The System of Organizing

[Kelvininin]

I am having a hard time coming up with a System, that works well for transporting and organizing mine and my dive buddy's gear.

I have a 4 door Jeep Wrangler, which should be plenty big, but once you toss in two dry suits with under garments and goodies, 4 LP Steel 95s, and all the other goodies needed to do a 2 dive day, I have found that it gets pretty tight, particularly after the dive when all the wet gear is just tossed in to get it home. I have added totes, and mats with lips to protect jeep from water, but man, its just a mess after diving.

What do you all do after a dive, this has actually got me thinking about trading the jeep for a truck.

I was thinking about building a short table of shorts that would segregate the tanks from everything else, this would make it at least easier to get the tanks out when stopping at the shop on the way home.

What do you all do?

[Alaska-Herb]

Have you thought about buying a small 4x6 enclosed trailer like uhaul rents to turn into a dive trailer you can lock it up no one can see what's inside and no worries about the mess because it's not in your jeep

[RoxnDox]

Hey, at least you're not trying to put it all into a Honda Civic... That can get interesting, even for one person's gear. Stuff in totes in the back seat, another tote and a couple tanks in the trunk. I like your idea of building a rack for the tanks.

Jim

[spatman]

i bought a pickup truck because i was trashing our subaru wagon. now i have plenty of room, and no worries about wet gear.

[LCF]

I don't know if they will fit in the back of your SUV, but the Stanley tool trunks come in two sizes, and we have found that the small ones will just about hold one person's worth of gear. Fins, mask, BC and reg in the bottom, and dry suit on the top. It keeps water out of the vehicle, and keeps everything neat and tidy. If you don't put the suits in the trunk, you can get two diver's worth of other gear in one of them.

[Dusty2]

I don't know if they are still available but there was a company that built bed sliders for The Jeep SUV's. I have one in my truck and even with a canopy I can get to everything with ease. http://www.roll-a-bed.com/resp.htm

[ljjames]

I don't know if they are still available but there was a company that built bed sliders for The Jeep SUV's. I have one in my truck and even with a canopy I can get to everything with ease. http://www.roll-a-bed.com/resp.htm

ok, those are hella cool

[pgtdvr]

Ya, they are cool, but anyone look at the price on the sliders??? $1400 or $1500. A bit dear for my taste.

Plan B, anyone?

[Kelvininin]

I am either going to build or buy something that would basically serve as tank storage, so I can stack stuff over the tanks, and still allow for their easy access.

[renoun]

I am either going to build or buy something that would basically serve as tank storage, so I can stack stuff over the tanks, and still allow for their easy access.

Ideally your shelf will be secure enough to contain your tanks in the event of a collision. In general we are probably a bit too casual about transporting unsecured tanks, they have the potential to be a much more serious missile than your dry suit.

Things are pretty slow for me these days, I'm available if anybody wants custom carpentry for their vehicle.

[airsix]

You might want to look at what some of the overlanders and offroaders do for their SUVs. Search "storage solution" in the various forums. I've found some great ideas on these:

http://forum.ih8mud.com/ (Toyota Land Cruiser off-road forum)
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/ (Overlanding forum)
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/

Here's a shortcut to a 54pg thread on the subject of SUV storage solutions for overlanding/camping.

Here's an example of a VERY simple solution someone built for an FJ. You could do something like this minus one of the bins. Cylinders/fins/plate/wing below-deck on one side, and drysuit & regs in the tub on the other side. Then just throw the dry gear (undies, glove liners, etc) up top. Something like this could work for diving since the bins are plastic and can easily be removed/cleaned/dried.



Here's a nice DIY project done for an expedition Land Cruiser. Drawers obviously wouldn't work for wet dive gear, but it gives you some ideas and shows how nice DIY work can be. You could build the bottom with pigeon holes for cylinders, bins, etc. Build it out of something waterproof like foam and glass, aluminum-clad foam, aluminum honeycomb, etc. so it's light, doesn't fall apart, and won't leak on the vehicle.





There are also commercial solutions if you don't want to DIY. Personally I'd rather DIY since the commercial units all seem to have drawers on the bottom. I'd prefer to build "torpedo tubes" for cylinders or a combination of cylinder storage and removable bins.



There are also some nice looking modular solutions sold for first responders and law enforcement.

[Dusty2]

I did something similar but not that fancy with my old dodge caravan. Just a simple carpeted platform supported on 4x4s at each corner with a simple frame of 2x4s below to hold the tanks,

[lavachickie]

I have a 2006 VW New Beetle (diesel) and I consistently take myself and one dive buddy up to the PNW for a day trip or weekend with no troubles. This amazes some people.

The key for me is flexiblity. My husband wanted a huge tub that he could put everything in... but that only really works in his truck. My system, on the other hand, works very well for my car, a friend's SUV, etc.

I have two tanks, a White's Fusion drysuit, all the assorted goodies, and am usually packing lunch and an overnight bag as well. Here are the tips I've come upon.

- use a SMALL bin that will hold wet items, if you must have a bin. The purpose is mainly to keep water from flowing in the hatch/trunk compartment after the dive.

- pack items in soft, maleable bags. I use my White's Fusion drysuit bag and put ALL my small gear (boots, hood, mask, gloves, light, slate, marker for night dives, etc.) in the front pocket of that.

- regulator, dive computer and Sola light (all small and expensive items that are really important) go in one reg bag.

- learn to pack overnight LIGHT and in a backpack that has compression straps. Cinch that sucker down, and utilize the various compartments to make access easy (items possibly needed in the car close at hand in a front pocket, for instance).

Take large, heavy duty trash bags for wet gear if you don't carry a small bin to contain wetness. I usually just hang mine out while we are completing our gear-off, and by then it's damp but not dripping so I just put it in my White's bag. But I'll admit, the car can smell musty after a dive weekend...

Keep the overhead low. More overhead just means less flexibility.

[Maxtrax]

In my room mate's CRV he has a 3" lipped mat in the back area which gets his doubles, a wheeled plastic Stanley bin and 2 Rubbermaid tote bins for wet gear on top of 2-3 single tanks which are secured via bungee or ratchet strap to the floor tie downs (his mat has cutouts for these). Dry gear, lunches, cooler, change of clothes, etc. go on the back seat in 1-2 more bins and in backpacks/cloth grocery bags/etc. Additional single tanks go in the footwells of the rear seats, stacked with valves in alternating directions and then front seats are slid back until tanks are held in place. This has worked quite well and we haven't felt the need for a shelf or anything else. As noted though, smaller bins would be easier to work with - there is enough physical space in the rear cargo area for a 4th bin which would allow us to fit a third person in the car but the space is in the wrong shape so it usually just gets stuck with random stuff like weight belts, a gallon jug of drinking water, an extra set of fins, etc.

I do like the idea of a low shelf with "torpedo tube" cutouts underneath for tanks, it would make those runs to the shop with 10+ tanks a little less of a hassle in terms of the time spent securing/unsecuring gear.