OFFGRID Survival // Gear Locker
The Gear We Actually
Carry, Pack and Trust
Knives, water filters, power stations, shelter, fire, comms and books. Every item below is something we own and use, not something a brand paid us to write about. Knowledge still beats gear — but the right gear buys you time to use what you know.
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Try a shorter word — “knife”, “water”, “solar”, “radio” — or clear the search to see all gear.Survival Knives & Cutting Tools
A knife is the one tool that makes other tools possible. Buy a full-tang fixed blade you can baton, pry with and sharpen in the field, and stop worrying about the rest.
Fixed-Blade Survival Knives
SOG Seal Pup
Partially serrated clip point built off a military dive-knife design. Light enough to wear all day on a belt or pack strap.
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KA-BAR Becker BK2
Thick 1095 steel and a full tang. This is the one you hand to someone who is going to abuse a knife and expect it to come back straight.
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Morakniv Garberg
Mora’s full-tang answer for people who wanted to baton with a Mora. Scandi grind, easy to bring back to hair-shaving sharp with a stone.
Check priceMultitools We Actually Carry
SOG PowerLock
Compound-leverage pliers, which means it does the gripping and cutting work your hand can’t. Heavier than a pocket tool and worth it.
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Leatherman Charge Plus TTi
Titanium handles, replaceable wire cutters, S30V blade. Expensive once, then it just keeps working for twenty years.
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Leatherman Skeletool CX
Stripped down to the tools people actually reach for. The one that stays clipped in a pocket instead of sitting in a drawer.
Check priceBudget Picks That Do Not Suck
Morakniv Companion
The best cheap knife on earth. Buy three, stash one in each bag, and stop feeling guilty about losing one.
Check priceGerber Ultimate Survival Knife
Comes with a ferro rod and sharpener built into the sheath, which makes it a decent first knife for a kid or a spare truck bag.
Check priceMorakniv Craftline
A carbon steel work knife built to get beat on. Keep it oiled or it will rust, and that is the only real downside.
Check priceGerber Suspension-NXT
Butterfly-open frame with a pocket clip. Cheap enough to leave in a glovebox and forget about until you need it.
Check priceGerber Truss
Full-size pliers head with a sheath included. A solid pack tool when you do not want to risk the expensive one.
Check priceSOG PowerPint
Compact enough to ride on a keychain and still gives you real pliers. Good bridge between a keyring tool and a belt tool.
Check priceMachetes & Chopping Tools
Ka-Bar Cutlass Machete
For clearing brush, cutting shelter poles and processing green wood faster than any knife will.
Check priceKa-Bar Kukri Machete
The forward-angled blade puts weight where the cut happens. It chops harder than its size suggests.
Check priceFiskars Splitting Axe
Home and homestead firewood work. If you heat with wood, this saves your back and your shoulders over a season.
Check priceWater Filtration and Emergency Storage
You can go weeks without food. You get about three days without water, and bad water will put you down faster than no water at all. Store what you can, then carry a way to make more.
Filters & Purifiers
Katadyn Pocket Filter
Ceramic element you can scrub clean and reuse instead of replacing. Heavy, expensive, and the one we grab when it has to work.
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SteriPen Adventurer Opti
UV light kills what is living in the water in about a minute. It does not remove silt, so pair it with a bandana pre-filter.
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GRAYL GeoPress
Fill it, press it like a French press, drink. Handles viruses too, which matters for travel and for water near towns.
Check priceEmergency Water Storage
WaterBOB Bathtub Storage
Turns your bathtub into clean sealed storage before a hurricane hits. Costs almost nothing and buys your family days.
Check priceAugason Farms Filtration & Storage Kit
Storage container and filtration bundled together, which makes it an easy first purchase for someone starting from zero.
Check priceSaratoga Farms 5-Gallon Stackable
Stackable containers let you build real storage in a closet or garage corner instead of giving up a whole room.
Check priceCarrying Water on the Move
Klean Kanteen Reflect
Single-wall steel, so you can boil water in it. That one feature makes it worth more than any insulated bottle in a survival kit.
Check priceCamelBak ArmorBak Mil-Spec
Military hydration system built to take a beating. Drink on the move without stopping to dig out a bottle.
Check priceBambaw Single Wall Steel
Another campfire-safe single-wall bottle at a lower price. Good spare for a second bag or a kid’s pack.
Check priceBackup Power for When the Grid Quits
Power outages are the disaster most people actually live through. A battery station runs your fridge, your CPAP, your radios and your phones without dragging a gas generator into the driveway at 2 a.m.
Goal Zero Yeti 3000X
Enough capacity to keep a refrigerator and medical gear alive through a multi-day outage, and it recharges off solar.
Check priceJackery Solar Generator 2000 Plus
Expandable battery system, so you can start with one unit and add capacity later instead of buying everything at once.
Check priceJackery Explorer Kit 4000
Whole-cabin territory. This is the tier where you stop rationing outlets and start running the house essentials normally.
Check priceShelter and Sleep Systems
Exposure kills faster than hunger or thirst. Getting off the ground, out of the wind and under a roof is the first job in almost every real emergency.
Tents
MSR Elixir 2-Person
Freestanding two-person with a real vestibule for wet boots and packs. Durable enough to be the family’s one good tent.
Check priceMSR Hubba Hubba NX
Lighter than the Elixir with the same footprint. The trade is a thinner floor, so bring a groundsheet.
Check priceHammocks & Tarps
Hennessy Hammock Expedition
Integrated bug net and rain fly. Where the ground is soaked or rocky, a hammock beats any tent you can carry.
