What attributes constitute a great Bug-Out Vehicle? Let's look at it from every angle, even ask ourselves, "What is the opposite of a great Bug-Out?"
We have to look at what constitutes a great escape vehicle. So, why do Preppers say that the Government is doing it wrong? We have to look at what makes a ‘bad’ bug out vehicle. If anyone has been in the service, those Hummers and Tanks look amazing and powerful, but the military is a huge organization with billions being spent to support them. Water lines, and more specifically FUEL lines make or break an military advance. (Bruce is an ex-ComSec Officer of the Calvary National Guard).
If you’re looking for a ‘Bug-Out’ vehicle, by definition breaking from the grid/majority, it cannot use commercially controlled or commodity fuel.
Many are the wars lost by lack of fuel/resources and wars lost when supply lines are cut. Those big, armored vehicles, simply lumps of metal when they can’t be fueled, a disaster of dead weight far too heavy to be budged.
Those types of vehicles are definition short jaunts between gas stations or followed by caravans of fuel truck, requiring entire national resources and dangerous environments to maintain. If short jaunts were a solution barely passible seems it’s not an Exodus, but simply a jump towards a dependence on others, and NOT independent of the myriads of whatever situations, at the mercy of the . Petroleum as a necromancy of addiction and dependency of pureed dinosaurs, which when burned not only poisons the air but capable of sending a wagon screaming across the landscape with a puff of smoke after it. For all we know those dinosaurs hate mankind and want populations using them to war continually. Petroleum Fuel requires that military/industrial machine and following that conflict, turning inwards toward the problems that sensible people would want to avoid, therefore NOT a Bug-Out Vehicle.
Rule 0. Or the Zeroth Rule, "The Bug-Out Vehicle is different from the compliance vehicle. The Bug-Out cannot be dependent on a system of commerce or industry, which can be controlled, collapse or cut off. Otherwise, will quickly become useless, and will be a source of conflict which the Bug-Out wishes to avoid, again by definition."
The "bug-out" mentality comes not only with awareness of changing environment whatever the concern, but an idea that we aren't living properly. That we've holds on whatever house, or even apartments that aren't successful enough to survive a changing clime, or even might be sought like the NAZI's sought the homes of the aristocrats, hardly celebrated as a smaller genocide.
The Zeroth Rule has inherent philosophy, one's that would immediately become obvious in any nomadic lifestyle, that since humankind has existed we've existed because we are nomadic, able to make our 'home' while on the road and in transit, seeking greener fields as it were, so essentially since forever, "If we are on the move, we can continuously move to better areas."
Not only that, but whatever we put ourselves to invest in, create during such nomadic behavior should go to support our lifestyles, same as if it would if digging in. I myself, a physicist, programmer took several years to be nomadic, even circumnavigated the continuous United States... and it was WONDERFUL. Meeting people, relationships, the sites to see, the income opportunities. I even had a courier company in Santa Barbara with a gross income of $6,000 per week, and most of my costs were in gas by far, a gas guzzler, so I modified and hired newly divorced housewives of the Malibu type, with the luxury car and a smart phone in 2010-11 and paid them less for the 600-mile trips than I would have spent on gas, essentially converting their car value into cash for them to live. Meanwhile I set up a solar 'hotel-power' in my van, got a high-end laser printer sent invoices and direction from my mobile Command/Communication center.
To be adaptable means more than to concede to events, surroundings, it means to be able to take some purchase or advantages. Downtown SB parking was always available to marked delivery vehicles, I'd two contracts and one with FedEx to deliver between their stores for needed items or overstock, usually a small box. But after creating my nomadic business level rig to not only my, but my business therefore others needs in the affluent Santa Barbara (which provided), the 28,000-mile journey around the U.S. was a breeze, besides missing places and well the pain of sitting for a very long time.
Despite the 'hotel-power" being electric, gas for my journey and courier company was tens of thousands of dollars (federal tax credit was reimbursed hundreds). Even with being paid constant cash in hand, providing needed services, and easy availability, the need for petrol was the most intolerable burden.
