We’ve all been there…sitting around with your best buds after an afternoon blasting targets on the range and a hearty meal of chili dogs when suddenly, you are overtaken by a noxious odor! You know what it is and who it came from and though it may seem like your going to die, you wont and that sensation will pass!

Now pause and for just a second…take a whiff…do you smell anything? Probably not and that’s the problem. Unlike the scene above, often times toxic chemicals and vapors produce no odors and can reach fatal levels without any indications. Now imagine being on your bug out and having to cross an area with multiple fires or industrial zones that have been leveled with unknown chemical spills…Kind’a scary huh? Well I have a solution for you and its called the Chameleon!

Made by Morphix Technologies, the Chameleon is a body warn, passive chemical detection device that allows for the identification of up to ten airborne toxins at any given time! In use with first responders to detect chemical suicides, aid in arson investigations and hazmat situations, the Chameleon is a welcome addition to any go bag. With its small size and straight forward design, this unit has the potential to save your life. The cartridges are interchangeable and easily tear open to expose the detector strip and once placed in the carrier, if a chemical agent is present, a high contrast indicator appears on the strip alerting you to the presence of something really bad. The detector cartridges are good for 24hrs from the time of opening when not exposed to agents and can be used in any environment. The all plastic construction keeps weight to a minimum and the cartridges securely lock into the carrier without fear of them falling out.

Individual refills are available as well as scenario specific pre-sorted kits such as setups for meth labs, chemical suicides, hazmat and arson. The list goes on and on and prices are such that its actually affordable to outfit yourself or your team with the units.

The response time is super fast allowing you vacate the area before you become overtaken or otherwise injured by what’s blowing around and the sturdy construction of the carrier and strap ensures that it will stay put through the duration of your mission and see you through to the end. The carrier is attached to the elastic armband with hook loop and can be removed to be placed on other items or garments that are hook loop compatible. I wore mine both on my ACU’s left shoulder and utilizing the wrist band and found it to hold tight through all situations. People will look at ‘ya a little funny while wearing this thing so I suggest keeping it in your bag until you need it!

The uses and applications for the Chameleon are endless. Living in modern society as we do we are painfully unaware of the hazards surrounding us. Drive through your town and look at the industrial areas. Do you know what they do there? What kinds of chemicals are in use? I can’t answer those questions and I bet you can’t either and that’s where this kind of gear comes into play. Its your and your families lives that could be at risk, shouldn’t you know what’s in the air if disaster strikes?

 Click here for more information and to order yours….

How many times have you been out on an adventure and thought “Gosh, I wish I had a note pad with me…” only to console yourself by saying “oh well, it would have gotten wet and ruined anyway…” Well wish and console no longer!! Enter the Rite in the Rain 980T!

The kit, comprised of a 980T note book-all weather pen and Cordura cover, will take all the abuse you can dish out…even when wet! The paper is treated to shed water and the black tactical clicker pen can be used in all weather conditions thanks to Space Pen refill and ink specially designed to be used with the notebook.

On the inside of the front cover are unit conversion tables and map scale converter. In addition to that, there are 16 pages of tactical references ranging from unit symbols and how to draw a sector map all the way up to Medevac requests and Call for Fire orders!! How cool is that!! You can make a sketch of your favorite fishing hole and call in an artillery strike at the same time! Take that you smelly carp!!

The pages have  pre-printed gridlines to make drawing scale accurate maps and diagrams easier and at the bottom right is a  little line that says “Scale: 1 square = _____” It doesn’t get any better than this. The uses for the 980T notebook are endless…When I go out on adventures I like to draw unusual features I see or make maps of where I’ve been, plus you can ask my Dad, I’m always coming up with stuff for him to fabricate for me and until now my plans were always lacking a little something! With the 980T my drawings are neater, edges are straighter and now always to scale!!

The paper has a different feel to it that I picked up on right away. Just by touching a page, you can tell this is something special. Now to answer the big question…Yes, its water proof and works just as advertised!

