Fire Safety

Who is around me and what are they doing? – Tom Givens

What are you capable of? – Ken Hackathorn

What’s the object of the exercise? – the Tactical Professor

What is the best use of my time right now? – Alan Lakein

METT-TC is a well developed structure for asking questions when developing plans for Personal Protection.

• Mission
• Enemy
• Terrain and Weather
• Troops and Support Available
• Time Available
• Civil (Legal and moral) Considerations

SALUTE is a good structure for gathering information in the moment.

• Size
• Activity
• Location (proximity)
• Unit
• Time
• Equipment

When we are children, we are constantly asking questions. As adults, we usually get in the habit of providing opinions, experiences, and self-promotion instead of asking question. Information gathering is a vital skill in Personal Protection. Putting ourselves back into the question asking mode requires a shift in our thinking patterns that requires practice.

My thanks to John Correia of Active Self Protection for stimulating my thinking about the topic.

My Patreon page is where I go into more depth on Personal Protection topics. https://www.patreon.com/TacticalProfessor

Are You Ready for SHTF?

A year or so ago, I became interested in preparing for a disaster, so I went to the Internet to see what other folks are doing to prepare. I was surprised to learn the number of people who have been preparing for quite some time, and also at the level of their preparations; purchasing remote properties, building up a personal arsenal, and buying and storing food stocks for their families.

I figured I needed to ‘get on board’ and start my own preparations. I had a lot to do and a lot to consider; food stocks, weapons and ammunition, off-the-grid living,communications, tools, skills, bug out bag, get home bag, maps, cash, precious metals, and much more. Whew!

I am a planning-type person, and I don’t usually do anything without careful consideration and a solid plan. I like to think through what I will do, what I might need in the way of tools, parts, etc., and what my desired results are before I begin a project. Like all my projects, whether they be a family vacation, changing the brakes on my car, or preparing for a disaster, I feel a need to plan.

I decided to work on my preparedness tasks in parallel. As I was building up my food stocks, I also built up my weapons and ammo stock, and continued to read and learn about preparedness and survival. When I began to tackle a bug out plan, I found the task quite difficult as I thought through the three elements of how I tackle projects:

1. What is the task or tasks involved?
2. What items and tools will I need?
3. What are my desired results?

Right away, I knew the answer to question three. In a bug out situation, I desired to stay alive and have the best quality of life possible for the situation. Answering questions one and two were not so easy. The planning gene in my head caused me to think about what actually is involved with pre and post “bugging out” in order to answer the first two questions. As I thought about making my plan, a sound solution to bugging out became quite murky.

There are many websites, blogs, and videos available via the Internet that provide information, ideas, and examples of bug out situations, bug out equipment, and bug out strategies, and I eagerly studied as much as a I could. I initially thought bugging out was a mighty fine idea when the SHTF. After careful consideration, though, I have concluded that bugging out should be my last resort, my “plan Z”, and only after I’ve tried every possible way to avoid it. I offer these bug out cons for your consideration:

The Plan

Everyone should have a plan and equipment for bugging out for those extreme situations when your back is to the wall, or marauding gangs are torching every house on your street. If you must bug out, have a pre-planned destination, and you must get there before your supplies run out. Essential to your bug out plan is to clearly define the condition(s) that would trigger your “got to bug out” alarm.

Remember, though, you’ll be quitting your job, abandoning your house, and your bills will pile up in your overflowing mailbox and remain unpaid. When a crisis occurs, you will not have time to make a successful bug out plan, so you must make your plan now. Anyone can make a plan, but it takes careful thought and consideration to make a successful plan.

Quality Of Life

The notion of bugging out is quite simple; grab your stuff and go. However, after bugging out and arriving “somewhere”, then what? What will you do and what will be your quality of life? When you are at home, all your equipment, food stocks, weapons, and gear are basically within easy reach.

If you have prepared and planned well, you can stay indoors for quite some time and enjoy a high quality of life. You can continue to sleep in your bed, have a bathroom down the hall, and even keep up with current events and what’s happening in your neighborhood.

The act of bugging out brings on its own set of potentially dangerous problems that you will have to deal with and suffer through “on the fly.” In all of my Internet travels, I have yet to see a bug out bag that was stocked and equipped as well my home. Bug out bags usually provide basic survival-type equipment and rations for up to 7 days.