Check priceKelty Noah’s Tarp Shelter
A tarp goes up in under a minute in weather that would soak you setting up a tent. Cheapest real shelter you can own.
Check priceSleeping Bags
Marmot Voyager Mummy Bag
Mummy cut holds heat around your core and head instead of letting it escape at the shoulders like a rectangular bag.
Check priceKelty Cosmic
Good warmth for the money and it packs down small. A solid bug-out bag choice when weight and budget both matter.
Check priceLight and Fire
Carry three ways to make fire, because two of them will fail in the rain. Same logic for light: a headlamp, a handheld and something that burns without batteries.
Flashlights
MAGLITE 3-D Cell LED
Runs on D cells you can find in any store during an emergency, and it doubles as something you would not want swung at you.
Check priceCOAST Polysteel 600
Waterproof and impact resistant. Built for work trucks and boats, which is exactly the abuse a survival light needs to take.
Check priceStreamlight MicroStream
Pen-sized EDC light that disappears in a pocket. The light you will actually have on you is better than the one at home.
Check priceJ5 Tactical V1-PRO
Runs on a single AA. Cheap enough to put one in every vehicle, kit and nightstand in the house.
Check priceCOAST G19 Penlight
Tight inspection beam for engine bays, crawl spaces and first aid work where you need to see detail, not flood a room.
Check priceLanterns & Candles
Coleman Powerhouse Lantern
Burns liquid fuel, which stores far longer than batteries hold a charge. Lights a whole room and throws off heat too.
Check priceKerosene Hurricane Lantern
Nothing to break and nothing to charge. Kerosene sits in a can for years and the lantern still lights on the first match.
Check priceUCO 9-Hour Candles, 3-Pack
Sized for UCO candle lanterns. A single candle in a small shelter raises the temperature more than people expect.
Check priceUCO 12-Hour Beeswax, 3-Pack
Beeswax burns longer and cleaner than paraffin. Three of these cover a long winter night with light to spare.
Check priceBlackfire LED Clamplight
Clamps onto a tent pole, branch or truck door so you get hands-free light where you need it.
Check priceFire Starting
Zippo Pocket Lighter
Windproof flame and a refillable wick. Fuel evaporates over time, so top it off before it goes in a kit.
Check priceBulk BIC Lighters
The least glamorous fire tool and the one that works. Buy the bulk pack, scatter them through every bag and vehicle.
Check priceExtremus 6-in-1 Fire Starter
Works soaked, works frozen, works after the lighters are dead. Practice with it at home before you need it in the cold.
Check priceUST BlastMatch Fire Starter
Designed to work one-handed, which matters more than it sounds if you are injured and trying to get warm.
Check priceUCO Stormproof Match Kit
These relight after being dunked in water. Waterproof case keeps the strikers dry, which is the part most kits get wrong.
Check priceNavigation, Signaling, First Aid and Comms
When the cell towers go down, the people who can still find their way, call for help and hear what is happening have an enormous advantage over everyone standing around holding a dead phone.
Survival & First Aid Kits
S.O.L. Scout Survival Kit
Waterproof bag with the basics already sorted. A reasonable starting point you then customize instead of building from nothing.
Check priceMy Medic MyFAK Pro
A real trauma kit, not a box of bandaids. Get the training to go with it or half the contents are dead weight.
Check priceCompasses & Signaling
Suunto MC-2G Global
Global needle works in either hemisphere and has a sighting mirror that doubles as a signal mirror. No batteries, ever.
Check priceSilva Ranger Compass
Baseplate compass with declination adjustment. Learn to use it with a paper map and your phone stops being your only plan.
Check priceUST JetScream Whistle
A whistle carries far past where your voice gives out, and you can blow one for hours without losing it. Cheapest rescue insurance sold.
Check priceUST StarFlash Signal Mirror
Floats, does not shatter, and a flash off one can be seen for miles by aircraft. Weighs almost nothing in a pocket.
Check priceRadios & Emergency Communication
Yaesu FT-65 Dual Band
Built better than the cheap imports and it shows in the audio and the receiver. Worth the jump if radio is a serious part of your plan.
Check priceBaofeng UV-5R V2+
The radio most preppers learn on because it costs less than dinner out. Get your Technician license before you transmit on it.
Check priceKnowledge Is the Most Important Gear You Can Buy
Gear breaks, gets lost, gets stolen or gets left behind. What you know goes with you no matter what happens to the pack. Read these before you need them.
The Ultimate Situational Survival Guide
Survival expert Robert Richardson, founder of OFFGRIDSurvival.com, covers the dangers people actually run into: natural disasters, man-made disasters, urban crime, violence and social unrest, with step-by-step tactics for each.
Get the book
Prepper Radio: The No-BS Ham Radio Technician Exam Prep Guide
From the team at OFFGRIDSurvival.com and HamRadioPrepper.com. Gets you through the Amateur Radio Technician Class exam and into emergency communication without the filler.
Get the bookReference Books Worth Owning in Print
SAS Survival Handbook
The broadest single-volume reference out there. Keep a paper copy, because a book on a dead phone helps nobody.
Get the bookUS Army Survival Manual
The field manual generations of soldiers trained on. Dry reading, and the fundamentals in it have not changed.
Get the bookBushcraft 101
Skills-first approach to the woods: cutting tools, fire, shelter and cordage. The best starting point for hands-on practice.
Get the bookEverything on this page is gear we own, carry or have run hard enough to have an opinion about. We use affiliate links, we say so up front, and we do not take money to put junk on this list. If something here fails you, tell us and we will pull it.