioned the ResQMe. Short version is it has a seat belt cutter and a spring loaded spike to break glass so that you can get out of your car. I like to be prepared and keep one in all our vehicles. In a similar vein, here’s the LifeHammer, which looks to be superior but much larger. I’m guessing the ResQMe would be easier to use if you were pinned and couldn’t take a full swing with a hammer.
January 23rd, 2012 at 12:14 pm
I have a Bust A Cap Maglight cap on the flashlight I keep in the truck. It works wonders on auto glass.
http://www.amazon.com/Bust-Tactical-Tailcap-Maglite-Flashlight/dp/B002HMRKDO
January 23rd, 2012 at 12:21 pm
We keep ResQMes on all our car keychains (thinking being that the keys in the ignition should almost always be reachable by the driver & front passenger in the event of a crash). Great tool, cheap insurance. The TSA doesn’t like them, though.
I thought about the LifeHammer, but am having a hard time seeing what’s actually better about it. Both smash windows and cut seatbelts. It may require less fine motor skill to operate the LH’s seat belt cutter, but once you get it into the RM’s, it probably has better retention to complete the cut.
January 23rd, 2012 at 12:25 pm
We keep the ResQMe in each car. It is in the map pocket as TSA has problems with them on key rings.
I have enough to remember to clean out of bags before going on flights. I dont want to have to remember to clean off the key chain as well.
January 23rd, 2012 at 12:25 pm
Like Mikee, I have a hardened, pointed end cap on the Maglite in the truck (kept in a pair of Maglite brackets on the trans hump between the seats) plus a Smith & Wesson 911 Response Knife (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000UUV1KI/ref=ox_sc_act_title_5) in a nylon folding scabbard attached to the 4WD lever on the hump (both are reachable by driver or passenger, and will be in the same place whether the truck is right side up, upside down, or in between).
Plus, I have a ResQme on the keychain, but fishing something out of a pocket when the truck is upside down in a Florida canal is a bit problematic….I figure the ResQme is a tool for when I have to bolt from the truck to assist.
January 23rd, 2012 at 12:46 pm
Where the ResQMe has the advantage is if you are in a vehicle that is in the water. You may not be able to generate enough force with a hammer swinging through the water to break the glass but the spring-loaded punch doesn’t have that problem. An automatic center punch can also break glass under water if necessary.
January 23rd, 2012 at 12:47 pm
One thing to note is that the ResQMe has a quick disconnect where it attaches to the keyring (I know several people who’ve had them for a while but not noticed that feature). When the keys are in the ignition, all you have to do is grab & yank–they keys stay in and you have the tool in your hand.
January 23rd, 2012 at 1:40 pm
So in a crash, how do you keep it from flying into the farthest corner of the passenger floorboard?
January 23rd, 2012 at 1:44 pm
I have a ResQMe in the truck. Didn’t want that on my keys though. So I have velcro dot in the door handle well to keep it in place. It rode okay free but I thought the dot would help keep it there in an accident.
I figure the ResQMe would be better if you had limited movement from damage. Not to mention the underwater scenario.
January 23rd, 2012 at 2:24 pm
Have a Lifehammer in the truck.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnsoax/4609978457/
My wife has a knock off in her van.
January 23rd, 2012 at 4:26 pm
I keep a Hinderer Rescue Knife in the console of my Jeep. It does all that, AND MORE!
January 23rd, 2012 at 4:44 pm
Uncle, like you we have ResQMe’s in all our vehicles and on our key chains… I’ve tried them out on old seatbelts and on a couple of old Chevy car windows at a neighbor’s farm…
A review here if anyone is interested…
http://godgalsgunsgrub.blogspot.com/2011/10/resqme-keychain-rescue-tool.html
Dann in Ohio
January 23rd, 2012 at 4:49 pm
I saw a guy on TV trying to break a car window with one of those hammers and he couldn’t do it, even taking a full swing with the door open. I’d be curious to see one demonstrated successfully.
January 23rd, 2012 at 5:08 pm
Can’t speak for the hammer… but the wife and I used the ResQMe on an early 1980s Chevy Caprice’s windows and it shattered it…
Dann in Ohio
January 24th, 2012 at 5:29 am
If you’re in the water, just crank the window down. I mean, unless you’re so effete that you have power windows.
January 24th, 2012 at 9:55 am
I don’t know for myself, but I’ve read that the Life Hammer is hard to swing hard enough in enclosed spaces.
January 24th, 2012 at 10:17 am
@Justthisguy: or own a car too young to vote… Neither of my current vehicles could have been obtained with manual windows. One of them is a bog-standard family sedan with a decade on theed clock.
January 24th, 2012 at 10:51 am
They still make cars without power windows?
January 24th, 2012 at 11:28 am
Forget that hammer design, it’s purpose is to sell to people who associate glass breaking with swinging big objects at it. This is not what you want if your life is on the line! If you spent time working in the automotive field, you would know that auto glass is tough stuff, designed to shrug off impacts. The spring powered punch point is designed to work on the failure mode of tempered glass.
BTW, there are two problems encountered if trying to exit through the front windshield. One is the plastic layer between the two glass layers. It is fairly strong, so even after shattering the glass, you have to cut through this, and all that broken glass still glued to it makes using a knife about useless. Also, shattering the inside with the tool doesn’t break the outside layer, normally.
In older vehicles, pushing the windshield out of the frame with your feet, rather than breaking it, was doable. Now, most cars and light trucks use the windshield as part of the structures rigidity, so it is glued in with a hard setting adhesive. Getting it off the vehicle requires cutting that bond, so forget going through the windshield, unless it is the only possible route available.
No idea how the current rear glass is made for specific models. Used to be single layer tempered like side windows, but some of them are made like windshields, especially the hatchback models. A close look at your car may be advisable to determine which type you have.
January 24th, 2012 at 11:32 am
Vehicles come with power windows now because the setup is lighter and cheaper than a hand-crank system.
January 24th, 2012 at 11:50 am
Power windows may or may not work after landing in water. Too many variables to say yes or no. So, don’t count on it.
The odds of that hammer thing remaining where it was set prior to a crash are not good. Only things that are strapped down remain in place, generally. (this includes you!)
I’ve cleaned up enough wrecks to say this with confidence.
Forget map pockets, and don’t trust consoles and gloveboxes to remain closed. Plus, do you really want that thing flying around inside with YOU? If it whacks you upside the head, you may not be in any condition to figure out how to exit, anyway.
January 24th, 2012 at 4:19 pm
I think you can still get some South Korean college student traps where the basic model doesn’t have power windows. But the dealer doesn’t carry that model anyway.