When things go pear-shaped and we find ourselves in a SHTF scenario, our first instinct is to hunker down and ride it out. There are libraries worth of books and websites dedicated to building the perfect survival bunker, learning how to stock it and weathering the apocalyptic storm through self-sufficiency.
It’s an option, of course, but remaining in one place isn’t always the best way to survive. If you need to stay on the move, an apocalyptic convoy should be part of your go-to survival plan.
Let’s take a deeper look at the logistics of the apocalypse convoy.
Pick Your Apocalypse
The first step in creating an apocalyptic convoy is to understand the kind of disaster you’re trying to survive. What you set up to live through a zombie apocalypse is different from what’s needed during complete civil collapse or a nuclear war. For zombies, you’d prioritize mobility and armor. If you’re running from radioactive fallout, speed and protection from radiation will be your primary focus.
It’s impossible to know how the world might end, so your best option is going to be creating a balanced convoy that has you prepared for anything, regardless of what the universe decides to throw at you. It sounds cliche, but being prepared for anything means nothing will ever surprise you.
Choosing Your Vehicles
The whole purpose of a convoy is to have enough vehicles to carry all your supplies and members of your community. You should prioritize storage and passenger seating over comfort or any other features. You will also need vehicles that are capable of navigating off-road and can either move or run over obstacles in your path.
There are a lot of criteria to consider. The biggest challenge isn’t finding a bug-out vehicle — it’s locating one that balances all the things you need without weighing you down with all the stuff you don’t. Trucks and jeeps are ideal for off-roading — especially with a few modifications — but don’t always have the best cargo capacity. Cargo vans and RVs of various lengths have storage and passenger capacity going for them, but they’re only effective and functional on paved roads.
The exact vehicle you choose will also depend on the number of people in your apocalypse community. If you’re alone, you might be able to manage with a truck or jeep with one or two seats. However, if you’re planning to travel with a larger number of people, you’ll need plenty of room to carry everyone. This means having multiple vehicles — and that’s where the concept of the convoy comes in.
Don’t Put Your Eggs in One Basket
Watch any pop-culture entry about the end of the world and you’ll see a convoy with a lead vehicle, a med truck, and various other responsibilities and applications split up among the rest.
While this works well for moving the plot forward, in reality, you don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket. Don’t put all your food in one truck and all your medical supplies and personnel in another.
Losing one vehicle from your convoy can be an inconvenience, but if you have all the supplies packed into a single car, the loss of that one can be devastating. Keep everything spread out across the convoy so you never find yourself in dire straits.
It’s likely a good idea to keep your most essential supplies toward the middle of the convoy. That way, they aren’t as susceptible as they might be at the front or back. Keeping them in the middle will raise your chances of delivering that cargo without issue.
Stock up on Drivers
How often you drive your convey depends on many different factors, from how far you need to travel to how safe it is to stop and camp for the night. If it isn’t already clear, there are a lot of factors to consider when managing a convoy, and maintaining lucidity is crucial to your safety and the safety of those around you.
Make sure you don’t have more vehicles than drivers, and if at all possible, have at least two people capable of operating each car. The apocalypse might necessitate driving through the night, but that doesn’t mean that you should be behind the wheel the entire time.
According to the Sleep Foundation, driving after being awake for 24 hours is equivalent to having a 0.10 blood alcohol content, which is higher than the legal limit in most of the country. While you generally won’t be worried about getting pulled over in an apocalypse, that sort of inebriation makes it harder to survive, negatively impacting your judgment and reaction times. Make sure you have multiple drivers for each vehicle.
Fuel Concerns
If the world ends, fuel is going to be a major concern. You can’t exactly drive to the gas station if the economy and everything that revolves around it has collapsed.
When you’re choosing vehicles for your apocalyptic convoy, opt for ones that run on diesel. It’s more expensive at the pump, but you get more bang for your buck. Diesel engines are twice as efficient as their gasoline-powered counterparts and can generate better power.
You can also use organic waste to generate biodiesel, which can keep your convoy running when petroleum-based sources become scarce. You never need to worry about siphoning fuel from trucks on the highway if you can create your own biodiesel from food scraps. While you can convert gasoline vehicles to run on diesel, it requires an engine swap. Starting with diesel-powered cars makes the most sense.
Keep Your Convoy Running
Keeping your apocalyptic convoy running isn’t terribly different from modern-day fleet maintenance. Your vehicles will still require regular maintenance, especially if you’re pushing them to their limits or taking them off-road for any extended length of time.
