DIY Overland Gear Storage Setup Tips to Maximize Efficiency – My Tacoma Setup

[Music] hey what's up guys thanks so much for checking out the video and for checking out the channel i really appreciate it so today i've been wanting to do this video for such a long time so i'm gonna go over all of the different pieces of gear and kit that i have uh outfitted in my tacoma um the reason i've kind of waited on doing this video is because i really tried to dial in my setup and make it as efficient as possible i've spent lots of time on the trail and everything and in the garage and making sure things just worked and fit very well so i'm going to share all those learnings with you guys today also before i get into the video i do want to say i have some brand new merch for you guys i just designed a new patch and sticker those are available you can check the link in the description and long creek overland.com is where you can find all of my merch so before i go through all the drawers and show you all the gear and everything i want to talk just a second about uh truck setup specifically i'm going with a camper shell versus a bed rack okay so real quick um i'm going to show you my stance or tell you guys my stance on camper shells versus bed racks so i when i bought this truck it actually came with this camper shell and i had intentions of taking it off and running a bed rack and to be honest i'm so glad i kept the camper shell there's several reasons why i think a camper shell is much more beneficial over landing off-roading whatever it's so much more practical to me so some of the key highlights going back and forth between the bed racks and a camper shell like this so a camper shell for one you get a lot better security of your gear so you know you're buying fridges you're buying all this kind of stuff and you're loading it in your truck it's super easy for a thief to go in there and just grab it right what's good about a camper shell is you have these lockable side doors you can kind of lock everything especially if you're in a city or whatnot it's just better piece of mind another thing is weather this is so awesome so when you're going on you know dusty muddy nasty rainy trips and you have all your gear back there that stuff gets disgusting like i've seen it with all my buddies it just gets nasty and then you know you're touching that gear when you get to camp your hands are nasty and it just kind of there's a trail of dirt everywhere all the time so camper shell eliminates that your gear stays out of the rain out of the sunlight too um you know just out of the elements it's way better um so that's kind of my thing and obviously i know that um generally camper shells are more expensive than bed racks but if you factor in all those different i guess scenarios these are just better in my opinion now another thing i'm going to talk about this a lot in this video is efficiency so how quick can you get to your gear how organized is your stuff you know because the last thing you want to do is put something that you need really quick in a box inside a box inside a box i've done that before and it's stupid so um with this specific shell you can see it's got these wind doors i think it's what they're called this is an are camper shell so what this allows you to do is access your gear at all sides of the truck um this is just totally totally the way to go so imagine if i had um you know the traditional bed right if i had a channel right here or like max tracks running along the side or roto packs or whatever i can't go to the side of my vehicle reach in here and grab anything it's just not efficient really so let's say i needed to get my fire extinguisher or whatever all i need to do is undo this door and i can get to it so and that's the other thing like you have this side you can access your gear the other side you can access your gear and then of course the rear hatch so love that only thing i i guess don't like about camper shells is is uh you know it raises the height of the overall vehicle or whatever by the time you put a 10 on there you can get pretty high but i guess this is a good time to talk about the rack just for a second this is a front runner uh it's one of the custom ones you can do for like a camper shell canopy sort of thing um and this is their very low profile one i think it looks excellent on here all i had to do was drill a few holes and mount that up and then i have a prototype backwoods adventure mods hard shell pop-up rooftop tint and to me the profile still is pretty low it looks really good so that's just another thing to consider with these camper shells so while i'm talking about this rack on the camper shell i do have the front runner slim line so there's two different ones i think they're called slimline but this is the ultra ultra low version it marries really well with that one um just looks awesome so real quick right here i have a pelican case on the coolest um dang what's it called i can't remember the name oh yeah outer limit supply duh it's on this super sick mount this is just my first aid kit i keep it up here it's always accessible so we can do is just throw it back on find the channel and it magnetizes right there and it's good to go