Last night on the way home I had a blowout on one of my tires. I changed the tire in the dark on the side of a snow covered road. It was cold, but I had a spare tire, gloves, wool cap, etc… What I spent quite a bit of time thinking about is what other spare tires should I have for my other equipment. Of course I’m speaking figuratively about spare tires. I decided to make a list of critical equipment that can easily be fixed around the homestead that should have a spare for repairs.
Water is the most basic of needs. And with a well for water, the well’s continual operation is critical for survival and more importantly, the happiness of the wife. Toilets won’t flush, dishes can’t be washed, people can’t bathe, and people don’t drink without flowing water. The well is a deep well, so the reality of keeping a spare pump or motor on hand is out of the question. But the water system in general has a few parts that could be considered critical. There is a pressure switch that acts as a contactor for starting and stopping the pump. This is a fairly low price device, that if it failed on a long holiday weekend would make manually starting the pump a pain.
Heat in the winter time is next on my list of priorities. While a modern furnace has a lot of parts, the two fundamental parts are airflow and fire. The part in the furnace most likely to fail is probably the supply fan belt. Not all furnaces have a belt driven fan. Many have a direct drive fan that is directly coupled to the motor. However if your furnace uses a belt driven fan, I highly recommend keeping a spare belt on hand. A flame rod is the other component that I consider to have a high failure rate in a modern furnace. A typical flame rod for a modern furnace will cost about ten dollars. Replacing one is simple and if you needed one over a holiday like Christmas you would be glad you had the parts sitting on your shelf.
A chain saw is considered an essential tool by some people. Following a storm its ability to assist with the rapid removal of downed trees is unparalleled. If you believe in this device is a necessity, then an extra chain, bar, and spark plug should be kept on hand to keep this running when you need it most.
If you live in a rural area odds are that you have a generator incase the power fails. Three items on the generator likely to fail in my opinion are the spark plugs, carburetor gumming up, or electric start failing. Keeping a spare set of spark plugs and an appropriate wrench on hand is great. I spent several hours troubleshooting a small engine’s operation and it turned out to be a spark plug was simply not performing. It had spark, but just not enough. A new plug cured what ailed it. A carburetor rebuild kit should also be on your list of emergency repair parts. Finally a way of starting the generator should there be a failure in the electric start or pull start system. If the generator has an electric starter and a pull start, just test both of them occasionally; the system backs up itself. If it has only one or the other, I’d keep a spare starter or pull cord mechanism on hand.
The self backing up redundancy of the starter and pull cord brings to mind another way of thinking about spare tires. Sometimes the spare part could just be another way of accomplishing the same thing. If your main stove goes out you could be stuck with no way to eat. If you have a gas grill or Coleman camp stove you have an alternate way of cooking when the stove fails. Think of these alternate tools as backups for you primaries.
