3 Ryobi Tools Every Car Owner Needs In Their Trunk, According To Users

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When it comes to tools used for DIY projects around the house, there are few brands as well-known as Ryobi. The fluorescent green-colored brand has adorned Home Depot store shelves for a quarter of a century, and while Ryobi isn't owned by Home Depot, the two brands are so closely associated with one another that it's a common misconception. In any case, you know what you're getting when you buy Ryobi: drills for light projects, the occasional saw or other power tool, and an array of some truly excellent yard tools. As it turns out, Ryobi also sells tools that you can use to work on your car. 

It's not the brand's wheelhouse, but such tools do exist in Ryobi's lineup. An example is Ryobi's pressure washer foamer, which you may use to avoid the horrors of automatic car washes. Many of these are attachments to existing Ryobi tools, and while they're nice to have, we certainly wouldn't brand Ryobi as a mechanic's tool brand. With that said, there are some tools that Ryobi sells that wouldn't be out of place stashed in the trunk of your car for emergencies. 

There are plenty of items that could be considered useful for cars, especially if some out-of-the-box thinking is involved, like this power supply that can charge stuff on the go. However, those are the kinds of products that you'd use in a once-in-a-lifetime emergency, so instead, below are some tools you may want to keep on you all the time. 

As anyone who has had to change a tire on the side of a freeway in the middle of the night while more than 50 miles away from civilization can tell you, it's kind of awful. Not only is it stressful working on a car on a major thoroughfare, but there are a lot of mistakes you have to avoid making in the process so your wheels don't fall off. Most vehicles come with a jack and lug wrench of some sort, at least if the vehicle comes with its own spare tire. However, the humble impact wrench is both faster and easier. 

For this one, the Ryobi 18V One+ 1/2-inch Impact Wrench is probably the way to go. This little guy can deliver up to 275 ft-lbs of breakaway torque, and since lug nuts for most cars, light trucks, and SUVs require somewhere between 80 and 150 ft-lbs, the tool is strong enough to do the job for you. If that's still too close for you, Ryobi also has a 1/2-inch Impact Wrench with up to 600 ft-lbs of breakaway torque. Pair it with a reasonably good socket set, and you'll be able to get your flat switched out in no time. 

Since flat tires are quite common, having an impact wrench in your car's trunk tool kit is a reasonable use of space, especially if you're already married into Ryobi's One+ 18V ecosystem. All you need to do is remember to swap out the battery every now and then, and you're good to go. 

Most of today's smartphones have a flashlight function, but it doesn't do you a lick of good when you're trying to do something to your car in the middle of the night that requires both your hands. There are plenty of options for this on the market, including some really good rechargeable flashlights. However, flashlights have the same problem in that you have to hold them. Something that can hold itself would be much more useful. As it turns out, Ryobi has something just like that. 

The Ryobi USB Lithium LED Flip Light is just what the doctor ordered for this one. It's a reasonably bright light (500 lumens) that comes with a stand built in, allowing you to set or mount it somewhere. The stand is also magnetic, giving you even more options on where to put it. This leaves your hands free to fiddle with whatever you're trying to find or fix. The main benefit for keeping this in the car is that it's USB rechargeable, which means you don't have to worry about bringing along a battery. Simply plug it into your infotainment system, and it'll be charged and ready to go. 

Ryobi has a few other lights that it sells, including this LED Magnetic Task Light that uses an 18V battery like the other tools on this list. However, for long-term storage in a car tool kit, the USB-rechargeable light will probably work out better, as it'll be easier to store and charge. 

A dead battery can occur for any number of reasons, up to and including user error, like leaving your cabin lights on for too long. Being stranded in the middle of nowhere with only your battery as the culprit is frustrating, and since dead batteries make up around 40% of roadside assistance calls, it's more likely to happen than many other types of breakdowns. In any case, a jump starter is the cure for what ails you, as it'll get your car running so you can go get a new battery. Many of the best jump starters are powered by an outlet, though, which is useless if you're out and about. 

The Ryobi One+ 18V Cordless Jump Starter is a nice thing to keep with you on a road trip. According to Ryobi, this can jump-start a car with up to a 6.0-liter V8 (1,600 peak amps), which covers almost every car on the market these days. It's also fairly efficient, giving you 20 jumps with a 2Ah battery. So, even if your battery isn't the freshest, you'll still get more than you probably need to make it to a service station to buy a new battery. 

It also works in most weather conditions, with a lower limit of -4 degrees Fahrenheit, where it'll still make 800 cold cranking amps. If you don't seriously consider any other tool on the list, this is the one we would personally put in our own cars at the very minimum. 

These products were chosen using several factors. The most important one is whether it would physically make sense to put the tool in your trunk for emergency use. Ryobi has tons of tools, and you could logically argue that many of them could be used for car repairs. However, in an emergency, you don't really need a standard cordless drill or a 40V leaf blower. So, the first pass to reduce the number of products was good old-fashioned common sense. 

From there, we looked at user reviews on places like Home Depot, Ryobi's website, and Reddit. All of the above products scored well from people who actually bought these items, and we found few complaints about them on social sites and user forums. After all, a tool is only good if it actually works, and we certainly didn't want to recommend products that have a history of not functioning properly. Every product that has ever existed has the occasional negative review, but the products above all have largely positive reviews, with at least a 4.0 rating aggregated between Home Depot and Ryobi's websites. 

Since Ryobi isn't a mechanic's brand, the number of tools on the list reduced fairly significantly after applying user review scores and common sense. From there, duplicates were removed. For example, Ryobi has many battery-powered lighting solutions, and you don't really need to hear about all of them in this context. The final list was selected from there.