so super cool and then also up here i have some max tracks and then a little rigid box that i've used in my tj but okay now we're gonna go to the back i'll show you all the goodies and it's gonna be cool all right so on the rear of the vehicle um i have i'm running the prototype um rear high clearance swing out from backwoods adventure mods um loving this thing so far it's super cool um maybe i'll throw up a couple clips and be beating the heck out of this thing but super cool i'm not going to go into crazy detail about the bumper itself more videos on that to come but uh as far as overall rear setup i have a front runner awning over here um kind of kind of like it it's okay that traditional style of just the it's kind of the old school style awning i don't know it's okay uh full size spare tire 34 inch spare um i have the nbx trail gear um bag and this is by far like a thousand times better than the trasharoo i've had like three trasharoos and you have to get one like a new one every year because they're just i don't know they fade in the sun they crack whatever because i keep it on the vehicle all the time so anyway i got this um and then i have a water roto packs and a gas roto packs um i have this little mount or not a mount a little faucet thing i thought was pretty cool my buddy rick england um came up with this so pretty sweet rotopax mount yeah all cool so i'm gonna open this up and you'll see i've got a fiskars axe that perfectly fits on here love that it's a good spot for it so here is the rear opening up canopy so this is obviously the best part this is so much fun so i'm going to go back to talking about efficiency and accessibility so when you have a truck bed and it's long especially when you do the tailgate down there's no way you can reach your gear way up front right you have to get it climb in the vehicle do all that stuff and it sucks so if you have a drawer system on a longer vehicle it allows you to pull all that gear that was normally at the front vehicle to the back it's just so awesome like with my tj there's to me there was no real need for a drawer system because i could reach everything in the back right it was easy so we have the decked drawer system i love it a lot it's awesome again it makes me just access stuff easier i guess we'll start what i've done in the back i have the all-pro bed stiffeners um this just helps with like bed flex and all that stuff um i have a trail gate um what is it called tailgate insert this thing is awesome i did a separate review on it i'll put the link of this video somewhere so you can check that out basically this eliminates those ribs that you have from the factory and you know when you get up here put your knee on it the freaking hurts you spill drinks on it when you're cooking you know it sucks so this thing is awesome nice flat surface and actual usable cup holders okay so next um yeah i guess it's the lighting system so there's a little switch i put right here and you switch this on and you can see all of the uh leds up here so i'll put a strip right there there's a strip on the other side um down in here in the channel um yeah and on the front so at night obviously this looks super good and it lights up everything i need to see back here all right so the next thing um as you can see if you guys are familiar with these deck systems um you know that they obviously don't come with these right so i put these on here these are just some little molle panels or molly bags i guess this is from tactical not even sure what that says i'll put the link i got this from academy for like seven bucks so i got a couple of those um what i did is i drilled through right there and just mounted it in there and so it just kind of that quick access stuff i can get to it whatever so i got a couple of those um right here it's just my arb thing i do not keep my tire deflater in here because this would suck to access you have to tear down the whole bed just to get your tire deflater so that's just a bag i use all right so next i'm gonna talk about the fridge um but real quick before that if you notice kind of how i have everything laid out it's it's totally for a reason so if you look at the deck system like the top this part is wider than this and so this made me choose where to mount um the fridge right so it's perfectly on this thing it's not overlapping on these two pieces so i have that there and then i have a box in my propane but i kept this really long channel so if i need to actually use my truck for a truck i can put gear all the way to the front of the bed same thing right here like if you go in you can see you know most of that is usable space all the way to the cab so i just wanted to create the most usable space while having all this crap in the back so that's kind of the blueprint of how i have everything so anyway this is probably my favorite thing is the fridge so this is the dometic cfx 345 liter fridge with their protective cover it's a super cool cover it's uh really i like all this stuff right here i don't know if you want to look at it but i have like a flashlight some comms you know just a couple tools i can use around camp i think it looks pretty sweet it keeps it protected from scratches that kind of