The prospect that my situation would become that much more precarious after my rations ran out is none too appealing. Can I really depend upon hunting, fishing, and berry scavenging?

Land Mines

You are much safer in your own home in most situations. With adequate planning and supplies, you can hunker down and survive through chemical and even biological gas clouds. You can still call the police who might be able to assist you. You and your neighbors might band together to improve your collective security. Think long and hard before you engage in bugging out.

On your way to your pre-determined bug out destination, you need to avoid being ambushed, injured, robbed, or worse. You will not know who is friend or foe, and you must remain as inconspicuous and “normal” as possible.

I think it is unwise to assume you can and will homestead in the forest, hunting and fishing like Daniel Boone until “someone” gives an “all clear” and you can return home. You will not be the only person in the forest, and any food that is available will quickly be hunted or scared away. Your forest will soon be overrun with survivalist who claim hunting territories, and battles will ensue. Gangs will form and if you’re a loner, you will not survive.

Under such conditions, it would be nearly impossible for you to rest or sleep. You’d have to be on your guard 24/7. You couldn’t leave your camp to hunt or fish for fear of coming back to nothing, or a pack of squatters who have taken over your camp and everything you depend upon.

If you knew or sensed that others were in your forest, having a camp fire would be a bad idea because it would give away your location. How would you stay warm, or cook your kill? What if someone off in the distance sees smoke and calls 911 to report a forest fire? What about the winter cold or the summer mosquitos?

What would you do? Remember, you took only your bug out bag which did not have a sleeping bag or multi-season clothing. Sure, you have your big bowie-knife, your .22 rifle, and your length of para cord, but what about those other hundred items you need now that are back home?

Remote Hideaway

If you are one of the fortunate individuals who has some land in a remote location that you have already set up to be your bugged out location, great! The difficult task for you is to know when to bug out and before the crisis or disaster occurs. Timing will be critical. Bugging out after the crisis only increases your chances that you’ll be stuck in gridlock traffic, apprehended, robbed, or again, even worse.

Predicting when and where a disaster or crisis will occur is anyone’s guess. If you guess wrong, then you would have bugged out for nothing, and increased your chances of coming home to a looted and ransacked house.

Abort! Abort!

If you decide to return home, your immediate task would be to navigate your way through or around newly formed gangs and other non-friendlies you might encounter. If you bugged out with your get home bag, it is safe to say that any food you had in your get home bag would have already been eaten a long time ago.

You might arrive home only to find that your house has been looted, and all the food, gear, weapons, and supplies you didn’t take with you when you bugged out are gone. Your windows are broken, your electronics have disappeared, and you quickly discover thieves stole all the copper wires and pipes in your house, along with your refrigerator.

We all know that thieves are not a considerate lot. Since they took your copper pipes and left the water turned on, your house is now flooded, and your water bill is over $1,000. To add insult to injury, every thread of clothing, shoes, tools, and anything of any value that you had is now gone. Was it bugging out or going home that was the wrong decision?

Conclusion

I am unable to convince myself that I, after being so dependent upon grocery stores, utilities on demand, and sound shelter for decades, could just set up camp in the forest for an unknown length of time with only a bug out bag. You know, I am not the MacGyver type.

What do you think? Is “bugging out” a better plan than “bugging in”?

Courtesy of The Survivalist Blog.

Recently I went on a Saturday afternoon tour of selected Puget Sound Lighthouses organized by The United States Lighthouse Society (USLHS).     The USLHS chartered a high speed whale watching catamaran that cruised at 40 mph which let our … Continue reading →

While you weren’t looking (or perhaps while your eyes were recovering from debris damage), sunglasses have quietly evolved from simple “shades” to keep the sun’s glare from your eyes into a full-on vision-enhancing system that offers protection of the ballistic and UV sorts. Lots of companies have popped up offering superior sunglasses, but recently, a small, rowdy, upstart company you’ve probably never heard of – Magpul – introduced the production of sunglasses made with their interpretation of what sunglasses should be. Not only did they hit the mark, but they slid into the crowded arena, bowled over the competition, then promptly dropped the mic. BOOM.

By Drew, contributing author to Survival Cache and SHTFblog

I recently introduced a pair of Magpul Terrain Polarized sunglasses to my face. This is my story.