The pen writes smooth and is comfortable to hold onto. Its not too big or too small and fits the pen slots in the Cordura cover quite nicely. The book is easy to insert and begin using. The cover has three pen slots with a vertical pocket below them and on the back is a generous horizontal pocket that’s ideal for quick reference cards or a small first aid kit. The cover is closed on three sides with a zipper and the attention to detail really shows. The zipper is smooth and hassle free, requiring minimal effort to pull.

As for overall size…once the book is in the cover with the pen and everything zipped up, it fits nicely in your cargo/BDU/ACU pants pocket making it ready at hand for those critical moments when you need write something right away!!

The 980T is now a permanent feature on our Survival Vehicle and will be used as a Vehicle and Adventure Log Book for us to catalog things we see as well as make maps of campsites and record our travels.

One thing I need to mention before I forget….All Rite in The Rain products are American Made! You read that right, they are made here in the good old U S of A!

Click here to see the rig that I tested and to order yours…

To remedy the situation, I contacted my friends over at Optronics and told them of my plight. They are the same folks that make the awesome search light I mount on my roof when I need to throw a beam and see what’s going on…Anyway… they hooked me up with  a three element, 570 Lumen diffused beam work/area light for vehicle applications. I mounted it last fall and started the testing…

So I’ve been waiting on this review for quite some time but there’s a good reason. Our weather here in Michigan has been horrible! Now I know your asking yourselves “What difference does that make?” well, let me tell you…in an effort to bring you the best information and opinions possible I like to test the gear I write about to its limits and this light was no exception. It has withstood the rigors of winter…sleet…snow…being encased in ice…salt…and for the past several weeks constantly wet with severe temperature swings, 50deg. in the day and 30deg. at night.

The results? This is one tough light! The TLL 52 has taken an extreme amount of abuse and still works. The light is rock solid and never once failed to go on. The lens is still clear and all the seals intact with no water penetration. If your in the market for a tough aux. light for your rig, look no further. To be honest, at the price point their offered I was a little skeptical it would survive the winter but I was pleasantly surprised!

The installation was very simple. Drill a hole…run some wire…install a switch…add a fuse…run some more wire and Presto! Your done!!

As for performance, the light is spot on (no pun intended). It nicely illuminates the rear of the vehicle and provides the much needed extra brightness to help you see what’s behind you. Plus, hearing people gasp at the brightness or sprint out of the way when caught in its beam is more than worth the time and cost!

You can see their product line up here….

That’s it…Its over…The end of the world has come and all your prepping and training has paid off in spades! You made it to your bugout location with your family intact. The kids are sound asleep safely wrapped in their sleeping bags and your wife is sitting down, getting ready to take a bite of the biggest piece of “crow” she has ever seen. Realizing there’s no utensils on the table, she beings to smirk…right until you hand her your Folding Titanium Spork from Campco!! Ha-HA!

Ok, so the above is a little off the mark but as a survivalist/prepper its our calling to be ready for any situation. Ropes, thousand rounds of ammo, five years of dried food…all of that means nothing if you cant feed your face! How do you solve that problem without the bulk of traditional, non multi-application flatware? With the spork! But not just any spork…this one is foldable and  made from pure Titanium so its uber light and non magnetic for those times when you’ll need it to work through the minefield of your own camp cooking.

This little thing from Campco is high on the cool factor and is extremely functional. After taking it out of the packaging and marveling at it being so light weight (I know I’ve said this a few times but it’s so cool!), I gave it a courtesy wash and threw it into my pack and went off to start my day. Not long after that I found myself in need of a utensil and used it to consume that day’s lunch and many meals after that. Its highly functional and a true must have for any bag or pack. To deploy your spork you unfold the handle in an upward fashion until it clicks in place and then slide down the center thing-e to spread the wire loop a little securing it in the upright position.