If a convoy is your apocalypse plan, consider the basics of fleet management as you build your convoy. Figure out the best way to keep your vehicles running without requiring a trip to the shop. Vehicle repair skills will be valuable as well. If you don’t know how to work on your fleet, make sure you have someone in your community that can help keep your convoy on the road.
Stock up on supplies and replacement parts whenever you get the chance. Choosing common makes and models make it easier to salvage spares from abandoned vehicles as you travel. If you’re driving an obscure car, keeping it running might be more of a challenge. There’s only so far you can go with duct tape and baling wire, after all.
Addressing Weather Concerns
Outside of whatever caused your apocalypse, weather is one of the biggest challenges you’ll face in your apocalyptic convoy. Rain makes roads slick, ice makes them slippery, and anything from fog to heavy rain can impact your visibility.
Foul weather can make it dangerous or even deadly to continue traveling. In a SHTF scenario, stopping might not be an option, so you and your drivers need to be prepared for any conditions Mother Nature throws at you.
Fleet management and maintenance also come into play here. You’re not going to be able to safely traverse snowy or icy roads with tires stripped bare from normal wear and tear. If the world ends, you might not be able to rely on the 100-day forecast to tell you what to expect, but paying attention to the weather can make an enormous difference.
Storage Is Essential
You aren’t generally going to be able to store as much in a vehicle convoy as you might in a stationary bunker, but that doesn’t mean you need to scrounge for supplies at every port of call along the way. You can store everything you need, from food, water and first-aid supplies to ammunition and spare parts for your convoy vehicles.
There are even ways for you to grow food while you’re on the road in self-contained greenhouses and other similar builds on top of your convoy vehicles. It’s a technique first adopted by RVers and people who are on the road full-time. Hydroponics and other sealed systems are also a great option, but they can be a bit messy if something breaks or your system starts leaking while you’re traveling.
That can cause even greater issues if your community doesn’t have an engineer or mechanically-minded individual who can fix the issue. Though you won’t often have the luxury of choosing your convoy community by their skill set, understanding the risks involved is crucial to everyone’s security.
Convoy Communication
Right now, we rely on cellphones for the majority of our communication needs, but that is a very fragile infrastructure. The chances are high that if the shit really hits the fan, the first things that will fail are the internet and networks. Once they do, we’ll need to rely on other tools to help us keep in touch while we’re traversing the highways and byways of a country in ruin.
Walkie-talkies are useful for short-range communication — and can even keep you in contact if you’re driving close to one another on the same stretch of highway. A more comprehensive tool would be the CB radio. These are used by everything from trucking companies to police and emergency services. If you’re trying to stay in touch with people outside of your convoy or long distances away, a HAM radio is going to be your best option. You can get one of these right now and use them to talk to people all over the world, but you do need a license to operate one.
Practice Driving
Driving a car down the highway during your daily commute is a lot different from motoring a fully stocked and often armored vehicle through an apocalyptic wasteland. You and your partners will need to practice driving your various convoy vehicles to ensure you can hop behind the wheel and be ready to go at a moment’s notice. The best time to practice is when fuel is still readily available and you don’t have to worry about making your own home-brew biodiesel to keep the convoy moving.
It sounds like a simple step, but it’s easy to overlook. Putting an inexperienced driver behind the wheel could be devastating.
Weighing Armor vs. Fuel Economy
If you’re worried about zombies, enemy troops or gunfire, armoring your vehicles might be the logical choice to keep your convoy safe. The problem lies in the fact that armor is heavy, and the more weight you add to your vehicle, the less fuel-efficient it becomes. Many cars even have an upper weight limit that, if exceeded, could lead to damage or even failure.
Depending on how easy it is to obtain fuel, you’ll need to weigh the benefits of adding armor to your vehicle’s fuel economy. You’ve got a limited amount of weight to work with, so you need to find the balance between them.
Don’t Forget to Consider Comfort
If you’re planning on creating an apocalyptic convoy, there is one aspect you don’t want to overlook — comfort. You’re going to be spending a lot of time in these vehicles as you move from campsite to campsite, so you want to make sure they’re as comfortable as possible.
You don’t need to spring for all the extras — especially if things like internet access and satellite radio are lost — but comfortable seats and the means to make your vehicles a place you want to stay for long periods are definitely worth the investment.
Be Ready for Anything on the Open Road
An apocalypse convoy is one way to survive the end of the world. Still, it takes a lot of preparation to ensure you’re ready for the trials and tribulations of traveling the open road — even if you’re driving through a wasteland. Take advantage of the tools we have available right now. Learn about things like fleet management and DIY auto maintenance.
We have a wealth of information at our fingertips, which we won’t have once the apocalypse comes. Use it to your advantage. Learn everything you can and be ready for anything that could happen while you’re out on the open road.
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