Magpul Terrain Sunglasses

For years, Wiley X sunglasses have nose-perched on my face whenever any eye-shading duties have presented themselves – shooting included. However, when I noticed that the mighty Magpul design team had furrowed their collective brows and dedicated themselves to producing sunglasses, I simply had to try them. Magpul – in my experience so far – just doesn’t do anything they put their minds to in a half-assed manner. 

Navigating my way to the Magpul website to peruse their eyewear selections, the Terrain series of sunglasses struck my fancy; it seems Magpul designed this series of shaded specs to not only enhance the user’s day-to-day mundane life, but also to provide unparallelled field of view and comfort while wearing hats and hearing protection. Also drawing my attention was the fact that the Terrain was designed for larger faces, which would likely play nicely with my planet-on-a-stick head size.

The frames of the Magul Terrain sunglasses are made of TR90 NZZ, a lightweight polyamide material that has been specifically engineered to provide not only shatter resistance when bent or deflected, but also boasting superior impact strength – important for those of us who prefer our eyewear to be able to resist coming apart at the range if we’re unfortunate enough to catch a wayward bullet splatter or ricochet impact.

In point of fact, the frames are so lightweight and flexible that the most common first impression I got when showing the Terrains was, “these are from Magpul? They feel flimsy!” However, a few minutes of twisting and turning the sunglasses frames resulted in 100% first impression turnarounds – these sunglasses can’t be turned into pretzels or seriously damaged without ridiculous effort.

The lenses of the Magpul Terrain sunglasses are available in either polarized or non-polarized configurations. However, either option comes standard with anti-reflective (AR) treatments on the inside of the lenses to minimize distracting mirror-like reflections on the interior surface of the glasses. The lenses also boast oleophobic coatings that keep liquids – rain, chemicals, gasoline, blood, et al – from building up on the lenses, and promote runoff and/or beading up of these liquids, maintaining clear, usable vision for longer periods of time.

The entire Terrain glasses envelope meets not only the US civilian ANSI Z87+ high-impact standard test rating for safety, but also the military NATO standard MIL-PRF 32432 for ballistic protection of eyewear. These military standards mean that not only do the glasses pass tests for optical clarity, environmental stability (won’t expand/contract/quit working with temperature or moisture extremes), and UV ray protection, but the glasses also meet the protection requirements against a 0.15 caliber projectile travelling at 640-660 feet per second. As a frame of reference here – if Ralphie in A Christmas Story had been wearing Magpul Terrain sunglasses while fighting off Bad Bart’s wayward gang, he wouldn’t have been reduced to a whiny casualty when his trusty Red Ryder 200-shot carbine ricocheted.

Changing Your View Of The World

Donning the Magpul Terrains after wearing my old Wiley X P-17 glasses is akin to sipping a glass of refreshing, ice-cold fresh squeezed lemonade on a 100 degree day – when the only other thing you have to drink is room-temperature Guinness. The Terrains are stunningly lightweight, and the points of contact to your body – the nose pieces and temple arms – are overmolded rubber and integrate seamlessly with your face. The next thing you notice is the stunning clarity of the lenses – the polarized bronze gold mirror lenses of my Magpul Terrains let an incredible amount of undistorted, tinted light to my eyes while still providing enough glare reduction to be comfortable in bright sunlight. 

At the range, the Terrains slipped comfortably underneath my Howard Leight Impact Sport hearing protection, and allowed a full seal, letting the earmuffs perform their job admirably with a minimum of hassle. The lens frames have been somehow magically designed to let the wearer see without the encumbrance of framing in the field of view, yet not bump into the buttstock of a rifle when snuggling up into a proper cheek weld. Red dot and holographic sights performed wonderfully through the polarized lenses with zero silliness or added reticle flare  – something I can’t say for other makes of eye pro I’ve worn – even clear with clear lenses.

