Alternative to the action packer..

Scott

Scott

Adventurist
Ok, so after some thinking, I want to condense all my kitchen camp stuff into one bin, so I can grab it and go. Of course, I looked at action packer, and they are nice, but then I ran across these husky totes at home depot. They have a 20 gal and 30 gal I would get the 30 qt, and the price point is right at 24.95... any thoughts on it? Looks decent especially for the price.

http://m.homedepot.com/p/Unbranded-30-Gal-Storage-Tote-17200554/204774808

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The thing I like is it offers hinged clasps, so you can either take the lid completely off, or just release 2 on each side, and he ones holding the lid act as a hinge...

If no one has one, I'll have to just go pick one up and review it.
 
I had action packers for a long time. And I learned to hate them.

Why? Because they're deep, and because they have angled sides.

Angled sides are a complete waste of space when you put two or three action packers next to each other.

Deep containers a problem? YUP! They are. You try to put items you use frequently on top, and less frequently used items below, but you're still covering items you will eventually use. Which means what? You need someplace safe to put the stuff on top when you move it to access the stuff on the bottom. It's a constant battle of rearranging things just to get something you're going to use for a couple minutes.

I purposefully made my drawers shallower for this exact reason, it's better, but I STILL find myself shuffling a couple items to get to something on the bottom. But as an example the contents of three small action packers fits into ONE of my drawers, and most items stand in a single place in the drawer (nothing above it or below it) so that I can just pull it out without having to move anything to get to it. A HUGE improvement over the action packers. I still have some, I just use them for purpose items, like my dutch oven stuff, everything for it is in one action packer. A better solution, because they have straight sides (no wasted space) would be the Front Runner Wolf Pack, the South African ammo boxes.

I hope this helps, but might not be what you wanted to hear.
 
Mitch said:
I had action packers for a long time. And I learned to hate them.

Why? Because they're deep, and because they have angled sides.

Angled sides are a complete waste of space when you put two or three action packers next to each other.

Deep containers a problem? YUP! They are. You try to put items you use frequently on top, and less frequently used items below, but you're still covering items you will eventually use. Which means what? You need someplace safe to put the stuff on top when you move it to access the stuff on the bottom. It's a constant battle of rearranging things just to get something you're going to use for a couple minutes.

I purposefully made my drawers shallower for this exact reason, it's better, but I STILL find myself shuffling a couple items to get to something on the bottom. But as an example the contents of three small action packers fits into ONE of my drawers, and most items stand in a single place in the drawer (nothing above it or below it) so that I can just pull it out without having to move anything to get to it. A HUGE improvement over the action packers. I still have some, I just use them for purpose items, like my dutch oven stuff, everything for it is in one action packer. A better solution, because they have straight sides (no wasted space) would be the Front Runner Wolf Pack, the South African ammo boxes.

I hope this helps, but might not be what you wanted to hear.
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Mitch, this kinda thing is exactly what I wanted to hear. My reasoning behind the action packer is, because as you know, I have a truck bed tent that takes up my truck bed when I'm camping, and most of my camping gear sits in the back seat area. The goal is to condense all my kitchen gear into one box if possible. I love the front runner hard boxes, and I won a frontrunner soft box at the t4t raffle, but I am not sure either these will fit all my kitchen gear in one container. That being said, I'm always open to suggestions. I've considered one slide out drawer that would mount in my back seat area and slide out through either the passenger or driver side rear door. The downside to that is, we are a family of 3, hopefully 4 soon, so back seat is a necessity for if and when we all go out together.
 
I bought one of these:
http://www.frontierplay.com/KitchenDryBox

It's huge, buts holds all my kitchen gear plus some. Water proof and more importantly for me, dust proof (open truck bed). Watch some of the videos. They beat the ever loving snot out of the boxes. Fits perfectly on my tailgate if I don't want to use the legs.

Here it is at T4T event at Camp Pendleton:

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Why have I never seen that setup Stuart? We've gotten together enough times you'd think is have seen it. I'll have to check it out at the next event. Looks like a cool product!
 
How many people are you cooking for? For 1 or 2, I can keep a complete kitchen including a single burner stove in a normal action packer. I don't like that the one picture above has 4 claspes. I always remove the lid to use for food prep. The action packers have a flat lid with grooves. Wow, I put way too much thought into that...
 
i have action packers now, and i have to agree with mitch on all the same complaints. they work ok, but an upgrade to the wolf packs is in the distant future.
 
