Organizing the Boot (Post #543) 9/18/2015

The boot of the Big White Bus is a mishmash of bags and lose gear. You can see from this picture that I carry around quite a bit of kit.

Quite a bit of kit.

In no particular order, mostly because there isn’t really any order in the rear of the vehicle right now, you may find…

  • Jumper cables
  • Fluids and grease
  • Various bits of recovery gear
  • Electric air pump
  • Bag of tools
  • Tire repair kit (won at SCARR 2015)
  • Box with toilet paper and sunscreen and bug spray
  • Rags
  • Blanket
  • Spare T-shirt
  • Table/package shelf
  • Machette
  • Spetznaz shovel

Lots of room.

For the most part this gear is loose in the back. Most of it is covered by the package shelf portable table I built. There is a good amount of room but I feel like I’ve just thrown everything in back there. If I were in an accident there’s a good change something dangerous would be passing through the cabin. Not good.

I remember that the military had these nifty aluminum cases.  Officially called an Aluminum Military Medical Supply Chest. The dimensions are 32 x 19.5 x 11. Two would fit perfectly in the boot. So I went to Amazon and eBay to find them. I did. Boy have they gotten expensive. In my memory I can remember these were stacked by the dozens in the various Army/Navy surplus stores in Oklahoma City. I’m pretty sure 15$(US) could have bought you 3 of them in the 1980’s. I guess the price of aluminum and lack of people wanting them caused their demise at the hands of the scrap metal industry.

I found one on eBay and won the bid at 65$(US) plus shipping. Roughly a single Benjamin later it was sitting on my door step. I originally wanted two. But at 100$(US) each I wasn’t quite as excited about having two. I will have another but for now one will take good care of the organization of the kit in the back of the Range Rover.

I don’t have to tell you these things are sturdy. There are 10 latches. I’m convinced I could drop one out of a helicopter at 30 meters and it wouldn’t come open.

I spray painted my logo on the side (to deter someone walking off with it) and cut a piece of indoor/outdoor carpet to fit in the bottom. This is for noise abatement and fluid absorption.

The space is nice but I felt like some dividers would make it even more organized. Luckily my liberated Coca-Cola crates fit perfectly inside.

Coca-Cola crate with mouse pad noise dampeners.

I surveyed all the gear that needed to be stored in the medical storage box.

That’s a lot of crap. I had no idea I has so much gear.

As you can see I have gear all over the place. So I went about organizing the gear into things I need access to and those things that are not needed nearly as often.

I stacked the two Coke crates on one side and they fit like they were designed for the box. So tools and jumper cables go on the right and the less necessary kit is stacked in the Coke crates. All together the box now weighs close to 60 or 70 pounds. But the results in my rear area are undeniably great.

I had a third crate and I placed the toilet paper box and first aid kit, spare rags and the tire tool in it. I definitely need a second box, if only for symmetry! I will need to get longer legs for my package shelf table. The box sits at 13 inches. The legs on the table are only 8 inches in it’s present configuration.

Decisions…decisions…

The next project is to get some “D” ring tie-downs installed. It also looks like I have purchased, with the help of JagGuy, an expedition refrigerator from Govliquidation.com. We acquired several derelict units and through the magic of JagGuy’s salvaging he got two working. They are the HemaCool model HMC-MIL-1. A compatible sized ARB fridge goes for 1300$(US). I’m excited about it. In any event I’ll need to tie that sucker down. Bill Burke (4-wheeling America) shared with me how he mounts his expedition refrigerator by removing the 1/3 rear seat and building a shelf. I may just have to do this.

I liberated this picture from an eBay add.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

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