stuff a question i get a lot is why do i have my comms in the back so i have one here one in the cab and of course like a gmrs handheld um not a handheld a hard mounted one so i keep this back here so say i'm at camp i'm remote i don't have any service and i'm cooking um you know if i want to know the weather and prepare for a storm or whatever i just turn this on and we'll scan for the weather and i can cook and it's just nice i like to i like to have that back here okay um so the rest of the fridge so this is mounted on an alley cab tilting fridge slide so this is like the coolest thing ever so if you pull it straight back you'll notice there's no way i can get into the fridge so they have a tilt for applications like this if you're running a deck system or whatnot you can actually use it you can get into it and use it so here's my fridge it has plenty of space three four five day thing doing a say this right here i don't carry this all the time but i thought i'd show you guys um i have a separate video on these uh really cool portable beer kegs from sportkeg.com um they're just freaking cool they're like what's you know what's greater than having fresh beer at camp so have that in there it fits in there and it's awesome everybody loves me at the campsite so got that and then just to put it back all you do is do that and the lock itself and i can move the whole truck with this mount like it's super super solid so i really like this setup all right so covered the fridge um next i guess we'll just talk about what's in these ammo cans is what the deck calls them so you can stay right there i'm gonna go to the side so this is where i hard mounted my air compressor and again going back to accessibility um previously i had it in a different spot and when i when i needed to air up my tires i had to undo the rear swing out i had to you know undo the tailgate do everything just to get to my compressor this because i have the camper shell with the door it's super easy all i do is get out and i pop this thing out the air compressor is already hooked up in here and ready to go and all i do well it's not ready to go right now but usually i plug it in and i just take this hose and go around the truck and it's super easy so this is the via air 400 ha so it's a hard mounted um option from via air but it's the automatic version which is super cool so an automatic air compressor basically shuts off when it's not in use which is awesome so you know if i'm going from tire to tire it will shut itself off and when i put it on the tire and it needs to build that pressure up again it'll turn on so super awesome but yeah that's basically the air compressor setup um it's super easy it's tucked out of the way and i don't have any issues with it at all um next i will go ahead and actually might as well come around here i'll show how i power the fridge so over here is my diy power bank sort of thing i made a lot of you guys been wanting me to make a video on this and well here's your here's your chance so this is just a regular super cheap plano box um you can get them at academy sports what i did is i cut a little piece out and i have a 500 watt power bank that i just perfectly put in there and it's nice and neat so how i power the fridge um there's an existing outlet for the tacomas in the bed so what i did is i stuck an extension cord in there before i put the deck system in ran the cord to here so you can see that kind of sticks out uh where i need it and what i can do from here is i use this from the fridge when i am driving the truck so when i'm driving the truck um i power the fridge with the battery from the truck so i'm not running a dual battery system this is how i do it when i'm parked at camp all i do is disconnect this from the truck and i put this into my power bank so my power bank is doing all the work at camp so that's how i'm being efficient in doing that um so more on the box also if you notice in the box on the boxes there is no ratchet straps or like any cords or anything holding this down that's because i like to have it super clean and i don't like all those bungee cords and stuff and the way i have it is a velcro so i'm a huge proponent in velcro magnets you guys have seen my magnet video in the interior um it's just the way to go so if you look right here this is extremely heavy duty like 15 pound velcro i've never had any issues off-road it's super nice you don't have to drill any holes you don't have to deal with ratchet straps like if you want to take this in and out of the truck it takes two seconds it's awesome i love it so in this box what i have is i fixed the latch on that side to never come off and all i do when i need to access it is i just lift this so again with the velcro if you can hear that battery itself see on the bottom right there it is velcroed to the actual box so if i need to take the battery out to charge it or whatever in the house i can do that so velcro is your friend over here this is a bag that i have all of my cables so iphone cables camera cables i don't have a camera but if i did camera cables any kind of cable you can imagine walkie-talkie cables whatever is all here so this is my power station if you will very diy but i like a little