While I would say it's relatively easy for a capable person to thrive in just this or other manners, such as corporate types following around lucrative jobs, HISTORICALLY in a exodus situation that can be taken advantage of isn't going to exist. Gas being first among the situations, is something either to use and to lose, the trip costs thousands of dollars in gas alone. 2010 before the EV really, free yourselves from the necromancy of petroleum. A van costs 80 cents per mile to drive, including maintenance, the EV however, 4 to 11 cents. A complete game changer, comparable to the horse.
The history of Exodus from a bad situation is primeval, primordial, and ancient as instinct itself. People fled or migrated on foot in the beginning. Whether wars, blight or over grazing, primitive man had to be on the move as gatherers. It’s innate instinct, that displays itself in humans as pride in vehicles, running prowess, and interest in means to motivate, not only ourselves but that which we wish to travel with us. It begins with a basket, that becomes a sack easy to carry. That bag and good shoes are a bug-out ‘vehicles’ which we innately understand.
Humans gained dominance for a number of reason, not the least is our ability to sweat. Sweating is a cooling mechanism that nearly all other mammals, animals of any type, lack. It allows us to go further for longer, whether migrating or herding. In the countries of Asia, you can view videos of large number of people be relocated, like the damming and flooding of certain regions. People there in vast numbers walk, whether with carts or what they can carry. It’s been an interesting statement by those Asians that look at American videos and note that we gather for some Event. A concert or some other type of event that draws a crowd, whereas those in Asia numbers of people walking means something is wrong. Grab your bags and go as you best know how.
So firstly, being fit and able to move is a primary factor of survival. Being fit and able is a blessing, but in our modern industrial technology machine, what happens if you like I are poisoned with heavy metals or other contaminants? We need help, aid to migrate, and may need to migrate rapidly, hopefully faster than whatever has to be avoided or followed. So those searching for “best bug out vehicle” probably are thinking of best ways to move beyond the capacity of humans.
Rule 1. Incorporate Two Requirements is that the Bug Out Vehicle is not only immediately accessible, or quickly attainable, but following that perspiration that makes humans dominant, the vehicle must be sustainable/renewable. Much closer at hand than anything that the Exodus is from. Even if it’s your own feet, preferably with at least a good pair of shoes and a pack to carry the “necessities”.
Having it, while not a rule of assessing the attributes is common sense. I was once a kung-fu instructor for some years. Taking the time to grab something when in a dangerous situation is never a good idea. If in a face-to-face conflict, and there being a stick behind you to grab for instance opens whoever is turning away to attack to vulnerable positions, and causes even an animal to become more aggressive as ‘turning tail’. Even in a non-confrontational situation, you don’t want to start packing undies in a burning house, if you have to move, move! Time for preparing or even packing is sometimes no longer an option. Which why ‘wisdom’ says to have a bag packed already. If you’ve time to make travel arrangements, it’s not bugging out, it’s a relocation package.
So there is the ‘Philosophy’, but we are here to talk “Preparedness” which means what to gather to oneself in looking forward to some circumstance, but to look at the Philosophy, look at Bruce’s’ Blogs of Independent Preparedness Central Philosophy.
So, there have been a few notably cherished ‘bug-out’ vehicles of the past such as the horse of course, that can carry us not only faster but vastly greater loads. Add a cart or a wagon and you’ve the Gypsy Vargo, Carriages of Europe, or the Prairie Wagon of the American Plains. Noted the New World was a bug-out destination during the Queen of England’s Doctrine of Alienation which outlawed religions.
It should be noted by that same example, that historically the ‘ultimate bug-out’ vehicle was the sailboat. Whereby an exodus of a nation could be accomplished, carrying ourselves and our goods and loved ones easily by water, beyond the reach or whatever wars, plagues or famines might exist. The Sailboat probably is still the number one in vehicles, and has been for at least a couple of thousand years.
We’ve a lot of practice at it, though I’ve travelled the continental United States, and it’s a huge sprawl of suburbia and strip malls, we still think it’s something to do and point at areas of systemic government failure or disruption to provide services of all types, or to protect us say from toxic rains and imagine with such cascades of failures that it’s likely that there will be a scenario where we have to migrate with alacrity to some destination. That the experiment of democracy controlled republic doesn’t work and only maintains the semblance of government, particularly at the lowest and rural levels actually, in the U.S. makes rural areas undesirable, which those making an exodus from metropolises are just now due to the pandemic and remote working to rural areas imagining some idyllic utopia are starting to discover extreme dystopian rural areas. Far worse than the metropolises they were fleeing, and the fear of well-founded distrust are growing. So, ranks are being added to preppers realizing the corrupt and incompetent are holding offices in places where there hasn’t been any pressures, reinforcing the belief the government has failed. In some places those who are anti-government are holding office, simply to get the taxes.