Also read: Survival Gear Review: Magpul M-LOK Tripod Adaptor

While I didn’t shoot at the Magpul Terrain sunglasses to prove their ballistic worthiness – I did put them through the “Blowback Test”. Explanation: my Windham Weaponry 9mm carbine is a blowback rifle, meaning it uses direct gas to blow the bolt backwards – not a DI system of a standard AR. As a blowback design, the 9mm carbine expels an inordinate amount of hot gasses around the bolt, and directly back into the shooter’s eye around the charging handle. The experienced effect is similar to having someone aim a hair dryer on “High hot” directly at your eyeball while you’re attempting to control a firearm and provide good hits. It’s disconcerting to say the least. These gases occasionally do make it around eye protection if the design is poor. I’m terribly happy to report that the Magpul Terrain passed the Blowback Test with flying colors, and I received nary a puff of hot air or unburnt powder flakes in my peepers.  The Magpul Terrain setup is an absolutely superb eye protection system for the range.

Magpul Terrain in Daily Use

Admittedly, some of the readers won’t be using these Terrains at the range; it’s not their thing. These readers will be pleased to know that while the Magpul Terrains do feature a bit of an “Operator” look, they are not over-the-top designed to round out a full-blown tactical tuxedo and look pleasantly right at home on the nine-to-fivers piloting their daily drivers to work or home or the grocery store. Ultimately, the Magpul Terrains have absolutely updated my daily life with their light weight and stellar field of view. Driving with the Terrains on is far superior to other sunglasses designs, as there is no heavy framing or temple arm to obstruct peripheral vision.

The only day-to-day weirdness I experienced with the Terrains was due to the polarized lenses – and it is a malady any sunglasses with polarized lenses will suffer. Using a cellphone with the Magpul Terrains on was a little wonky, since both smartphone screens and polarized sunglasses incorporate polarized glare-reducing coatings that block light waves travelling in certain directions and frequencies – vertical or horizontal (hence, “polarized”). While these coatings reduce glare and protect your eyes from both UVA and UVB waves, it also means that looking at a polarized surface through a polarized surface may have the resulting filtered light waves produced by an LCD screen not run in the same direction as the polarized filters on your face, resulting in diminished smartphone screen visibility. Though your mileage may vary, this can often be negated by simply looking at your cellphone horizontally instead of vertically – this changes the lightwave direction by aligning polarization filters with the directional light waves, and allows you to look at a smartphone screen through polarized lenses. You’re welcome.

The other issue I found with the Terrains came from their light weight and larger lens size – on a grouse hunting trip in northern Maine this past week, I would often perch the glasses up on top of the bill of my baseball cap when pushing through heavy brush or dark woods. More than once, I found myself with the glasses missing – pulled off my head by a wayward branch or heavy brush. A backtrack would in in order to find the glasses – and it’s hard to hunt while looking for glasses. An integral retention system similar to my Wiley X P-17s would be hugely welcome – a way to utilize or quickly remove a strap/cord system would be a Godsend in heavy brush, while fishing, or roughhousing with the kids. Whaddaya think, Magpul? You guys are kind known for your ingenuity and all….

Wrapping it Up

Sunglasses ain’t just for keeping the sun out of your eyes anymore. Magpul has upped the shades game with the introduction of the Terrain, a platform that incorporates UV protection, glare reduction, chemical/dust/hot air defense, and ballistic protection into an extremely lightweight, immensely high-quality product that absolutely enhances your interface with the outside world. Available through Magpul’s website at $109 for the non-polarized variety, and a well-worth-it additional $40 for polarized lenses, you can pick and choose your favorite flavor combination of frames and lens colors/mirrors.

It seems Magpul has once again improved our lives by taking the mundane and accepted and completely revamping with a fresh outlook based on performance and experience. But really, did you expect anything less from a product with the Magpul logo on it?

 

The post Survival Gear Review: Magpul Terrain Sunglasses appeared first on Survival Cache.

Note – You can get a full transcript of the original portion of this show here. Many families read this and the Christmas show as part of their holidays. Today one day before the great American Holiday we stop and … Continue reading →

Plant safety encompasses a wide variety of hazards, from slips, trips and falls and excessive noise to heavy machinery traffic and loading dock concerns.

Over 100 speakers will take to the stage and thousands of visitors are expected to listen to the talks. The event will take place from 19 – 21 May, at ExCeL London, and speaker applications are open until 31 January.

The post Safety & Health Expo is looking for speakers. Are you interested in joining the line-up? appeared first on SHP – Health and Safety News, Legislation, PPE, CPD and Resources.