diy projects so now just to put it right back on all you do is line the velcro up kind of shake it a little bit i'm probably not on perfectly right in there and now it's like look at that it's like super solid it's not gonna move another thing on the velcro is this fire extinguisher so i have this here for a reason for several reasons one it's completely on a velcro mount i don't know if you can see right in there but i've velcroed this entire thing to the camper shell so the reason for that is let's say i'm not by my vehicle and there's a fire or something and like my wife or one of my friends or whatever who don't know my setup very well they need to use a fire extinguisher they can come here and just like your adrenaline's pumping you can just rip this off if you need to it's velcro um that is just a super safe way to do it if you know if i'm coming over here and i know there's a fire i'm just going to pull the tab because i know my setup i know everything so that's pretty smart i think um okay now i'm gonna go to the other side and show you the rest of that stuff and then we'll pull the drawers out and i'll show you everything in the drawers okay so the other side um okay i gotta say this you guys have been commenting like insane about these stickers even on my jeep so these are just brands i don't have any affiliation with these brands but i i like them and i like how subtle they are and i'll run them on the truck because i think it looks cool i just made this on my computer and sent it to a local graphic shop and they printed it for like 20 bucks okay so this is stay right there let me turn on the light so same deal this is a plano crate um it's on velcro again i've never had it topple over or anything love it so in here specifically is all my dry food storage and my stove so anything cooking is on kind of on this side obviously i got the propane right there so if i need to get to my stove i come to the side pop the door off put this down and you guys can see i'm rocking the old school walmart coleman stove never let me down it's it's just perfect i love it there's no real reason to go for a different one so i have that in there that fits really nice and then i have this little cast iron griddle i don't know if you can see in there and then i have these bins with a bunch of dry food and snacks and stuff so anything that's not cold obviously i put in here and it's all contained in one nice spot so that's the cooking setup um and then next to it is my new propane tank um this actually is on i can't magnet or a velcro this because it's just too heavy but uh this is with a front runner stretch it i have it stretching it down um i also talking about efficiency again i feel like such a nerd talking about this stuff but uh you know the quicker you can set up and tear down camp the better in my opinion so i keep my hose to my stove already attached to this thing obviously it's off but i keep it attached so all i have to do is unwind it and cook with it so i'm going to go back over here and show you kind of where i do stuff so let's say i'm at camp i'm ready to cook i go over to the side i grab my stove put my stove right here kind of caddy corner and then that gives me the ability to open my drawer and use everything and still cook because for a while i was putting it like right here and i was moving the stove it was just annoying so that's what that is and my propane can easily reach to it it's just super efficient um okay now we will talk about everything in the drawers all right so here are the drawers so if you look kind of closely you can tell with the tacoma specifically it's kind of a mid-size it is a midsize truck this is a full-size drawer and this is a smaller one with like a tundra or something you'll have two full-size ones so just keep in mind that they're two different sizes so over here is basically everything toiletries and cookware um and i have everything exactly where i know it it is all the time everything has a home and i've actually done some modifications to a lot of this stuff to make it even better so with these drawer systems from deck they have different little pieces that you can buy so this one you know if you didn't buy it you have this unused space and it's kind of a weird cavity and it's just weird so this thing is like 20 bucks i think and you can use all this space so this first bin is everything toiletries so i also have smaller little orange bins that were from my rigid boxes like a toolbox that i use just to i guess make everything in a home so i have a coffee press right here this is what i used to boil water you know i have bug spray cups a lantern a knife soap toothbrush all that kind of stuff little baby pocket stove stuff to clean my dishes with everything related to that is right there next i always find myself using a crap ton of paper towels especially when i'm camping and cooking i mean so uh what i did right here is you can see um i got these little eyelet things and i i think i glued them no i definitely didn't glue them i was trying to glue them but i screwed them into the side and uh made this little paper towel holder so it's just awesome i can grab and snag a paper towel so besides this bin you can buy these other