So, it’s not so odd that the interest in apolitical independence is probably the most stable structure presently. What was once relatively trusted if it ever was doesn’t stand inspection of expectations. Thus the likelihood of a near ‘good-place’ isn’t likely, and some distance would have to be put into any effort to bug-out. As seen with the pandemic. So again we come back to that sustainable long-distance vehicle to bug-out in. The U.S, despite variety of cultures, is a relatively homogenous system, and cascade failures are going to systemic. So we are looking back to those European methods of exodus, where someone might have to go a thousand miles to a boat. There was outrunning an epidemic, but not a world wide pandemic, and that the least worrisome of possible scenarios. And instead of trusting that industrial military machine it’s considered the greatest threat. So nothing that would again support the necromancy of petroleum, which the war machines run on.
When prepping one must also be therefore socially conscious. If one is worried about an out of control government, one doesn’t want to support the infrastructure, and it goes back to the Thrive Philosophy, that whatever practice we take in prepping should be integrated with the lifestyle and change or stability we wish to have and represent. So it’s not enough simply to get away from the metropolises of civilization, as the areas of a quaint rural life maybe a illusion and that’s where the troubled people who’ve formed good old boy networks might be planning or acting terrible things on the level of the ‘cities of the plain’ of that book of Genesis. And that story of Exodus, where a whole peoples were bounced around and wondered about for 40 years, so sustainable vehicle. Historically horses, that simply could graze and drink and breed and continue, till that land of promise our group of haven is finally found. So making it to the nearest lot on some area that you barely know as a bug out site probably isn’t a long term answer, unless you’ve really built it up to living bunker type level, if one want to look at the most compensating of allying worries about location safety.
So by our Thrive philosophy, we should engage in behavior that alleviate the wrongs of society, circumstances, environment, to create that destination all the time, especially in prepping which is our focus. So farming and other living agriculture is the most intelligent, to then having to civilize our rural areas to some type of compliance of mutual safety, becomes the issue. Which means correcting or educating others, which hasn’t been usually incorporated in bug-out philosophy, which is to escape “everyone”. That’s some serious nomadic lifestyle, which is actually ingrained in the human psyche, find someplace nice or hospitable, and this article is answering, “Which is the best bug-out vehicle?”
Rule 2. Going the Distance. The next requirement is that the vehicle or series of vehicles prepared will eventually reach that destination which provides those essentials. Which may or may not be the local expected.
Rule 3. By our Thrive Philosophy the vehicle also should help sustain us in unexpected or expected ways. Same as a horse can be turned to the plow is a great for instance. It’s amazingly hard to improve on thousands of years of not only commons sense but the Darwinism of adaption and methodology.
Rule 4. Use it or lose it. If the 'prepper' mentality doesn't include that being prepared is also an advantage in normal daily life, such as canning foods is simply expedient, safer, and thrifty for instance, whatever ever it is should by to our advantage NOW.
Rule 4, Restated.
But back to our Bug-Out vehicle, We are the modern world. It would seem some solution that isn’t literally thousands of years old should present itself. It would be sad if thousands of years of struggling to invent and contribute to science and technology doesn’t have any type of validation in this matter, and such a vehicle must be to our advantage in our present day situation for it to be practical.
So using our Priori, we also look a the History of Bug-Out Vehicles and mesh what must be an obvious choice.
Of all Bug-Out-Vehicles, there is one that stands or floats alone. King of the Bug-Out, as long as there is wind, you've 6 knots, an island of safety (unless the Ocean itself is poison).
1. Sailboat.
Draw back, if you're a 1,000 miles or 100 miles from the ocean, you need the land bug-out vehicle to get to your boat, so let's remember the 'on hand' land vehicle:
Of all land Bug Out Vehicles:
1. Aptera
2. Telsa (with it’s biohazard setting)
3. Bicycle or E-Bike with solar charger.
Honorary/Emeritus to have near you if at all possible.
1. Great footwear [Birkenstocks or Hoka One One Boots].
2. Horses
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