Survival Gear That's Just Crazy Enough to Work

This article was posted on Wired magazine's web site a few months ago, and it doesn't look like anyone has posted it yet. I just came across it myself. Most of these products seem more like whimsical experiments in design than your average survival equipment, but I can see some practical use for most of these.

Survival Gear Crazy Enough to Work

I figure this might provide some entertainment and perhaps spark some interesting discussion. Please note that I'm not knowledgeable enough in this area to have an informed opinion on the utility of these items. I've only recently started poking around the survivalist forum and I must admit that my own skills and preparedness are sorely lacking.

cool find. some pretty neat stuff in there.

the cocoon, the first structure that comes up is pretty neat and the higher you get it off the ground the safer you would be from wild animals. provided of course that the shelter could sustain your weight and didnt sent you flopping to the ground..

Good post.

Interesting read.

A lot of that stuff strikes me as gadgetry, and gadgetry isn't so much survival-oriented as it is just neat. Tools for survival have to be incredibly rugged, easy to repair, simple to operate, inexpensive, etc., etc... Substance over style is the bottom line.

Some of them were really interesting though (though not exactly new), like the solar stove, the survival barrel, and the hotdog-stand looking bug out trailer. Nifty stuff...

The cocoon is nothing special, IMO - climbers have been using structures like that for years, sleeping on sheer rock faces by anchoring a sort of hammock/tent/cocoon into the rock. Frankly it scares me to death, but then again, I weigh about 330 pounds, and I'm about 6'7", so the designers didn't really have me in mind when they made the things.

Wild animals are not that much of a concern, really. There are only two large predators in North America, the big cats (panthers/mountain lions), and bears. The larger species of bears are only really ever encountered in the far north, and mostly they're just curious. An armed human being doesn't have much to worry about when it comes to predators. We are at the top of the food chain, yaknow?

I would think the main advantage of the cocoon in practical terms would be getting you off the ground to retain more heat. This can be accomplished by building a simple litter out of windfall and bedding it with pine boughs or grass. Seems a lot easier than getting up to a high limb to tap in and install a giant screw - maybe that's just me.

Interesting find, thanks ...... I love gadgets

Some of these are already in use, eg; Lifesaver Water System and the GPS Distress Beacon (SPOT is already in use).

Some cool concepts. At least someone is thinking outside of the box. We may not see some of these ideas in their present form, but concepts normally lead on to more practical adaptions of the idea.

Hmmm, was'nt keen on the cocoon in a tree idea, sort of reminded me of some Sci-Fi films like The Body Snatchers.

I personally like the 'home in a barrel' and the 'para-home'.