All of that camping gear...

[PlacidWaters]

This is why I love to motorcycle camp and bikepack. When I bikepack, I take 20 pounds of gear...max...and can have a full camp pitched in under 15 minutes and dinner ready in 25. When we car camp...er...excuse me...overland, I often take way more stuff, but still keep it very simple. Again, camp is set up in 30 minutes, packed in 45 at most.

Yes, this is what I don't understand. I'm able to pack everything I need for four days on the trail in a 55-liter backpack, but when it comes to car camping, it feels like I "need" literally 10 times more stuff. And yet when I'm backpacking I'm much more aware of my surroundings and more involved in the environment, compared to the time spent "dealing with stuff" while car camping.

 

[WrongWay]

I too have evolved in my camping regarding "stuff". Years ago it was all me and my buddy could do to fit all our gear into my full-size truck bed for 3 days of primitive camping and trout fishing. I finally saw the light and have paired items down enough for a shallow Rubbermaid box for my kitchen, then I just throw in the tent, sleep pad, stove, etc and hit the road. I keep very detailed lists in an app called Evernote. I have a summer camping list, a winter camping list, food list, camp box list, nights spent outside list...well you get the picture. When I am ready to go I just quickly go down the list. If I don't need something it gets checked off and I don't look at that item again while packing. When my trip is done, I uncheck all the boxes and its ready to go the next time. In between trips I check my lists and replace anything that might need replacing in the camp box.

 

[photogdave]

I forgot to mention that last year we started using Mountainsmith Cubes to pack our soft items. They are really efficient for organizing and stowing stuff, and keeping certain items always packed and ready to go. We each get one cube for clothes, a third cube always has either summer stuff - beach towels, sandals, swimsuits etc, or winter items. The fourth cube holds bedding and we chuck our dirty laundry in there while camping.

http://mountainsmith.com/index.php/modular-hauler-4.html

 

[getpower1]

All good stuff, guys.

I have been reading through all of this the last few days and formulating some ideas.

I think where I am at right now I need to go through the one large rubber made bin that I have tried to designate for "kitchen" things, and simplify it. Growing up, we always had one for kitchen things, and one for dry food that needs to come.

What I'm thinking now is that I need to simplify the kitchen things into what we would need for one trip at a time and stop letting it get over run with a crapload of paper plates and things like that. I should be able to "half" what's in there now. Then for the dry food, I should just leave it in the paper grocery store bags. Seems it'll take up less space like that. At this point, I should theoretically be able to throw some other things in with the kitchen stuff, and go from there. I would like to get a couple of those sportsman trunks and eventually get everything needed to fit into a couple of those, but this should be a decent start so far.

Stove should be able to fit alongside everything else in the truck, and bbq should be able to be taken care of with a bag of charcoal, or some tin foil and the fire pit. Everything else like tent, chairs, and bedding is in soft bags, so it can kind of be tossed in.

What would be really nice for what I do would be two or three large, heavy duty canvas, waterproof bags. They are soft, which would be good because they don't have to be large all of the time like big bins, and I can't think of too much that I have that I am worried about getting thrown around or squished, other than some dry food items. Be nice to find something like that to try. Seems hard to find, or I can't seem to find what I want, anyway.

Thank you for the replies.

 

[GregSplett]

Building a chuck box was huge for me.I to hated digging thrrw action packers.It also became home for the small stuff batteries,bug juice etc.Ditching paper and plastic and dedicating plated and such is huge.I broke down laughing one day when realized that we had twenty pounds of the stuff in a gear closet.Paper plates bowls,plastic cups and utensils.I only use small plates to feed the dogs,the rest is washable.

All of our camping gear is dedicated right down to toilet paper,the toilet too for that matter.Stored in duffels ready to go.I would have to say that unpacking and refreshing everything is more of a chore than packing.But I know I can grab and go.

This list is what I do to remembehttp://www.rei.com/content/dam/documents/pdf/Gear%20Checklists/Printer%20Friendly/checklist_family_camping.pdfr everything.Most are obvios but everyt trip is a little diferant and with this list and notes on the side it is a help.

 

[grogie]

Trailer.

Exactly... A trailer, excluding food and clothing is a great way to always be ready to go. With my expo trailer, I just have to wash the cookware after a trip. Plus with having an RTT on top, it's like a rolling motel. In fact I'm leaving Sunday morning for a trip and I won't bother bringing the trailer home from storage until Saturday afternoon. I just have check the tire pressure and fill the water containers.

 

[WeLikeCamping]

I'm still a big fan of the large storage bins like what you can get at Costco. I can pack each bin as I need it, tarps in one, tents/Throne room in another, bungies/slings/tie-downs/clamps in another, etc. I have five of them packed and ready to go, stacked in the garage. I can load them in my open-bed truck, add water jugs, tables, porta-jon, and I can be rolling in 30 minutes. That is for car-camping. I have a smaller bin that I got at BPS that is used for camping off the quad, with a cooler inside, and room for pocket-rocket stove, Freeze-Dried foods and clothing. I pack a tent, pad and sleeping bag, stuff a tarp behind the seat and I'm off to the wilderness. For me, the key is going through my gear, each of the bins and rearranging/replenishing them when at home so they are all prepped for the next time. I also think about gear that can be used for multi-purpose. For dining, I have steel plates for supporting the paper plates I bring. I can burn the paper in the fire, so I minimize the trash I have to haul out. I will not burn plastic or other toxic materials.

 

[getpower1]

Although a camping trailer would be great, it's not a great option for me. I never gave it much though either because it's very simple...need to tow a boat, or need to tow dirt bikes on a trailer. I have figured a few ways that I could have a setup like that for dirt bike season, however, it never transfers over to the summer season, while using the boat.

Some kind of chuck box idea will eventually be the answer for most of my uses I'm thinking. Also, would like to get away from using paper for plates. I agree it's wasteful and takes up a lot of room when talking about a chuck box idea.

I've seen some great ideas from here. I also like the idea of dedicated storage containers for things. They just don't pack all that well for me. I have been able to organize the kitchen stuff and pull some things that we never used so far. That was good, but I wSnt able to half it like I thought. Should be okay for now. Another camping trip next weekend and I should be able to organize some things while camping and get a good idea of where we are at.