Mission: Cargo managment for the Tacoma

Hey all,

What are your cargo management setups for your Tacomas?

I have a 21 DCLB -- originally I was thinking about going with a mid/high rise camper shell, but those are like 16 weeks out, so looks like I'm gonna live that Retrax/Bed rack combo life.

My current truck roles:
-Daily
-Hardware store hauler
-Ski gear hauler/transport
-Climbing/Camping mobile base camp

So tell me about how you manage your gear for trips! I've been doing the rubbermaid totes thing in the back of a truck/SUV for years, with a backpack full of personal gear, but I'm looking to move to a more dialed/dedicated setup to make setting up camp after a long day climbing as effortless as possible, yet still retain the use of my truck for the house/yard maintenance tasks.

 

Many ways to skin that cat.

For me, it is a Softopper with D rings, 2nd Gen front bed rail, stiffeners, and a free SB mat. My typical storage is a 108qt Plano box. I also have a spare cargo net that can span between the stiffeners if I want easy to grab stuff, like groceries.

Camping out of the Softopper has been absolutely wonderful. Easy, fast, and comfortable.

Missing in the first pic is the flat TG panel that I added. So much nicer on the knees.

 

Stick with what you've been doing. It's by far the easiest setup to use and then remove for doing house/yard maintenance. Just have a bin of the kitchen/cooking stuff, a bin of tents/sleeping bags, etc and then you only need to grab what you want to get into at that moment. When you get home you simply remove the bins, put them on the shelf in the garage and have a free and clear truck bed again.

 

Camper shell and Bedslide FTW

 

I also have a 2021 DCLB. 95% of the time my truck is a pavement princess but I do some of the same uses as you: daily driver, hardware/big box store hauler, occasional luggage/gear. I set myself up with:

• Bakflip G2 hard tonneau cover. Keeps the bed 95% water tight and still allows full use of the bed without removing the cover.
• Bedrug bed mat. Easy on the knees, keeps stuff from sliding around, and can be hosed down to clean.
• Snailarmor flat tailgate panel. Also easy on the knees and makes putting stuff on the tailgate much easier.
• Amazon cargo net. Keeps small stuff in one place and can be removed in seconds.
• Amazon cargo bar to help section off the bed when needed.
• Small emergency equipment (strobe type flares, jump pack, Makita tire inflator, first aid kit) are stored behind the rear seats in the cab.
• Two small packs with a tow rope, shackle hitch receiver with D-ring, and an adjustable hitch receiver always stay in the back of the bed.
• Any gear for occasional use goes in suitcases or storage bins that are moved into the bed as needed and removed and stored in the garage the rest of the time.

I agree with @crazysccrmd, keep doing what your doing if you want to leave your bed free for what you do most of the time.

 

2021 DCLB as well.

My setup is very similar to others. Usage is also about 95%+ on pavement and occasional HD/Lowes runs for house projects.

Undercover armorflex cover which is similar to the Bakflips. Easily folds up and out of the way for those HD/Lowes runs. And I like the fact the top is line-x's so it doesn't scratch.

I am about to cut and add in some Voodoo brackets and crossbars for more options like a Yakima bike rack or ski rack (for snowboarding or fishing poles) mounted low. They're easily removable too which is a huge thing for me to maintain the usability of the bed.

Cargo wise, I always have InstaCrates inside my bed. Got them at Costco for about $7 each and I have 3 of them. Great for groceries or other loose items from rolling around. I also have the Toyota bed mat and the crates do not slide at all.

I also have the Plano Sportsman boxes that are setup for various activites. I love these boxes as well due to their construction and low price point. For example, I have a large one (108QT) for all my camping gear. I literally grab the box, my tent, sleeping bag and clothing and i'm good to go. Another is setup for fishing - all the tackle, line, tools, even a collapsible travel pole. I have a snow clothes one as well. The lid design doesn't allow water to get in either so it's been rained on and all the items inside has remained bone dry. They're lockable as well so I just lock it i up if i leave the campsite.

https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/plano-sportsmans-tote

 

When will someone make a tailgate panel with storage in it?

 

Full MOLLE in bed, Prinsu w/ Pelican Vaults, Rotopax, & a Plano Sportsman bin. I keep all my camping gear in one Pelican, all my camp kitchen/stove gear in the other. Random smaller items go in MOLLE pouches(tiedowns, jumpstart brick, deflaters, extension cords. Rotopax for fuel(motorcycles) & water. Plano bin for compressor & other larger items that get shuffled between Tacoma & my sportscar & my SUV.

