Portable generators have long burned gasoline or diesel to keep your devices juiced up for emergencies. However, thanks to Jackery and its solar-powered generators, that could soon be a thing of the past. Starting with humble beginnings in 2012, the company has aimed to make electricity portable, clean, and accessible. The Explorer 500 is essentially a big, 500-watt-hour battery that you can top off both at home using the included wall charger and on the road with an optional set of the brand’s solar panels. Available for $299 for the 100-watt version, these can be daisy-chained together to charge the generator faster. The power station itself features three USB 2.0 ports that can supply 2.4 amps each along with a 10-amp DC rail and 110-volt AC rail—good for a range of devices.

Coming in at an eye-watering $962, the CKMPT12 from ARB has the performance to match the price. Its twin-motor, dual-cylinder pump can supply 6.16 cubic feet per minute, making this the highest-flowing compressor in its class. Once deployed, it gives you the ability to fill the 1-gallon air tank in just under a minute. After reaching its peak pressure between 135 and 150 psi, the compressor supplies sufficient power to rapidly air up your tires, pressurize a shower system, or even drive most air tools. Our only complaint was with how short the cables are. Still, it’s worth it for such a capable package that also fits inside a box that you can throw in your trunk.

A perfect pairing with the CKMPT12 above, this gauge allows for rapid inflation and deflation. Its backlit digital display is just about as easy to read in the dark as it is during the day. (The battery indicator at the right side of the display also makes it easy to know when it’s time to swap in a couple of fresh AAAs.) Many would argue that an analog-style gauge would be more reliable, but this digital setup makes it easier to be precise.

While a first-aid kit is probably at the bottom of the list of items that you want to use, better to have it and not need it. That’s why we partnered with MyMedic to build a first-aid kit tailored for automotive applications that’s just as useful for travel and inside the home. The Auto Medic includes—among other things—common items like a tourniquet and a burn-treatment kit all the way to a glass breaker and a seat belt cutter. All of these first-aid necessities fit in a bag that’s small enough for a seat-back pocket.

Airing down your tires is one of the best ways to give your vehicle more traction and get yourself out of a sticky situation. In fact, dropping your tire pressure by 25-30 percent from street pressure can give you up to 250 percent more traction on soft surfaces, allowing your tires to float on top of soft sand, mud, or deep snow and conform around objects like rocks. Unfortunately, a lot of folks don’t air down because it takes time. The easiest way we’ve found to air down is with a set of Staun Automatic Tire Deflators. They come pre-set to 18 psi, but you can adjust them by manually deflating your tires to the desired psi, attaching the deflator, and adjusting the cap on it until just before you start to hear air coming out. Once you set them to the pressure you want initially, the next time you air down, all you need to do is screw them on to your valve stems and they’ll automatically bring your tire pressure to that predetermined psi. No more crouching next to each tire with a pressure gauge anymore.

If you drive off-road enough, eventually you’re going to get stuck, and when you do you’ll need a way to extract your rig. We’ve used this kit for years and it has yet to let us down. It comes with a recovery strap and two bow shackles that will allow another vehicle to safely hook onto yours and tug you out. It also comes with a tree saver and a snatch block that you can use if you have an electric winch on your rig, or have something like a Hi-Lift jack to hand-winch yourself out. A kit like this is also great insurance for general winter driving and can help get you, or someone else, out of a snow bank. But for us, the unsung hero of this kit is the pair of leather work gloves it comes with; good gloves are essential any time you’re recovering a vehicle or working with a winch line, and these are durable and incredibly comfortable.

If your truck has a winch, you’ve got a leg up on most other rigs when it comes to self recovery. But what happens when you find yourself stuck with no trees to attach the winch to, like in the desert or a snow-covered trail? Enter the Deadman Off-Road Earth Anchor. It’s essentially a 48 x 28-inch tarp made from industrial 18-ounce vinyl and a ripstop polyester scrim with Class VII webbing straps rated to 19,600 pounds in each corner. Burying it in the ground creates an anchor point capable of providing the leverage you need to winch your vehicle out. It’s incredibly strong for how light it is.