Al Swope said:
How many people are you cooking for? For 1 or 2, I can keep a complete kitchen including a single burner stove in a normal action packer. I don't like that the one picture above has 4 claspes. I always remove the lid to use for food prep. The action packers have a flat lid with grooves. Wow, I put way too much thought into that...
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Most of the time I cook for just me, bit in the near future, I'll be cooking for 3. This is the kind of feedback I am looking for. What I have in my kitchen setup is a cadac safari chef grill, a frontrunner flat pack kitchen wear set, place settings for 3, and a coleman family cook set that consists of 3 pots/pans that fit inside of each other.
 
I am currently using action packers. They work, but as Mitch stated, you get a lot of wasted space, and you constantly repack. I have been looking at a combination of wolf / cub pack boxes from Frontrunner, but have not decided on anything yet
 
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I took the el-cheapo route and replaced my deep containers with semi clear plastic ones like you put shoes or sweaters in that fit under a bed about 6" deep. I have fought the "whatever I want has migrated to the bottom" war and lost. They come in multiple sizes, contents are pretty visible. They stack if needed as well. If one grenades a simple trip to Lowes or Wally world (even on the road) and I'm rolling.
 
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Woody, I think 6" deep is probably a good depth. Not too shallow, allowing storage of decent sized items, but not so deep that items get covered.
 
As many have pointed out, action packers are not well suited for gear storage when you need to access items frequently. Since winning one of these at the Appalachian Rendezvous, I have stored a lot of kitchen gear and supplies in it and will be adding another. They are relatively sturdy but not weather proof, so transporting one in the back of a open truck bed is not going to be a viable solution. The Front Runner Flatpack does work well in the back of the Jeep as I can secure it easily with a simple cam style strap.

-Andy
 
Phulcrum said:
i have action packers now, and i have to agree with mitch on all the same complaints. they work ok, but an upgrade to the wolf packs is in the distant future.[/QUOTE

How much weight can they handle, can a fat tall lanky goofy lurch-like being like me sit on one without breaking the lid?
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Grumps said:
As many have pointed out, action packers are not well suited for gear storage when you need to access items frequently. Since winning one of these at the Appalachian Rendezvous, I have stored a lot of kitchen gear and supplies in it and will be adding another. They are relatively sturdy but not weather proof, so transporting one in the back of a open truck bed is not going to be a viable solution. The Front Runner Flatpack does work well in the back of the Jeep as I can secure it easily with a simple cam style strap.

-Andy
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Andy, I too won a flat pack from frontrunner at the toys for tots event last weekend. I was thinking i could fit some of my gear in there, but I know it's not all going to fit. Perhaps 2 of them would fit all my gear....
 
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At least with the Front Runners you get straight sides and stackability. Try stacking two action packers in the back of a moving vehicle.
 
woody said:
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I took the el-cheapo route and replaced my deep containers with semi clear plastic ones like you put shoes or sweaters in that fit under a bed about 6" deep. I have fought the "whatever I want has migrated to the bottom" war and lost. They come in multiple sizes, contents are pretty visible. They stack if needed as well. If one grenades a simple trip to Lowes or Wally world (even on the road) and I'm rolling.
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I did this too. One for kitchen, one for clothes and one for toys. Since the back of the E has clamshell doors I can drop down the tailgate and pull out whichever box I want onto the tailgate and move it to the top of the pile once I have what I need. I also pack most of the food into two large shoe boxes that fit into the box so in bear country I only have to move the shoe boxes and the cooler into the bear box. Its kind of a poor woman's drawer system that only works because of the type of car I have. The boxes sit right up against the back seats and they have nowhere to go, otherwise they might be too slippery.
 
100acrehuphalump said:
Phulcrum said:
i have action packers now, and i have to agree with mitch on all the same complaints. they work ok, but an upgrade to the wolf packs is in the distant future.[/QUOTE

How much weight can they handle, can a fat tall lanky goofy lurch-like being like me sit on one without breaking the lid?
Click to expand...
i would have to guess they would not hold up well to being sat on. they arent very strong that way.
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