Once open up, the spork is ready for action. Every time I hold it I’m amazed how light and strong it is. Feeling lighter than a comparable utensil in plastic, the Titanium Spork is more than capable at scraping out thick mac and cheese from the bottom of any bowl or pan and being reusable, it will save on the pocketbook over time. When paired with my Flexi Cup, I have the ultimate post apocalyptic dining set!!

The design is simplicity itself. Being made up of two halves, the handle is heavy gauge Ti wire bent into a “U” shape and tensioned into two holes on the lower half. The spoon/fork section is made from a solid piece of Ti that is pleasantly shaped and has a nice satin finish. The tines are sharp enough to grab hold of steak and the bowl is sufficient in size to comfortably eat soup. Above all that its cute and way high on the cool factor!

Click here to order yours!

We all try to prepare for the unthinkable…social unrest, food shortages… an armed encounter with an intruder in our home… The latter is often thought of as just an act of crime by many but in reality its CQB at its worst. You may know the terrain but the risk to yourself and your family is unthinkably high. Not all of us are professional “Door Kickers” but with training and the proper tools you can face this situation with confidence. When looking at this type of scenario, there  are a few things you must keep in mind… Fail to neutralize the intruder and your family could wind up getting severely hurt…Fail to properly ID your target and you may  inadvertently injure or kill a loved one…Then there’s the worry of over penetration….For that reason alone, many people choose a shotgun as their home defense weapon of choice. Now there are a lot of differing views about using a long gun for home defense and in my opinion its generally not a good idea. But that being said when I’m asked what’s a good gun to protect your family with, my response is always the same… “The best one is the one you have in your hand at the time…”

Now, the tactical shotgun can be a good choice for home defense but its subject to a few myths…One, the sound of a 12 gauge being racked is not going to make the intruder go away. Its just going to alert him that you have a weapon and it gives away your position…two, you still need to aim! That’s where the Kryptonite Center Mass Laser comes in!!

Sporting a MIL style design and 1913 rail compatible, this new laser from LaserLyte really takes aiming your shotgun or rifle to the next level. The green light produced by this unit really stands out against any background and keeps the shooter focused on the target.

The pattern projected is a center dot surrounded by a ring made up of more dots. Now this is where it gets interesting…the further away the target is, the larger the ring and the closer, the smaller…you with me? now get this…the size of the ring gives you an approximate shot patterns size at the distance the ring appears on the target! How cool is that!!! Plus, Laserlyte offers several different rail mounts you can add to your gun making it able to accept the Center Mass.

The laser can be activated by a remote pressure switch that plugs into the back of the unit and hook-loops to your rail covers in addition to a three position switch that allows you to select OFF-ON-MOMentary, giving you full control of your laser’s configuration. The design is spot on and the quality expected from LaserLyte is there.

The Center Mass gives you a fast and accurate way to aim your shotgun for close range engagements! But the action doesn’t stop there…The unit is just as comfortable on a rifle too! I mounted the laser to my Tapco emblazoned SKS and found it to be, as my son would say…Epic! With my reflex sight I was often concerned about getting tunnel vision and only focusing on the image in the glass and loosing sight of what was going on in the target area which in home defense/CQB could be disastrous. LaserLyte’s unit alleviates that, allowing you to focus on the whole scene and not just what you see in the tube.

In a rifle application, the Kryptonite Center Mass Laser’s ring not only helps you get on target faster, but it really makes leading a moving target a lot easier! Now how do I know this? Well let me tell you…a while ago I reviewed a product from Armed Response Training and produced by an officer of the name Ralph Mroz. So I take out my interactive shoot / don’t shoot disk that I use to train with on a regular basis and thought to myself….”I wonder how this would look on my projector?” Well let me tell you…The disk, my projector and an unloaded firearm make for one heck of a combination!! Throw in LaserLyte’s laser cartridge and I have the makings of a world class Shoot / Don’t Shoot Simulator!! It works great with my 9mm and this training cartridge and I thought it might with the rifle as well… So I set it all up and break out the SKS with the CenterMass Laser and found target tracking was a lot easier with the ring of light and engagement was faster with a notably lower time for getting on target!!