A common theme I tend to point out this time of year is that the winter months often come with an abundance of time to do things that simply don’t get done in busier times of the year. As a … Continue reading →

To find success when big game hunting, you have to get as far away from the roads as possible. That’s doubly hard, because while you may be able to comfortably hike 10 miles in, you may not want to pack a critter 10 miles out over four or five trips. According to multiple studies cited on backcountryhunter.org, most game animals like to stay at least 300 meters away from roads. Distancing yourself from lazy road hunters and their noisy vehicles greatly increases your chances of seeing that prized critter. ATVs are great, but many national forest trails are closed to motorized vehicles like Jeeps, ATVs and Motorcycles. Also, ATVs are noisier than most trucks, and just push animals even further out.

Contributed by By Mark, Former Marine Reconnaissance Team Leader, Marine Infantry Officer, Cross Fit Coach, and Survivalist.

We saw this first hand on a recent hunt out in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Both trucks and ATVs were Road Hunting the Forest Service roads like they were patrolling the southern border. None of these road hunters shared the success that we noted during our hunt. So what are you to do? You want to reach the backcountry but maybe hiking three miles up to 10,500 feet is not an option for you. Or maybe you are looking to get really deep and don’t want to spend two days hiking. According to TrailTrove, the average human hikes at two to three miles each hour. This is average from TrailTrove is without a backpack (20 to 30 pounds), a hunting rifle (6-7 pounds), and hunting clothes including boots, pants and jacket (7 pounds). With this extra weight, you are most likely going to be below 1 mph with stops & breaks. Also, consider the toll on your body. You hike three miles up to 10,000 feet with 40+ lbs of extra weight. You are going to be huffing and puffing by the time you get to the top. 

An elk can average 88 to 270 lbs of harvestable meat.  You might be lucky if you don’t get an elk because that will be at a minimum one more trip back up the mountain for two people to get all of the meat out. Those are heavy loads that put a lot of stress on your body. I recently heard about some backcountry hunters using electric mountain bikes to get deep into the woods. After seeing that the BLM has recently changed their rules on electric bikes, I decided that I wanted to try it for myself. After a bunch of homework studying things like range, price, warranty, extras, reviews, & experience, we landed on QuietKat. QuietKat is based out of Eagle, Colorado and they seem to have hunting and the outdoors in their blood. I have been watching them for a few years and they seemed to keep coming out with cooler bikes every season. 

Split Decision

We got two bikes. My hunting partner, Derek, has a chronic tailbone injury and required looking for a softer ride. He was willing to spend more money on his bike so he got the Fat Tire Ridgerunner.

QuietKat Fat Tire Ridgerunner
Motor: Ultra Mid Drive 1000 watt
Display: Digital-Color
Battery: 48v/16ah Panasonic
Frame Sizes: 17” Medium & 19” Large
Brakes: 4 Piston Hydraulic Disc Brakes
Fork: RST Air Suspension 150mm, Rockshox on rear
Suspension: Fire-Link Four-Bar Linkage
Wheel/Tire: 26 x 4.8” CTS Roly Poly Fat Tires
Gearing: 9 Speed Wide-Range
Drive: Stainless Steel Chain
Weight: 65lbs
Top Unassisted Speed: 1000W: 28mph
Range: ~25 Miles Unassisted, up to 50 miles under Pedal Assist
Color: Charcoal

I got the Apex which has a hard tail and front suspension. 

QuietKat Apex
Motor: BBSHD Mid Drive 1000 Watt
Display: Digital
Battery: 48v/11.6ah Panasonic
Frame Sizes: 19” (M/L) and 17″ (S/M)
Brakes: 2 Piston Hydraulic – 203mm Rotor
Fork: GT Air Suspension 100mm
Wheel/Tire: 26″ x 4.5″ (Fat Bike)
Gearing: 9 Speed Wide-Range
Drive: Stainless Steel Chain
Weight:  75lbs
Top Unassisted Speed:  25mph
Range: ~20 Miles
Load: 300lbs
Colors: Charcoal / Camo

Impressions & Thoughts:

One: Our wheels said Juggernaut on the side of them and the name was fitting. The wheels are huge. And by huge I mean massive.  Riding a normal mountain bike on single track, I would not want this much tire. Really fat tires would be heavy and hard to push around on a normal bike but the traction from the fat tires bring is insane, and makes you feel much safer on the mountain. With this being an electric assisted bike and you can push the throttle and with a little peddling you are cruising at 12 mph almost instantly. The big tires add stability and traction both on the front tire for turning and the rear tire for climbing. These are not motorcycles and you still need to pedal, but it really helps climbing those steep inclines.

