Where does everyone store all there gear when going on a trip? Roof rack bags, in car, trailers, et

[RobCrick Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close RobCrick]

Hi all,

I am just wondering how everyone stores all there gear on or in their Prados when they go away??

I am wanting to get away without a trailer, and struggling to get everything to fit....

Whats everyones tips for getting all the gear to fit??

Also, it appears that the sleeping gear (sleeping bags, pillows, mattresses, etc) take up most of the room. What gear do you all use? Is there particular brands, or products that use less space??

Particularly what about mattresses?? I have borrowed a queen size oztrail self inflatable mattress from my oldies, and it is freakin huge!!!

I'm also seriously contemplating a set of drawers in the back. That appears like it may only make the challenge harder...

Anyway, just hoping for some words of wisdom

Rob

[mjrandom Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close mjrandom]

Sorry, can't help we have a roof rack AND a trailer. Inside the car stays pretty empty!

[RobCrick Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close RobCrick]

Sorry, can't help we have a roof rack AND a trailer. Inside the car stays pretty empty!

Thanks, i'm expecting that may be a common answer (roof rack and trailer).

I am trying to avoid trailer, but it is not looking likely...

Cheers

[Ozpat Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ozpat]

When the son and I go camping the Prado is jam packed from the roof rack to the back seats to the rear including drawers. There's no room even for the missus. Takes me 2 hours to pack it up. Getting too long in the tooth for that which is why I've ordered a camper trailer.

Cheers Jim.

[rogjil Find all posts View Profile Close rogjil]

Hi Rob

Tent, chairs, tables, tarp, poles, webber, gas bottle all go on the Rhino Platform on the roof. All cooking, eating equipment, plus any food in tins or bottle goes in the drawer as well as any tools or fishing stuff. Excess food goes in containers above the drawers, as well as stuff like buckets, clothes and other stuff. All sleeping stuff goes on the 2/3 rds of the back seat not taken up by our 8 year old daughter.

We are always looking at what we can leave behind next time to try and keep gear to a minimum, does not always work.

We both use Exped Mega mats, the most comfortable self inflating we have ever used. In winter we use sleeping bags, that end up fairly small, summer we just take normal sheets. Tent is a Kodiak 10x14, does not have a lot of poles. We are always on the lookout for gear that folds up smaller.

Here is what our car looked like loaded up for 3 weeks at Fraser just before Christmas


Regards Roger

P.S. The only trailer I would ever consider towing is one with a boat on it.

[BlakMoth Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close BlakMoth]

We have a camper trailer for longer trips so only have the fridges in the boot and swags on the roof for short stays


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[r4ndll Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close r4ndll]

Ha ha yeah. Family of 5 and I'm in the throes of getting a trailer/camper trailer to fit all the gear. Kids are small so the cabin footwells get used a lot & the cargo barrier behind their heads holds the pillows/sleeping bags with bungee cords. Kids use pillows as tables, and wife has hers in front for sleeping.

For our recent syd- fraser trip
Oztent and tagalong on roof with camp chairs in rhino basket, can also fit solar panels in there if required. Maxtrax and shovel on craigm's traxrax
Drifta Drawers in the back. One with all cooking gear (using two butane cookers ). One with all food for a week. Drawers have a sneaky pull out table too.

One Tuff box in the back for other camping gear (extension cords, pegs, spare butane canisters etc)

We have a Coleman blow up mattress and the 5&7 year old sleep on thermarest style self inflating mattresses. 11mth old has an instant portacot thing. We've ditched the blow up and just bought two Dune 4wd mattresses which will stuff everything up packing wise. These get jammed into spare gaps. We have stretcher beds for the kids but only take them on short trips.

We have oztrail cotton sleeping bags. And for summer I just use my silk sleeping bag liner from my hiking days. Squashes to the size of a beer can and adds 2-5degrees C

Limit everyone to medium sized canvas duffle bag for clothes which sit on top of everything.

One 10L and one 20L Jerry of water in the back as well. We've not done any remote areas that need more yet.

This is the only photo I have of it. Imagine the fridge with two bags on top, and sleeping mats on the yellow box lid. Blow up mattress and some other stuff stuffed to the left of the fridge. Gap above right hand drawer holds the table

Only issue with this is that to get the fridge out on the slide you have to take two bags out from on top of it every time. Just visible on the roof in the photo.

[BlakMoth Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close BlakMoth]

Sounds like you're driving a Tardis there Randall. Not a Prado. How the hell does all that fit?


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[r4ndll Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close r4ndll]

Sounds like you're driving a Tardis there Randall. Not a Prado. How the hell does all that fit?


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I'm frikkin awesome at Tetris

But seriously, I used to hike a lot and have got quite anal about packing, so nothing that isnt required is packed.

