Ohhh Rob. My God! This is about the 5th time you've posted this pic, and I can no longer hold back on commenting on it. This is going to be all at your expense, Rob. :elkgrin: Fasten your seat belts and let's boogie! :smiley_drive:
See, this is what happens when you pack the truck up as if you were going on a week long picnic at your Aunt Mae's. Given the selection and assortment of items you've got here, there's no way in hell you're going to fit all of it into drawers. Not unless you construct a single drawer that's the size of the cargo hold. Maybe that's your point? Maybe that's what you bought the trailer for. I don't know, but based on this one photograph let's try to help you out a little.
- entropy: respect entropy. If you can see it outside of a cover, a case, or a storage container box then it does not belong. Boxes can be tied down; free ranging items cannot. Check out the kids boot about to fall out. What's going to happen when you get to rainy, muddy, miserable camp and your kid can't find their other boot? Do not under estimate the emotional scarring that can be bestowed upon Unhappy Campers! Do not ruin this activity for your grand children.
- is that luggage I spy? Are you on the way to an airport? I count two red pieces of luggage that clearly appear to be matched. Each member of the family should get a compression sack for their clothes. Those scrunch down to impressively small sizes. "No, dear, we don't worry about wrinkled clothing, because it's folded before it's compressed." Neat-o! And those sacks can then be tossed up in the well of the cargo glass to fill the void between cases or boxes. You could free up half the space in here I think with that alone.
- Is that a plastic garbage bag full of yet more clothing and blankets or something? A larger compression sack can be used for coats, pillows, and perhaps a blanket to use around the camp fire. Check out therm-a-rest compression pillows.
- I don't see a garbage sack. This leads me to believe this photograph is was not taken post camp. Get one of the water proof river sacks and line it with a trash bag. Don't plan to fill it. Look at your food items - if they're all packaged see if you can re-package them inside of washable tupper-ware containers. If it's going to need thrown away re-pack it.
- bags suck. they take up a lot of space. If it's not a compression sack or a dry sack it does not belong. you can put smaller compression sacks inside of a larger dry sack and lash it to the factory roof bars. not the most photogenic thing, but it works. Make everything fit in in hard sided cases that can be stacked. If it won't fit in the case leave it at home.
- it's not Christmas, so nothing should be carried around inside of a huge, space hungry cardboard box. Was this a mystery award of some kind? maybe a Thanksgiving ham. I don't know what it is, but I doubt you need the contents! Once that cardboard gets wet, it'll be useless. Now you've got a huge Thanksgiving ham bouncing around in the cargo hold. Not good. Think of the children. And the ham.
- open plastic tubs full of grub gear. R U forlz? Plastic container boxes are about $8 a piece at your favorite hardware store and are stackable. why is your crap falling out of a tipped over tub stuffed in between stacks of other junk? what good is this tub doing with no lid? none. It's only adding ill will to the Sea of Acrimony that is the back of your truck. You don't need a drawer to clean this up. think about it.
- spares? tools? I assume it's under the mountain of housewares gleaned from the shelves of a Big 5 equivalent. Ohhh - I get it?! You can get
a drawer system so that the Mayun Products are nicely organized while the rest of the crap can be tossed back up top just like before. Don't let this happen ... nothing changes aside from the shame being that much more unbearable, due to the irony of having organized recovery gear and tools, while inappropriate-everything-else is stacked on top of it, unsecured, and as much of a candidate for entropy fodder as it was before!
- those chairs came with bags. find them. lash them together and store upright in a row, using them to pad your storage boxes. I've carried up to 4 of these things around. No shame in it - they're good chairs and inexpensive, but they don't have to be tacked on top of everything like this. You're giving us organized Big 5 glampers a bad name. Seriously!
I find it humorous that you've stashed them horizontally as the first thing to grab when opening the door. It says to me - "As soon as I get to camp, I'm going to break out these chairs and sit down and stare at the mountain of pain that awaits me while sipping a beer, pondering this mess and wondering how many hours it will be before I'm able to feed my starving, cranky children. I am doomed! Ohhh the agony. Has my wife stormed away to a lonely peak yet to hide her shame? `guys? Can I get another beer? I'll trade ya one of my hot ones after I dig it out of the back. Have you seen my wife? Where's Fred?' "
As a Big 5 explosion camper myself, I can tell you the answer to this one: Fred's over showing off his new Pelican cases and feeding his kids as if it weren't any big deal at all, while also loaning your wife a cold beer and reassuring her that it's not a big deal that your kid is sitting down to dinner with his own. And it's only been about 20 minutes after pulling in. Fred's wife, Susan, is consoling your wife that it's not that embarrassing since she's not over there with you to dig through things. Your wife is then watching Susan watch Fred, staring up into the orange sky and being momentarily taken aback with the macho image of her husband standing on top of the truck's floor-lined roof rack to toss down a bundle of firewood while describing the view. Fred glances over to his sad friend, Rob, and feels compelled to say something. "He'll get it figured out, don't worry. Isn't that a nice sunset? My God, I love it out here."
Meanwhile, you're just beginning to screw with the tent, because it's going to be dark soon, and you know there's no way in hell you can set it up after that happens. Some time around 10 p.m. you've got dinner ready, but everyone else is fed and having a grand ol' time around the camp fire roasting the marsh mellows that your kids found in the food bin and ran off with. Drunk at this point, you're wondering what to do with the excess food, while speaking in slurred speech with Fred about your custom bumper and how much it weighs and your decisions to build vs. buy.
How do I know all of this to be true?
- Cap'n `Big 5' Ike, welder equipped, over 'n out. :ylsmoke:
You looking into getting a nice big "battle wagon" huh?
