What size jerry can actually makes sense for keeping in the trunk as backup fuel
been meaning to ask this for a while since i keep going back and forth on it every time i think about actually buying one. i drive out to some pretty remote areas on weekends for hiking and camping trips, and more than once i've found myself watching the fuel gauge drop lower than i'd like with genuinely no gas station in sight for a while, which is obviously not a great feeling when you're out somewhere with barely any signal either. a friend who does a lot more off roading than me said i should just keep a jerry can in the trunk as a safety backup for exactly these situations, which sounds like common sense now that he said it, but when i actually started looking into it i realized i have no idea what size actually makes sense for casual use like mine versus someone doing serious overlanding trips who probably needs way more backup fuel than i would. too small and it barely helps in an actual emergency, too big and it's just taking up trunk space and adding unnecessary weight for trips where i'll probably never even need to use it. he personally runs a larger one since his trips are longer and more remote, but he agreed that might be overkill for someone like me who's mostly just doing day trips or overnight camping rather than multi day desert crossings or anything that intense. i ended up browsing through a supplier site that had a decent range of sizes and material options, plastic versus metal being another thing i hadn't even considered until i started reading more, apparently metal ones are more durable long term but plastic tends to be lighter and cheaper if you're just wanting something for occasional backup use rather than constant regular use. for anyone who actually keeps one of these in their car regularly, what size ended up being the right balance for you, and did you go with metal or plastic in the end, because right now i feel like i'm just guessing between what feels reasonable and what might actually be overkill for how often i'd realistically need to use it in the first place.