A word on home defense / CQB…

Keep in mind, training is a must! You can have the best gear in the world but without training and practice its all for nothing… If you live in the Detroit area there is a great company I have trained with called the Urban Tactical Defense Center. Its instructors come from LEO and MIL backgrounds and they teach a broad lineup of classes. The really unique thing they offer is a tactical walk through of your home where they will help you develop a defensive plan based on the home’s physical layout, your skill level and weapons on hand! They use their years of experience as well as role playing to make you more effective and increase your confidence in a home defense/CQB encounter.

The Center Mass Laser is a good choice for the CQB professional and home owner alike. For more information and to order yours, click here! They have a great video showing it in use…It’s a must see!

Urban Tactical Defense Center…

Armed Response Training….

Many of us have spent enough time outdoors to know when the weather is going to shift. You can look at the sky, smell the rain and tell by the breeze what’s going on. If your not that in tune or just a little more scientific, a weather instrument may be something you would want to  consider. And when you say weather instrument, the only name that comes to mind for me is Kestrel.

Part I…

Coming in with more features and screens and settings than you can shake a stick at, the Kestrel 4000 Pocket Weather Tracker will more than fill your needs for an on the spot weather meter…Right out of the box, the first thing I noticed was the plastic shield over the anemometer. It doesn’t seem like much I admit, but having used similar units from different manufactures it makes a huge difference.

The controls and screens are easy to use and navigate due to an inherently intuitive design. All the main information screens can be accessed by scrolling up and down….sub screens can be accessed by moving left and right off each main screen.

The buttons report a nice solid click when pressed that’s noticeable through heavy gloves. The back light is more than adequate for seeing your readings in low to no light. Overall the construction, design, frimware and functions are exactly what you would expect from a top of the line unit such as this…But here comes the twist!

With traditional weather units you would have to leave the comfort of your tent to use the meter to see whats going on. Well not with this one! The Kestrel 4000 is accessible from your Smart Phone via Bluetooth!!! Yes, you read that correctly, Bluetooth! I’m able to get the weather data while warm and cozy in my sleeping bag. How cool is that!

The sensor response is quick with the readings being accurate. Wind measurements are fast with little to no lag time once the impeller begins to move. Various data points can be stored on the unit for review and analysis giving you the power to predict future conditions based on local patterns!

I have used the unit all winter to track storms, temp swings and wind chill when outside sledding or just building snow forts. Its rugged design stood up well to drops, bumps and a curious 6 year old!

Now I’ve only seen cold weather performance with the Kestrel 4000 and based on what I have seen, it’s a great resource for any outdoor adventure. With that in mind, stay tuned for Part II where it will be used on the inaugural  expedition of our Survival Vehicle this spring!

Based on my time with the 4000, it’s a must have for anyone that spends any amount of time outside. I have found it to be a huge asset and you will too!

Click here for more information and to order yours!

Sometimes the only thing more perplexing than choosing your defensive carry ammo is trying to select a flashlight that fits your needs with minimal comprise. Being successful in this quest requires sleepless nights in front of a computer, educating yourself on terminology and torch relayed units of measure. Throw in a fair amount of hand wringing and the obligatory spousal heckling and it can make for a gut wrenching experience with the sweet taste of victory reduced to nothing more than a funny smell in the air!

Let me help shed a little light on the situation. First off, don’t ask your wife for advice. She doesn’t ask you about certain hygiene products and you don’t ask her opinion about flashlights…got it?…ok, moving on…this is all you need to know…www.coast.com!