[Bushbasher Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Bushbasher]

Just the missus and me so personal bags and some sleeping gear go in the car. I have previously removed the middle row seats completely for some of our bigger trips. Food and cooking gear is in the trailer. 2 x Engels in the back on Outback drawers system. Draws full of tools, spares and recovery gear. Roof rack carry's 2nd spare and maxtrax. I often go out bush alone and will throw swag on roof rack and everything else inside the car utilizing either the awning or Oztent for additional shelter. Drawers are good for keeping gear properly stored and out the way until needed. You need to be comfy when out bush but think about what you need and what is luxury. Consult with SWMBO as her thoughts will probably differ from yours about the necessities when out touring. Have a system for what goes where and stick to it so things are easily found. For example, I've buried spare belts and filters under the side covers on the drawers as they probably won't be needed. Things like torches and gloves are readily available in door pockets. Recovery gear goes in the left drawer as sometimes I can't get the back door fully open when towing the camper.

[JoshF Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close JoshF]

ditch the queen sized mat and get two singles, they are much easier to manage and take up alot less room. You can put them next too each other if you need it.

Friend of mine does both 4WD and motorbike touring and loves his Exped mat. The one he has built in hand pumps to inflate and is lined for very cold insulation and is very quality (but a little expensive compare to other options)

http://www.exped.com/usa/en

[groeschel Member Find all posts View Profile Close groeschel]

Hi all,

I am just wondering how everyone stores all there gear on or in their Prados when they go away??

I am wanting to get away without a trailer, and struggling to get everything to fit....

Whats everyones tips for getting all the gear to fit??

Also, it appears that the sleeping gear (sleeping bags, pillows, mattresses, etc) take up most of the room. What gear do you all use? Is there particular brands, or products that use less space??

Particularly what about mattresses?? I have borrowed a queen size oztrail self inflatable mattress from my oldies, and it is freakin huge!!!

I'm also seriously contemplating a set of drawers in the back. That appears like it may only make the challenge harder...

Anyway, just hoping for some words of wisdom

Rob

My personal opinion: if you need a roof rack you carry too much stuff (no offence to somebody who uses one).

But personal experience of friends with lost roof racks (including solid big brand names), the additional height and higher center of gravity PLUS me than having the honour of getting everything up and down was limiting me to the inside of the car only.
Similar goes for trailers as it was limiting my options where to get to, was adding additional complexity and weight.

And hey, we managed with two kids, full camping gear, fridge, 40 litres of Jerry cans, 50 litres of water etc to cross the Simpson in a Prado 95 without roof rack or trailer.

What helped was:
- down feather sleeping bags which compress much better than hollow fibre (but you have to make sure they don't get damp otherwise they loose a lot of insulation capabilities)
- Small rest-therm self-inflating mattresses
-A drawer system in the back with fridge slide and cargo barrier
- Taking out the smaller part of the back seat for long range trip for additional storage box when the kids where little
- Nylon tent as they are smaller and lighter than canvas (it is said that canvas last longer but my oldest nylon tent is now close to 30 years, next younger is 20 years, 10 years and two years, I still use all of them depending on the situation)

nowadays we use (only two of us) :
-Black Wolf Turbo 240 (nylon not canvas)
-Leave all the back seats in
-Expedite sleeping mats ( larger but we need only two)
-Still same drawer system which moved from the 95 to the 120
-Larger hollow fibre sleeping bags which require more space but more resilient in case they get a bit wet
-65 liter flexitank between drawer system and side trim

Still no need for a roof rack even for the Simpson / Madigan line we did last September ;-)

Hope that helps

Cheers
Mike

[andoland Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close andoland]

We have 2 kids (4 ppl in the car in total) and do remote trips where we're away from civilization for 3 weeks at at time so need to carry 3 weeks of provisions. We have a roof rack and no trailer.

I'll start by saying that most people take too much stuff camping, use fridges that are bigger than necessary and don't use the space in the vehicle as efficiently as they could. This is okay if you have plenty of space but if you’re trying to squeeze a family in without taking a trailer then you need to use your space very effectively.
The other key is to be very organised – have a place for everything and everything in its place. Don’t just jam things in anywhere – work out how to pack your vehicle well and do it the same each time. You’ll tweak things here and there as you get better.

We have a set of black widow side by side drawers and cargo barrier. I have a GX Prado so don't have the rear seats to worry about but the support rails that the black widow drawers sit on were about 25mm higher than they needed to be (i.e. making the floor at the top of the drawers 25mm high than it needed to be) so I took the support rails to a workshop and got them to make up new ones that were 25mm lower height so I gained 25mm of luggage space in the rear. I don't put the screws in the forward wing panels of my drawers so we can access all of the vacant space under there. We use this space to put food/drinks that we don't need to access often, e.g. only once a week.

One of our drawers contains all of our cooking equipment, cups, places and utensils. We take two of those little $20 gas stoves. We only take enough plates, cups, knives and forks for the four of us, i.e. 4 of each plus other cooking utensils, although we probably take a bit more cutlery than that.
The other drawer is completely filled with food. One key thing with food is not to take packaging that you don’t need. E.g. cereal boxes contain a lot of air so put the cereal in a smaller container or cut down the box. If you plan on doing some baking and need a couple of cups of flour then just measure it out into zip-lock bags or other small container at home, don’t take the whole 1 or 2kg packet of flour.