Two: The bikes are fast. Our first time riding the bikes were not ideal for learning. We were at an altitude of 8,500 feet, little bit of snow on the ground, heading up to 10,500. The QuietKats will take off if you hit the throttle hard, the torque is pretty good. Riding a bike at 20 mph up single track in the mountains can be a little scary and mind blowing at the same time. It took us about about a mile to get comfortable with the bikes, having packs on as well as the cart system that was attached to the back of my bike. To be honest, I have considerable more mountain biking experience than Derek. I was pretty comfortable after about 100 yards. Derek, who broke his tailbone, and has really not ridden a bike since was not a huge fan of the QuietKat at first. I heard a lot of cussing and yelling on the trail that made me think “Oh man, this might have been a mistake.” but after a little coaching, mainly telling Derek to sit down while going uphill so your body weight is heavy on the back tire for traction made a huge improvement for him. By the time we got to 10,500 ft, Derek was sold. I think his exact quote when we got to the top of the mountain was “These things are sick.” On our first ride, I think we averaged about 10 mph uphill with very limited stops. Also, because the QuietKat motors are electric, you do not lose any power at altitude. Most gas engines lose about 3 HP per 1,000 ft of altitude. I know from experience that my old Honda Rincon didn’t like altitude above 10,000 feet even though I had it tuned for the mountains.

Three: The bikes are quiet. I personally think we were much quieter on these bikes than if we were struggling up the side of the mountain carrying gear and heavy boots. I don’t have a way of measuring this but every time I turned back to see if Derek was still behind me, I always saw him before I heard anything. Also, our exposure time on trail was less than 20 minutes compared to 1 to 2 hours by foot. I also believe our scent signature was much less because we were up high out of the grass and only the tires touched the trail. I believe we pushed the animals less because of how quiet these bikes were.

Four: The bikes are heavy. The one downside of this bike (if there is one) is that these bikes are pretty heavy at roughly 70 lbs, but you get a lot of machine for this weight. It took two of us to muscle these bikes into the back of the pick up truck. Could either of us have done it alone? Yes, but we didn’t want to take the chance of scratching the truck. Also, a normal trailer hitch bike carrier (Yakima or Thule) will not work with these, they are too heavy, but the 1up rack (which is sold by QuietKat in both a 1 bike & 2 config) works great. Or you could always look into a light weight ramp system to load these into your truck or SUV if you are hunting solo.

Five: Hard to put away. These things are so much fun that you might want to cut your hunt early just to cruise around on your QuietKat. Honestly, you get can places on these things that would be hard by foot without several days of walking. They are super fun on the trail and you find yourself making excuses for wanting to find a new hunting area and getting back on the QuietKats. “Hey, I think I am going to go scout this other mountain, be back in a bit.”

Six: Tough in powder. The bikes did well on hard snow, and were stunning over normal ground, but thick powder snow caused them to fishtail a bit, and are probably not the best fit. Luckily this isn’t most of hunting season. Also, we did not deflate the tires which could be an option. To be fair, rear wheel ATVs also struggle in deep snow.

Traveling With The Kat

We traveled around the Rocky Mountains with the QuietKats and a fully assembled pull behind cart in the back of the Jeep Gladiator. The front tires of the QuietKats were hanging over the tailgate using a QuietKat Tailgate pad. We strapped them down and due to their weight, they travel well in the back of pick up trucks. We were exposed to some pretty harsh weather up there and were worried about the computer components on the Kats. We had no issues. Every time we pushed the power button, the Kats fired right up and away we went.

Stashing the Kats

Once we reached our planned hunting area, we just marked the Kat location on our GPS and laid them down behind some trees. After a few days, we started just leaving our extra gear near the Kats as well. We were never worried about anyone stealing our gear or our Kats at 10,000 feet. You can remove the battery with a key and you can also use a cable lock to secure your bikes but we never did. If I was in the city, I would get a no joke lock for these bikes but Elk and Mule Deer don’t steal. 

