Every year about this time, I take an hour or two on a Saturday, before the college football games start, mosey out my cars, and take a few minutes to perform a few adjustments on the emergency kits in the trunk. It’s not a bad time of year to do it, and while your “tweaks” might be different than mine, here is what I do to our kits:
-Rotate the snacks. After all, they have been baking in an often hot trunk for a few months now. I find that if I try to keep them through the winter, they become borderline inedible, but by replacing them now, you have tasty snacks for the aforementioned football games, and the replacements usually keep longer, the cold of fall and winter is easier on food than the heat of summer. Plus, winter snacks, at least for me, are higher in fat and protein, since staying warm is what I’m concerned about if stranded during the chilly months. So less granola bars, more beef jerky and Doritos. As an aside, Doritos are oily enough to make a decent firestarter in a pinch.
-Toss in a nice warm blanket. Seems obvious, but in the summer months, I’m more concerned with staying shady and dry. To save space, I usually only carry a space blanket. Come fall, I need something a little warmer to wrap around me. As true winter approaches, I might put a real sleeping bag in the trunk, but for now, an extra blanket will do the trick where I live.
-Augment the water. In some areas, having more water might seem silly, though you should rotate any you carry, but out here in the dry west, streamflows are at their lowest in the fall. The snowpack has melted a couple of months ago, and streams and ponds that I could rely on even into the summer are often bone dry by fall.
-Check the First Aid kit. Often, nothing needs replacing, but I both check the expiration on medicines in the kit and also refill any bandages or incidental items that may have been used and not restocked.
-Extra set of batteries for my headlamp. Batteries like warm, not cold. So they will run out sooner in winter. I throw in a backup set, and in the spring, the backups become the set in my lamp.