bins and they're really really cool so they fit perfectly in here and you can kind of tetris them wherever you want they come with lids like a blue or a tan lid and actually had the lids in here for a while but it just absolutely drove me nuts because let's say like i needed some pepper or something and i was cooking right there i'd have to do this i'd actually have to take the box out open the lid get the pepper put it back in put the lid in it was just so annoying so i took the lids off completely because now i can open it boom get what i need to slam it back um love that so this bin right here is uh some more cooking stuff so spices a little blow torch like utensils all that kind of stuff some more pots in here just all the cooking utensils basically are right there the next one this is kind of a bigger box you can buy to fit in here also you can buy these dividers too but this is a bigger box took the lid off of it also so this has kind of my bigger cookware and propane and stuff um i actually don't need these propane anymore i don't know why i have them because i have that big propane but anyway uh yeah you can get these dividers and basically what i did is i stuck these two boxes together with some tape just so it was one solid unit because it was getting bounced around blah blah blah so uh yeah propane in here um back in here i have uh like my cast iron skillet i have a cutting board plates um everything so i also trimmed this down like i said earlier just so i could reach to stuff uh this is my little collapsible thing you can fill up with dish soap and clean everything so that's how that is set up and i feel like i can reach everything i need to whoops and it's super cool so that's basically that drawer um there's a lot going on but everything has a home uh this next drawer is way less exciting but still serves quite a good purpose so i have a pop-up aluminum fire pit right here so you know if i need to get a fire off the ground if there's a burn ban or something i can use that a little mini chair i keep in here and then back here all my recovery stuff well some of my recovery stuff is my poop shovel um i got a snatch block i got a fuel siphon gas thing um some worn shackles uh yeah all kinds of stuff back there front runner stretch it and i put all of that there because i wanted the weight of the vehicle as far forward as possible because i'm already really heavy in this vehicle with the tire out the back and everything so that's also something to consider when you're building out the back is put the weight as far forward as you possibly can if you can help it so that is that all right guys so that's basically it um there are a couple more um things to consider and some things i did to kind of make this a little bit more weatherproof as you can see i ran this like gorilla tape piece right here because i was getting lots of dust in the cab and you know the point of a camper shell or one of the points is to keep everything nice and clean so i ran that along there it's waterproof and all that i did put some like sponge kind of foam sealer right there that's working pretty well so did all that um oh another thing i have a quick access sort of deal is you guys by now probably know how much i like velcro i just velcroed these gloves right there so if i'm doing a winch or something i can just pop this door and grab it from the side grab my gloves whatever and it's awesome so yeah just be mindful of where you're putting stuff it's going to help a lot um i guess that's about it one of the last things this is something i also get questions on a lot is these little levels so this is uh just from like ace hardware or something it was like a couple bucks so i have a stick on level um one right here one on the other side of the roof rack and i think i have like three or four on the roof rack but um you know when you're pulling into camp you need to level your your stuff out especially have rooftop tent and i can kind of gauge um how level i am just by looking at those levels so kind of a quick little thing i thought you guys would like so man really i think that's about it uh thank you guys so much for watching um i hope i didn't bore you to death i really like this stuff as you can tell so i know you guys probably have several questions and comments so please put those down below i would love to answer them um yeah i have several more videos coming along the way i'm sorry for kind of waiting a few weeks to get this one out but yeah it's been really busy so really appreciate it thank you guys so much and i'll see you in the next one thanks

Channel: Arkansas Offroad

Views: 325,518

Keywords: arkansas offroad, ark offroad, jeep tj, overland, overlanding, overland tacoma, tacoma, offroad, offroading, ozarks, rendezvous in the ozarks, arkansas overland, tacoma build, diy jeep, diy tacoma, diy camping, diy overland, tacoma bumper, backwoods adventure mods, backwoods, overland jeep, 4runner, camping setup, tacoma setup, tacoma rack, tacoma armor, arkansas, trails, oz trails, express rally, ozark overland adventures, land cruiser, alu cab, overland storage, decked drawers

Id: NSdWK2mA0X8

Length: 28min 31sec (1711 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 14 2021