As a woman who has travelled alone extensively for decades, the most important tool I ever owned was knowledge.
Most repairs are beyond my physical abilities but the ability to understand what was going wrong, why and what it would take to fix it served me better than anything else.
Yes, when I owned a 35' RV I did my own oil changes. I was disgusted to find that while it was the same engine in the RV as in a Ford P/U, used the same filter and quarts of oil, it would cost me 3 to 4 times the price simply because it was in an RV. Heck I could even almost sit up under there, it was a whole lot easier than getting under the van to do it.
That aside, knowing whether something was an emergency that required pulling over RIGHT NOW, could be driven carefully to the first town or could be dealt with at my destination provided me with more capability than any set of tools.
It also became of major importance when dealing with mechanics who were not above trying to take advantage of - (take your pick) - a female, a blonde, an out-of-towner, an old lady....sigh!
I have horror stories to tell of some of my encounters.
Rather than trying to accumulate a whole bunch of tools, I'd accumulate knowledge.
