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

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

Yeah amts I reckon 4 is about the max you can comfortably do in the Prado for long trips without a trailer. The next step from there is a dual cab ute with custom canopy or a 200 series. I have a mate who has done some of these trips with 6 people in a GU patrol with no trailer.

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I was considering a 105 6 seater at one stage but it didn't look very comfy.

I have removed my 40 split 2nd row seat and installed the fridge there using the Lifestyle rack mount. There is room above the fridge for a crate that can be tied down. The 2 oldest sits in the 2nd row next to the fridge.

The 2 youngest sits in the 3rd row and there is room for soft items next to them, directly behind the fridge.

I also have a towbar attached basket which could take a few things. Haven't used this basket on corrugated roads yet but fine for the highway. There's also the rear tyre "rubbish" bag.

Up top is the Pioneer Platform rack. Lots of stuff can go up there but it takes a toll on fuel economy. I use the same amount of fuel with a couple of crates on the roof vs towing a trailer with 8 of the same crates and a large kayak.

[groeschel Member Find all posts View Profile Close groeschel]

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

Well, my wife even called me pedantic when packing :-)
But I still managed to get the car close to 3tons for the Madigan

And I agree, limiting to minimum is the trick.
If in doubt leave it at home to test eg on weekend trip and and it is amazing how rarely you really miss it

And funny, I was never good at playing Tetris

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

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).

I love the idea of getting canvas bags made for specific purposes, that suit the available space. Thanks

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

Very similar to us Andoland- Good call on the food. we remove everything from the packaging we can and use ziplock bags for flour, cereal etc. Milk is UHT and only goes in the fridge when opened. We've only got a 55litre fridge and it seems to do us for about a week. When we have beer we keep 6 cold and add a new one as we take a cold one out

We keep our cooking utensils using a snow peak camping set that all fits inside itself like a Russian doll. Can be used on the fire too. 4 plates/4 bowls/4 mugs that double as wine glasses for the casks of wine. Saves carting the beer around.

Granted most of our trips so far are to and from an area for a week or too so we don't have to be self sufficient for too long (tool kits/spares) Water would be our biggest issue on long remote trips. 5 people use a lot.

Since the 2" lift went in the climbing on and off the vehicle to load and unload gets wearing when touring. Especially the oztent. I'm thinking of getting a couple of those Malamoo pop up tents for touring. Up in 2.5 seconds, pack flat to 79cm diameter. 1.8 hours to fold back up - http://www.oztent.com.au/malamoorange/malamoo-classic

[ozwapet2 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close ozwapet2]

If you are going to load the car a lot would be worth considering a suspension upgrade.

We did a 10 week trip around half Australia a few years ago, and only took the Prado, and we camped for most of that.
I took out the back seats totally because there was only two of us. Those back seats take a lot of room and weigh a lot. We kept all out clothes and stuff there.
We had a cargo barrier and storage system and kitchen set up at the very back with fridge slide etc, and also a roof rack for the tent, self inflating mattresses etc.
We got rid of all gas appliances and used a couple of small dual fuel stoves. Gas cylinders take a lot of room and are difficult to store.

Use soft packaging rather than hard where possible, save all those soft cooler bags and freebies you get given, they are great.

Remember you can only load the roof with about 100kg maximum even with the heavy duty roofracks.

Great thing about the Prado is the twin fuel tanks which means you don't need to carry jerry cans for fuel.

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

1.8 hrs to fold up a Malamoo ha ha sounds about right


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And get smacked in the chin 2 dozen times in the process of folding it up.

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

Thanks Roger! I love the look of the Exped Mega mats. Are they durable also??

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
[ATTACH=CONFIG]18774[/ATTACH]

Regards Roger

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

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

Sounds nice and simple BlakMoth! love it.

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

Thansk r4ndll for the detailed reply. My kids are similiar age to yours for the footwells will get a workout with gear!!

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

Thanks bushbasher. like the idea of removing the seats. cant do that with kids, but ill keep in mind for future.

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

Yeah I am loving the look of the exped! look like they are the goods.

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

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

Thanks Andoland, I like the idea of the flexitank. Cheers

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

Hi Mike, Thanks heaps for your detailed reply!! I'm gonna print this out and keep it!! Rob

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