Next to airing down your tires, investing in a set of MaxTrax is our top recommendation for anyone who goes off-roading (especially if you’re by yourself). We’ve used them to get a truck and a 6,000-pound trailer out of deep sand in Arizona, extract a minivan from a snowbank, and keep a buddy from sliding off a muddy Forest Service road. Think of these as the far, far better alternative to using kitty litter or floor mats to get enough traction under your tires to drive out of slick mud, deep sand, or snow. All you have to do is wedge them underneath the front of your tires and use them as ramps to (and this is key) slowly extract yourself as you gently depress the accelerator. The fiber-reinforced nylon construction means these boards are incredibly durable and can stand up to plenty of abuse.

Quality tools are worth investing in, and a shovel is one of the most useful tools an off-roader can carry. Similarly to how we carried a cheap air compressor before upgrading, we stashed one of those mini, military-looking shovels in our car until we realized it wasn’t good for anything but digging cat holes. The beauty of DMOS’s Delta is that it’s a full-size, 51-inch-long shovel capable of handling major digging jobs, but it collapses down to a mere 24 inches long for easy storage. Its cold-rolled steel blade attaches in two ways to the telescoping aluminum handle via a connection piece, so it works as either a shovel or a hoe.

Hi-Lift Jacks get a lot of love in the off-road community. They’re versatile tools, to be sure, but they can also be dangerous in un-trained hands and are overkill for most folks. The Powerbuilt Unijack is a better solution for changing tires and field repairs because it combines a bottle jack with a jack stand, meaning it lifts your vehicle and holds it there so you can safely work on your rig. A wide base keeps your car stable even on dirt (another benefit over a Hi-Lift), and the safety bar prevents the jack from lowering once it’s been raised to its maximum height. It’s also compact enough that we can keep it in a truck at all times.

Of all the items that you can bring with you on an off-road adventure, a pocket knife might be the most versatile. That’s why we included the 537GY-1 variant of Benchmade’s Bailout series, one of the finest pocket knives that money can buy. With its blade honed from CPM-M4 tool steel, it will stay sharp for a long time and retain a high level of strength. The tanto-style blade bears an ultra-thin layer of Cerakote, which will hide some of the patina it will gain over time. The handle features 6061-T6 aluminum construction—anodized in a brilliant O.D. green—bringing optimal strength while keeping the knife both lightweight and balanced in the hand.

It does cost a lot of money, but consider that the Bailout—being a pocket knife—is suited for more than just off-road applications. Yeah, it has a glass-breaker on the pommel and will handle cutting paracord and light bushcraft work with ease. But whatever you need a blade for throughout a normal day, this knife will be at your hip (and likely last a lifetime).

A simple kit like this one can be the difference between making it home or a very expensive tow truck ride. The process is the same as fixing a tubeless mountain bike tire. Once you locate the leak, use the reamer to widen and even out the hole, put some sealant on the end of the plug and insert it into the hole using the plug tool. Insert the plug most of the way, pull out the plug tool, trim the excess (but not so much that it’s flush with the tire’s surface), and apply a bit more sealant. It won’t work for big sidewall tears, but for modest holes in the tread, this should get you out and at the very least to a tire repair shop.

We’ve used a jump starter like the Noco Boost XL GB50 an embarrassing number of times. Whether you’re worried about leaving a light on in an airport parking lot or your headlights on at the trailhead, having a way to jumpstart your vehicle without another rig around is great peace of mind. The 1,500-amp, 12-volt lithium battery is good for up to 30 jumps on a single charge, and it’s rated for use with gas engines up to seven liters in size (so it’ll work just fine with the larger engines that most off-road rigs have). It triples as a flashlight and a battery bank to recharge smartphones and cameras.

If you’re going to drive off-road, you need a quality map. Navigation apps have gotten so good that they’ve just about replaced hard GPS units, and one of our favorites is Gaia. An annual Premium Membership gets you access to the full catalog, which includes several maps that are particularly useful for off-road driving, like the U.S. Forest Service Motor Vehicle Use Map layer. Before you head out, download what you’ll need for offline use, and you’ll be able to navigate without cell service.

You can’t drive your vehicle to a shop if something breaks in the middle of the woods, so at the very least carry a basic socket set and some spare parts (think hoses, brake lines, etc.). We once had to be winched out of a mud hole and, in the process, bent an axle shaft, blew a u-joint, and bent a control arm on our Jeep. But because we had a basic socket set with us, we were able to fix it enough to drive home that night. This Mechanics Tool Set from Craftsman is a great balance of value and quality, and comes with all of the major tools you need for most trailside vehicle repairs.