Pelicans can also be quickly removed & tossed in another vehicle should the need arise. Tools stow in a rollup kit under driver rear seat, along with comms. Beanies & gloves stow under pass rear seat w/ jack. Rolled blanket stows above subwoofer behind pass rear seat along w/ jacket rolled & stowed in the little void between subwoofer & side of truck. Extra sleeping bag, 64oz insulated growler stows in bin behind driver rear seat, & camp pillow stores in same opposite little void behind rearseat between storage bin & side of truck. I often carry a hardshell & softshell cooler too, & when the hardshell isn’t needed, I’ll stow stuff in it if necessary.

I often haul my motos, so my choices reflect my usual goal of freeing up as much bed space as possible. How efficient I am about space just depends on what I’ll be doing on a specific trip.

 

I graduated from rubbermaid boxes to Plano boxes.
I feel less soccer dad now .

 

Looks like some of the Plano boxes are on sale at HomeDepot right now.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Plano-1...ickid=0da35Dwf2xyLU1IwUx0Mo36MUkG3seWHIyXV100

 

All I know is, if your recovery boards are not mounted on your exterior so everyone can see how cool you are, you're doing it wrong. All the cool 4runner and Jeep kids are doing it...

Or do what we did in the military and just mount ruck sacks to everything that's tied down.

 

@desertdweller

Can you fill me in on your bread set up. Why does it look so good? I normally run Pan Sobado.

 

ARE HD shell with the RTT - $3-6k
Custom wood drawers for storage and pull-out kitchen - $500 (diy)

 

Oh Man! My favorite Taco subject. Setting up and provisioning a Taco for camping. I should have been a quartermaster. I enjoy this process too much. My setup: ARE Bed cap with wire shelving underneath gives two-level storage back there. More wire shelving in the back of the cab. I can use the cab shelves as pictured as a platform for a custom memory foam mattress I had made so I can sleep in the cab under air conditioning, supplied by a window A/C unit that sits in the bed, affixed on top of the wire shelf shown in the picture. During the cooler months I can choose to leave the mattress and air conditioner at home (I sleep in the Dream Hammock outside) and configure the back of the cab to have two 24x54 shelves stacked back there, each shelf adjustable up or down in one-inch increments.

On theses cab shelves and in the truck bed I use clear storage containers. They easily and quickly slide in and out depending on what the weekend's activities require. At home the containers reside on other shelves in my shop so I can have a normal truck 98% of the time. The containers are permanently organized and packed, re-supplied within a few days of return so that I can slide them in the truck and be gone relatively quickly when the urge to go hits me next. KISS concept. (Hint: Buy 4 each longer shelf posts and use them with the shelves to store your containers on in your garage when you are not overlanding. Get 4 casters too. This shit is addictive: before you know it you'll have an organized garage full of roll-around shelves. Second Hint: make sure you have enough stuff to fill the shelves before you put them together. Otherwise your wife will quickly commandeer the unused space. All of it. Ask me how I know. In the picture below showing the five shelves only part of the small shelf on the far left is my space.)

I've tried several types of storage containers over the years. For packing stuff in the back of trucks in dusty or wet environments these are the best storage containers I have found: Sterilite 54 Qt. Gasket Box Blue Aquarium Set of 4 - Walmart.com Available in 16-80 quart. GASKETED. FOUR tight-fitting lid locks, not two like on other containers. NO DUST GETS INSIDE. Defeats raccoons too. The lids are so tight that you can hose off the sealed containers with a strong stream before you open them to keep the outside dust from falling into them. No leaks. Warning: She'll commandeer these too. Hide them in the attic until needed.

Try this canvas bag for neatly packing firewood and kindling:

$32 Rothco Canvas Parachute Cargo Bag Extra Large Travel Duffle Bag – 75L Capacity – Olive Drab

Amazon.com: Rothco Canvas Parachute Cargo Bag, Olive Drab : Clothing, Shoes & Jewelry
Use this for waterproofing the bag so your firewood is dry in the morning, after an overnight rain. Ask me how I know...

$22 STAR BRITE Waterproofing Spray, Waterproofer + Stain Repellent + UV Protection - 22 OZ (081922SS)

Amazon.com : STAR BRITE Waterproofing Spray, Waterproofer + Stain Repellent + UV Protection - 22 OZ (081922SS) : Boating Cleaners : Sports & Outdoors. SOAK it down. Let it dry.