We have a 50 litre Waeco on a fridge slide. I made the fridge slide myself so as to take up a little room as possible. Many fridge slides are made to fit a variety of fridge sizes so if yours is at the smaller size then the fridge slide leaves a lot of waste space at the sides and at the front/back. I have a couple of mesh panels either side of the fridge that support a mesh shelf above the fridge. Again this is designed so that the shelf is only about 20mm above the fridge so no space is wasted. There is some space behind the fridge when it is in place (ie. not slid out), this is difficult to access but on long trips I store stiff behind there, e.g. toilet paper rolls, long life milk.

I see that heaps of people have 80 or 100 litre fridges and some take a fridge and a freezer but this really isn’t necessary (once again, it’s fine if you do have the room but I can’t get my head around have to tow a trailer to fit stuff in just so you can have big fridge/freezers). We get away with a 50 litre fridge. We can fit 3 weeks worth of meat in the bottom which we cryovac and then freeze to the shape of the fridge so no room is wasted. We put a piece of corflute over the top and then put cold food on top and run it as a fridge not freezer. We only have a few drinks each in the fridge at any time and as we remove one put another one in.
Beside the fridge on top of the drawers I have a 55 litre water tank that sits hard up against the cargo barrier. This is custom made to suit the space but you can get off the shelf plastic ones that are designed for this as well. In the space between the fridge, water tank and RHS of the car I have a couple of plastic crates for long trips. One contains food and the other has bits and pieces like a frypan, collapsible bucket, etc.. Other things that go in this space are the camp oven and toiletries bag, first aid kist and there’s usually room for a few other bits and pieces.

We only take a very small table (50cm x 50cm max) or no table at all. We have a table that folds down off the back door.

On the LHS of the fridge there is a narrow space in which I can fit a couple of camping chairs – these are basic chairs not the $100 deluxe-come-with-a-beer-holder-and-side-table-type. I also have another small shelf about 20cm down from the roof here that we put loaves of bread, fruit and other soft items on.
On the full width shelf above the fridge we have a couple of canvas bags that hold our clothes. Again we don’t take a lot of clothes. We pack as many jocks and socks as we can, and then usually 3 shirts, 3 shorts, a couple of long sleeve shirts and 2-3 long pants each (depends where and when you are going of course). We fit clothing for our family of 4 in these two bags. We can usually fit another chair up on this shelf and maybe one or two other small items. Above the jack compartment there is another little compartment which we normally cram with toilet paper and baby wipes.

I have taken the Toyota toolkit off the back door and we have a rectangular, collapsible washing up tub that fits perfectly in this spot. In the cavity on the RHS we put pineoclean wipes and bits and pieces. We have a small basket that suction caps onto the back window which contains dish cloths, washing up detergent, hand sanitiser, pot scrubber, suncream, etc. This is only about 10cm x 20cm.

We string up a small mesh net above the back seats and put pillows and jumpers in that, i.e. light gear only. We have a couple of canvas bags made up that we cable tie to the cargo barrier above the back of the back seats (head rests come off because our kids are small enough not to need them) and these normally have our driza bones in them or other wet weather gear.

We are not big drinkers so don’t take massive amounts of booze but we put a couple of cartons of cans in the middle of the back seat.
My air compressor is mounted behind the second row seats, on the front face of the drawers and I put the rest of my recovery gear in the cavity between the drawers and the rear seat.

We have a MSA roof bag and in it goes:
• Swags for the kids
• Tent for me and wifey (black wolf turbo 300)
• Self inflating matts, sleeping bags/sheets, etc, for me and wifey
• Shower tent and portable shower if we take one
• Tarps/shade cloth for tent and swags to go on
• Spare tyre
• Extra food if necessary
• Tool box
• Small plastic crate/box with spares, oil, etc.

We sometimes take a gazebo for shade and this goes at the front of the roof rack. On long, remote trips this doesn’t come along and that space is normally taken up by 1-3 jerry cans, normally 1 of water and the rest diesel if required.

I realise what we do is at the extreme end of things but we do some long trips (CSR, Madigan Line, etc) and I never want to tow a trailer. We don’t take some of the luxuries that we see other people take but we eat very well on our trips and never feel like we’re missing anything. Taking less stuff also means there is less to unpack at camp and re-pack when you leave and this is much less stressful in my book.

I think I’ve covered most things, hope this helps.

Groeschel (Mike) you must truly be a packing guru if you can do that with no roof rack

[Guest Close Guest]

There's 6 of us. Guess we won't be doing any remote trips unless I start using up the space between the chassis.

[andoland Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close andoland]

Oh, and we've had various canvas bags custom made by Infront Camping to fit in very specific places, such as clothes bags, toiletries, wet weather gear. They will make anything you want and they are cheap (although it's probably been 5 years since we've had them make anything for us).