Coast is a great innovator in portable lighting technologies (flashlights) and has really pushed the envelope of design on a lot of models. So I was looking at a good, multi use light and the guys over there suggested the TX40. With 164 lumens it more than capable at putting out a good throw of light. The all aluminum body can take a lot of abuse before showing any wear and tear. I like the fact that it uses standard AAA batteries and sometimes that can make all the difference. The light handles well and feels full in the hand without being to big. The tail cap switch provides a sharp click for each press and the rubber cover provides a nice nonslip grip. Now here’s the cool thing…not only does it work great as a general use torch, but when placed in the 1 inch Universal/Picatinny Rail Mount it becomes a weapon light that can mount to your rifle or shotgun!!

I attached it to my SKS and liked the results. The spot is bright and consistent without any shadows or hot spots. The offset of the mount placed the light a little lower than the line of the barrel but was still easy to turn on and off and highly effective at illuminating the target area. In my opinion, this would be a great attachment for your home defense weapon if your using a long gun.

That’s not all… I took the Tx40 and the rail mount and attached it to the shoulder strap of my backpack with a QSAM RAMP! They make for one heck of a combination…the mount locks down securely and now I have a light on my shoulder for those times when I need one. The rail adapter comes off with the twist of two thumb screws allowing a quick transition from shoulder to rifle in a matter of seconds!

Being on my pack has caused this light to endure more abuse than one can imagine. It has survived being thrown, yanked, smacked on door frames, tossed into truck beds (light down) and still lights every time I hit the button. Coast makes some top notch stuff at a fair price.

Click here for more information and how to order…

I carry all different ways…on the hip, in a pouch, on a vest, in a bag…sometimes even just in my pocket! One thing I had never tried until now was a shoulder holster. When someone says shoulder holster what’s the first thing you think of? Well the first thing that comes to my mind is Miami Vice! Crockett and Tubbs shooting across the water in a speed boat wearing sport coats with the sleeves rolled up! To me it has always seemed to be the “armed gentleman’s” way to carry and not necessarily for me. That was until the rig from BDS Tactical showed up!

There is nothing gentle about this holster! The BDS rig is designed to accommodate a wide variety of weapons with and without lights and lasers. This is accomplished via a uniquely constructed universal holster. To customize it to your sidearm all you have to do is undo the hook loop strap, open it up, place the weapon in it and wrap the holster around your gun! Very simple and very straight forward. The thing that really stands out about the holster is its ability to adapt for weapon attachments making it an excellent choice for tactical use, because sometimes you feel like a light and sometimes you don’t!!

Available in black, OD, coyote, and Multicam the MS-BDS Tactical Vertical Shoulder Holster can be ordered to match just about any gear. The one I tested was of the Multicam flavor and matched my other gear extremely well. One thing I did notice was that it blended nicely with my ATACS-FG acu. No worries of cross pattern clashing here. In fact, I doubt anyone would notice.

The webbing is comfortable with ample room for adjustments to fit a wide variety of body sizes and to fit over many styles of garments and armor….yes, fit over….this is not a concealment holster by any means. Its a straightforward “Why yes, that is a gun.” type of setup…no hiding it here.

The straps are just wide enough without being too bulky annd the chest strap that connects the two sides together and really helps keep it from shifting. A touch of elastic is added to impart some “give” to make sitting down a little more comfortable! They have thought of everything with this set up and the usual BDS Tactical quality is there.

But now the big question, why a shoulder holster? Well let me tell you…. In working on the Tactical Survival Vehicle I started thinking about weapon employment from a vehicles interior and realized the options for pistol deployment were slim to none. You could cross draw, leave it on or in your center counsel or use a magnet mount to put it under the steering column. Then I saw the BDS setup and thought “wow, that’s it!. There’s no digging in of a waist mounted holster, no searching through a center counsel and  it won’t go flying if I hit the brakes!

When driving, the holster is out of the way, very comfortable and doesn’t interfere with the operation of a vehicle. The weapon retention is such that there’s no worry about your gun falling out when getting in and out of your truck, jeep, halftrack…you get the picture. If you carry when driving, you need one of these….