What matters most is once you get there that you have everything you need in those containers. SO, here is the strategy an old camper in an adjacent campsite once told me in my youth. I've used his system for almost thirty years now and it works. Now that I'm an old fart I'm passing on this monumental packing procedure to you: Divide your shit into three piles: (1) stuff you KNOW you will need, (2) stuff you THINK you will need, and (3) stuff you think you MIGHT need but MIGHT NOT. Once finished leave piles 2 and 3 at the house. KISS

Still, once in camp there will ALWAYS be something you need that most assuredly SHOULD HAVE BEEN in pile 1. Don't wait and try to remember what it was when you get home: Write it down right then in camp. Put a small spiral note pad/pen in the cab AND another in the truck bed. Attached at the bottom of this post is an outdoor activity packing list offered in two formats: start with the packing list and modify to your needs...it's forty years of my writing stuff down. If I ever needed something that I didn't have in camp, it went on this list. I didn't always take everything I needed, but this list at least gave me the opportunity to not forget something a second time. I still did, often, but WTF...

Current project: Adding 16-gallon hot shower on passenger side under rear wire shelf: NorthStar ATV Spot Sprayer — 16-Gallon Capacity, 2.2 GPM, 12 Volt | Northern Tool

 

tonykarter, why would you keep so many cans of food?

 

Looks like he lives in a general store.

 

Good question. Up until my wife was diagnosed with Stage 4 Adenocarcinoma last March my 98 year old father lived with us. I've been taking care of him since 2018 when he had the onset of vascular dementia. A blessing really: who gets to spend fourteen hours a day with their father? ME, that's who! With the onset of Covid in Feb of 2020 we realized that if we went out and brought home a case of the virus that he would most probably acquire it too. With his advanced age and age-suppressed immune system it would most probably be a death sentence for him. We couldn't let that happen. So we made a plan. We decided that we would provision up and shelter in place for whatever time it took to develop a vaccine. We live way out in the woods, so it wasn't much different than what we had been doing anyway: With Dad's deteriorating mental state we weren't going to be having the luxury of going many places for very long anyway.

In a short time in late February of 2020 I bought the wire shelving and put them together. Robin and I set to shopping and filling them up with what we projected we would need for a year. That was our metric: one year's supply of staples. It filled all of those shelves. Those cans are what is left. We were all set and in place by the second Monday of March 2020, well before the onset of the virus. Filled a lay-down freezer with meat too. I mean, it's not like you aren't going to buy all those groceries anyway, just in smaller quantities periodically throughout the year. We did it all at once. In retrospect we saved a shitload of money because it was all bought before the escalation of prices in April 2020. Still have two cases of Scott toilet paper out in the shop!

We made it. We baked our bread. We ordered boxed milk from Amazon and Walmart. We bought yard eggs from a guy down the way. We stayed home and we triumphed. We three had our second Covid vaccine on Feb 4th of 2021, the 141st, 142nd and 143rd people to do so in our county, by taking the places of three first responders who backed away at the last moment from the opportunity to get the shots. We were the first civilians in our county to get it. Mission accomplished. Dad is STILL healthy as a horse physically. And alive. That's all that matters.

When Robin was diagnosed we put Dad in assisted living, March of last year. He is still there. Sadly, my Robin was called home by her Heavenly Father three weeks ago on December 26th, our 39th wedding anniversary. Those cans are going to last me way past their "use by" date. Writing the long post above gave me the opportunity to get my mind off my sweet Robin, if but only for a moment. I miss her so much. SO MUCH. Thank you for putting up with me and my long-winded posts. I needed my mind to go elsewhere for a while. This thread gave me the opportunity to do that.

Guys, pray to your Heavenly Father that he takes you first. Surviving your wife is the hardest thing you will ever do. I wouldn't wish this pain and anguish on my worst enemy. If I may be so bold, please go hug your wife right now. For me. Because you can, and because I can no longer. Tell her how beautiful she is. Thank her for putting up with you and for bearing your children. Hold her closer and longer than normal, now, and in the future. Smell her hair. Gaze at her when you can and drink her in every chance you get. Because a time may come when you can no longer do any of these things.

There are more important things in this world than our truck. Your wife is the most important, the most precious of these.

 

Brutal read. Terribly sorry for your loss and circumstance, Tony.

 

@tonykarter

I have nothing to add to this thread in regards to the OP's post. Just wanted to extend my deepest sympathies Tony. Long winded or otherwise, they way you write about your late wife...well, obviously you adored her.

There indeed are more important things in life than trucks. Thanks for a bit of perspective and hang in there brother.

 

Well, this took a dark derailment...