Kat Down

The 2 wheel trailer system that we got with the QuietKat was awesome. It held a ton of gear and was easy to set up and attach to the bike. A bit of caution, you do have to watch out for larger rocks on the trail with the two wheel system. We turned the trailer system over a few times with large rocks. All of our gear was strapped down so flipping the trailer back upright was no issue. They do make a single wheel cargo trailer. I wish I could have compared the two to see which is better. I feel like the single wheel version may have been better for single track. I know Doc Montana recently reviewed the Burley COHO XC Bike Trailer and made it look easy flying down single track in Montana.  

The Proof is in the Pudding

We got deeper & faster into the backcountry than our hunting competitors and on the first morning we saw 3 elk walk into a pasture on the backside of a mountain at 10,500 feet. Without the QuietKats this would have been a painful journey and getting an elk here would have made for a long day of packing meat out with at least one extra trip up the mountain. With the QuietKat & trailer, just one trip down the mountain, elk & gear. 

Overall:

We give the QuietKat four thumbs up. Super fun. Super easy to ride. Versatile, you can use them for things besides hunting (ex: commuting, camping, bug out, military operations, etc). Charging was easy, just remove the battery and bring it inside. There is something about the power and quietness of these bikes that will blow you away. I was dreaming about an American Spec Ops unit using these to insert quietly outside of ear shot of the sound of a helicopter, I could see it in the future. Bottomline, they are fun to ride.  

Video: 

This is not our video but we felt this video from Bowsite.com hit it out of the park and captured our thoughts as well. Take a look. 

Please visit QuietKat for more information.  Use discount code SurvivalCacheFS on the QuietKat website for free shipping if you decide to order one. Or you can look at QuietKat on Amazon.

Visit Amazon Affiliate Sponsors of Survival Cache.

The post Survival Gear Review: QuietKat All Terrain Electric Mountain Bike appeared first on Survival Cache.

With the growing trend for online shopping, next-day delivery and the retail/hospitality experience showing no signs of slowing down, businesses frequently need to recruit extra staff to meet increased demand (particularly in the run up to Christmas). A major national newspaper has reported that approximately 250,000 temporary positions will be on offer over the festive period and not just in restaurants, bars and shops, but also in warehouses and delivery.

Yodel, the courier giant recently announced they need an extra 1,500 temporary staff nationwide, including HGV class 1 drivers, warehouse operatives, van drivers and couriers to fulfil client demand. With an increased number of vans, HGVs and delivery vehicles on the road, inevitably comes a greater risk of accidents. Look back 2 years to December 2017 and there were 462 fatal or serious accidents involving goods vehicles.

What is Grey Fleet?

During these busy periods online retail companies will often use ‘grey fleet’ drivers to deliver to customers. Grey fleet is simply the term used to describe any vehicle that does not belong to the company, but is used for business travel.

According to one BBC investigation, on a typical day a delivery driver for a leading company will make 150-200 deliveries. Although most companies will advise that drivers take regular comfort breaks, the reality is that this frenetic pace of work allows very little time for breaks, often resulting in extreme tiredness.

Sadly, tiredness is a major contributing factor to road accidents but isn’t the only risk of having a greater number of ‘grey fleet’ vehicles on the road:

Grey Fleet: The risks

Because grey fleet vehicles do not belong to the company, fleet managers face a complicated set of issues when it comes to managing the safety of their fleet. For one thing, employees using their own car may be outside of the established insurance and servicing policies, meaning their vehicles are not covered for company travel. Another issue is attempting to keep track of the status of grey fleet vehicles to ensure they meet legal road requirements, including:

• Driving licence validity
• Insurance details including business use
• MOT certification
• Road Tax validity

In addition to this, businesses also need to consider the suitability of the vehicle for work purposes. This could include the age and condition, or whether the vehicle is equipped with ABS, ESP, air conditioning and whether or not it is suitable for the journey requirements of the company.

To help avoid accidents on the road, RoSPA recommends that all delivery drivers are trained or retrained in handling risk on the road. RoSPA offers a bespoke Grey Fleet management training course which allows companies to manage their grey fleet.

The benefit of undertaking such training is a quick and simple self-certification process, which is accessible for all drivers and sends alerts automatically to individuals and managers for MOT’s, insurance, road tax etc.

For more information on our Grey Fleet Management course visit our website, email or call us on +44 (0)121 248 2233.