Now, I’ve used this setup for quite some time and find it to be comfortable and it distributes the weight from a sidearm and two mags quite evenly. One nice feature I almost forgot to mention is that at the bottom of the holster is a hook loop band that wraps around your belt to help keep your gun in place. That little extra bit of webbing makes all the difference when using the holster. The draw is smooth and easy with direct feedback from the thumb break when removing the weapon. The natural draw motion results in the indexing of your trigger finger along the holster side and then the trigger guard as the weapon comes out. The retention is fabulous and at no point did I worry about my gun falling out regardless of my body position.

This holster is an excellent choice for ATVs, hiking, camping and boating. This is my outdoors carry rig of choice.

Made in America with a good color selection, quality materials and construction make this a rig that will last you a long time and provide years of enjoyable service!

Click here for more information and to order !yours

So what is Helium Whisper?

I had pleasure of going hands on with BlueForce’s admin and dump pouches and these things are really neat. Right off the bat, the first thing I noticed was the weight…Coming in much less than the competitions gear, the pouches are really light! And that can have a profound difference on your load out. The less weight in one piece of your kit can allow you to carry more ammo, water or just lighten your load to make it easier to hump around. But the reduction in weight does not come at the price of durability. This stuff is tuff! It wont tear, stretch, or otherwise come apart! I tried pulling, twisting, scratching and tugging on the few (and I mean few) seams…all to no avail. I couldn’t get it to budge or give one bit. By the time I was done, I was tired and literally shocked by the toughness of the fabric, to be honest I was skeptical that it was as durable as they said…it has more than surpassed my expectations.

About the seams, or lack there of…where the Helium Whisper is attached to the pouch fabric there are seams, but that’s it. The entire back panel of the pouch is cut from one piece of the laminate resulting in an almost failure proof attachment system that securely and easily weaves onto your MOLLE/PALS webbing. The inherent flexibility of the material lends to easy weaving and hook loop has replaced the often failure prone snaps. I find the hook loop to be extremely user friendly and was pleasantly surprised by how effective it was at holding everything together.

Now for the pouches…

Two words, light (yes, again) and rugged. The designs are well thought out and the attention to detail is apparent. The admin pouch is on par with the crowd when it comes to the zippers and interior concept of organization. Where it excels is in the materials used and how they are employed. Body side, there is  a generous treatment of wide elastic straps sewn in to accommodate various gear and the front panel is separated out by one continuous run of mesh for larger items like notebooks, pens, pack of smokes…you get the idea!

The outside is treated to a large panel of soft side hook loop for the placement of patches or smaller, hook looped items. The sample I tested was Multicam flavored  and matched the rest of my gear and blended in well. The same goes for the Dump Pouch. The Helium Whisper material is astounding in its resilience and ease of weave. I have never seen anything like it!

The real gem here is the drop pouch and it was what really threw me for a loop. My first impression looking at it was “What the heck?”…about the size of a pack of sticky notes with a pull tab sticking out from underneath Multicam elastic, the pouch’s full size and capacity is hidden. One good tug and POW!! Out comes this bag, yes…I mean bag, that can hold just about anything! Its huge! Now granted its main function is for collecting your mags as you reload,(of which it can hold 8 M4 mags) but this thing could be used for anything from foraging to general purpose gear portage! So much emphasis is put on the initial point of survival with little to no attention being given to extended operation, this dump pouch could make the difference between surviving and not.

I weaved the pouches onto my pack and carried them for over a month and they survived with style! Both pouches stayed attached after endless tossing and dragging into and out of my truck, getting climbed on by children and even used on multiple occasions as a point of contact for the above mentioned dragging!

I really like both pouches and from the EDC/Survival/Prepper standpoint, they are a must have. The Twins, as I loving call them, appear to have migrated onto my Gunfighter belt where they seem to be at home…for now!

