Camping gear and Jeep - how do you fit it?

[Jerry Bransford]

It was only after your second posting showing that you have an Unlimited that I figured out how you got all that gear into it. Wow, that's a lot of gear and I'm betting you could get by with a lot less. I could never carry enough in my TJ to make any weekend camping anything but spartan to say the least.

[NAILER341]

Erik? You didn't mention the travel twinkie! We need to spring-over that bad boy and put some 33's on it!

:thumbs_up Go Spartan, that's what Barb and I do. It's those miserable, wet, cold nights that the kids will remember forever!

i cant take the boler on the rubicon. that thing sure makes my overnight trips more fun where i can set up "camp" and return to the same spot each evening.
i did a lot of tent camping before getting it though.

[Jerry Bransford]

i cant take the boler on the rubicon. that thing sure makes my overnight trips more fun where i can set up "camp" and return to the same spot each evening.
i did a lot of tent camping before getting it though.

I was certainly envious of your cool little trailer the last time I was at JV with you... especially after having spent the night in that cramped ultra-miniature tent with my son where our sleeping bags had to overlap each other.

[JeepGal]

This was my specialty Just ask the guys, they couldnt figure out how in the hell I got it all in there!

I used to bring three kids and a dog, with all of the camping equipment, clothes, food, two tents, four sleeping bags, chairs, air mattresses and tools in my TJ!

Here is the secret.

Ratchet strap all soft goods (sleeping bags, chairs and clothing duffle bags)on top of the soft top. A Raingler net system will be even better if you run topless. If you run Raingler nets under your soft top, you can put a bunch of stuff up in the nets as well.

Bungie cord as much as you can to the roll bars. Dont forget to use your front bumper if you have the room. (we strapped our tent there this year for Rubicon) Pack stuff on the wheelwells in the back seat next to the passenger. This is a great place to stack chairs or bags. Air mattresses and flat tool boxes can fit under the rear seat. Get a cooler that fits behind the seat. Bring several gallons of water, and refill bottles or cups with lids. At Rubicon this year, we brought an empty five gallon plastic water jug (its square, tied it to the roll cage) and used river water for all of our washing needs.

Hope that helps!

Tam

[nwoods]

Thanks JeepGirl, that's good stuff. I was cleaning the Jeep after our trip and found a ton of toys and Cheetos under the rear seat. Didn't know there was so much room there! Going to have to explore that option a bit more.

x2 on the water. We use the 2.5 gallon flat water containers designed for the fridge:


And these 25oz Camelback bottles fit the Jeep cup holders great, and with the wide opening top, are easy to refill from multiple sources:


The kids have their own for the rear cup holders. They are a bit smaller at 16 oz:


Thanks everyone for the responses. I still can't believe that Tam got all that in a TJ! Tying stuff to the front bumper is pretty out of the box thinking!