Click here for more information on the Admin Pouch…

And click here for more info on the Dump Pouch…

Tim grew up in Colorado, “My grandparents owned a full working farm. I would consider them the first preppers I knew, but to them, they were just self-sufficient people that got up at 4 in the morning and feed the chickens.” His father was a disabled Air Force veteran and because of that he and Tim got to spend a lot of time hunting, fishing and horseback riding. From the sound of his voice, I could tell that Tim had a strong bond with his father and that he played a big role in his life. Tim’s mother was an entrepreneur with her own business and all of this made a huge impression on him. “Living with my dad was like an instructor and recruiter all in one!…It was one of those, ‘So when you joining? What are you doing?’ What I did was I went right out of high school and into the service…Once I was there I volunteered and tried out for the Para Rescue Team in the Air Force.”

After making the team, Tim changed course and went into air traffic control and finished out his time in the Air Force in Florida. Getting out of the service, Tim decided to start his bucket list. “I did everything I thought I ever wanted to do…” He became a ski instructor in Vale, traveled through Europe and started working in the fitness industry and became a national sales director. “I got tired of doing that and wound up picking up a camera and became a fashion photographer…I thought that would be a really cool job!” It quickly came to an end when he met his wife and business partner. It would seem that marriage and taking pictures of beautiful women other than your wife doesn’t go hand in hand!

They went on to start a successful marketing firm. “When 9/11 hit we started to shift gears…and say where do we want to go that doesn’t require me to jump on  a plane and head to the east coast every three days. We started looking at the trends and they started to go to the internet…” As the economy began to slow down they made the decision that they had made a lot of money for other people and now it was their turn. After determining that only three things are in demand in a tough economy or social break down…gold, survival supplies and alcohol…they got involved in all three!

As for prepping, “I don’t have that normalcy bias that most people have…I can go out there and share with people and get them to say you don’t have to be an extremist but for God’s sake, at least have the minimals.” A lot of it is self education and be willing to take the time to read, attend seminars and classes. “The reason we opened the store was to be able to sit down and chat with people and to help mentor them in what they need to do…having stuff doesn’t make you self reliant…” Tim place quite a bit of emphasis on education and getting as much of it as you can. But, beyond that “The will to survive is the most important thing.” Without it all the gear, stockpiles and training you have mean nothing.

One of Tim’s claims to fame is the Crovle. The first Crovel was made from his father’s entrenching tool. When the handle broke off Tim wondered how it could be remade so that it would never happen again…as he was thinking his eye caught an old crowbar he had in his garage. A little cutting and welding later the Crovel was born!… After a successful web launch “NatGeo found us and they said ‘hey do you want to be on the show?’ and I go ‘can I bring my shovel?’ and they go ‘You got it!” The Crovel was thrust to the forefront by Tim’s appearance on the Doomsday Prepper series and it took off like wild fire! Several versions are now available and they are finally getting caught up with all the orders.

In what seems to be typical Ralston Fashion, there are new products on the horizon and when talking to Tim, you get the feeling that the gears are always going. He’s a determined man with his gaze on the future and to that end he told me what’s coming next and to be honest, I was blown away! “We’ve joined [two] companies together to build the ultimate survival retreat…My company will outfit it with survival gear plus food…and they will give you a bomb shelter basically that’s fully functional underground and sleeps 10 to 12, and it sleeps 10 to 12 people up above in an above ground cabin that goes right over the top.” With solar power and off the grid services, these retreats are self sufficient and a ‘turn key’ solution for anyone looking to have a secure and fully stocked bug-out location, all for less than $100k!

Another new product is the Tim Ralston edition ROKON. For those of you that don’t know, the ROKON is an all wheel drive motorcycle that floats! Endorsed by Tim Ralston, the ROKON takes on all forms of terrain and obstacles giving you a reliable and capable form of transportation. Click here for the Youtube video of Tim using his…

Then there is the X Caliber. This is one of the best ideas I have seen in a long time and will really change the way shotguns are thought of and used. I could go on and on about this product but I think I’ll let Tim take it from here! Click here for a video on what the Xcaliber is…

You can see more of Gear Up’s products and services by following this link…