My Kitchen Boxes

[taugust]

Well, after hearing tonight's net, I thought I would post pics of my old and new kitchen boxes. These are homebuilt.

The "old" style Stampede Box was built by my father in the 1950's from plans published in Sunset Magazine. Our family used it for many years when car camping and truck camping as I was growing up. We still have it. My sister built one for all the siblings as a Christmas present about 15 years ago, and I have used mine regularly ever since. It measures 12"W x 12"D x 24"H and is made of plywood. The shelves are masonite board. The drawers are plywood sides and masonite bottom with masonite dividers.

Old Stampede Box

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I used it to carry virtually all of my kitchen paraphenalia, from a small mess kit, plates, bowls, cups, utensils, sponge, camp suds biodegradable soap (in a ziplock bag to contain leaking), spices, and other misc. supplies. Lately, I decided that I wanted to carry a little more and this box couldn't hold some larger items, like a skillet and a full roll of paper towels, or my griddle. I had outgrown it. Also, since I camp out of my Tacoma, with a hard bed cover, It was transported on its back, since it was too tall to stand up under the cover. The cover only allows about 15" of clearance.

So I decided to redesign the concept to fit my current needs. I wanted it to be a little bigger to hold some of my larger items, but not too big to carry, and it needed to be a horizontal format to fit under the bed cover without tipping over. The drawers are a little bigger, to hold the larger cooking utensils like the big wooden spoon and the spatula, which previously had to live on a shelf. There is a wide shelf at the top to hold my wide stovetop griddle and cutting board and the bottom right compartment holds my 12" cast iron skillet with room to spare. The basic construction is the same as the old one, 3/8" plywood interior with 1/2" exterior structure. Shelves are still masonite. The overall size is now 31"W x 15.5"D x 14"H. The drawers are now 13.875"W x 15"D x 2"H.

New Stampede Box

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Utensil Drawer

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This was my first woodworking project, so somethings are a little rough, but overall, it came out as I intended. I bought a CAD program to help design it, which made the math and drawings much nicer. I have basic plans if anyone is interested. I painted the interior a light cream color and the exterior an olive drab. I used some tool box liner on the bottom and on the griddle shelf to prevent sliding and noise. I used large fold-down handles and a padlock hasp to close. I still need to finish a few items, like putting hard plastic rails on the bottom to act as feet, and cut some finger holes in the drawers to make them easier to open.

[DaveK]

Tim:


Great organizer! Do you strap or mount it to the bed of your pickup? How do you keep it from wandering while you travel?

[taugust]

A couple more detail photos.

Spice and Miscellaneous Drawer

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Shelf Detail

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[taugust]

Tim:

Great organizer! Do you strap or mount it to the bed of your pickup? How do you keep it from wandering while you travel?

It should be strapped down, but it weighs enough that it doesn't move on the rubber bed mat. My truck is usually packed to the gills, so there is no room to move anyway.

We're Outdoor Adventurers! Wandering is what we do best.

[cruiserlarry]

Tim:

Great organizer! Do you strap or mount it to the bed of your pickup? How do you keep it from wandering while you travel?

It should be strapped down, but it weighs enough that it doesn't move on the rubber bed mat. My truck is usually packed to the gills, so there is no room to move anyway.

We're Outdoor Adventurers! Wandering is what we do best.

Speak for yourself - I'm all about the food when we finish wandering....nice kitchen box !!!

[hmfigueroa]

Tim:

Great organizer! Do you strap or mount it to the bed of your pickup? How do you keep it from wandering while you travel?

It should be strapped down, but it weighs enough that it doesn't move on the rubber bed mat. My truck is usually packed to the gills, so there is no room to move anyway.

We're Outdoor Adventurers! Wandering is what we do best.

Nice box, and I love the last line, you should post to the motto thread

Wandering is what we do best! I love it!

[traveltoad]

What a great way to organize all your camp kitchen tools!! Thanks for posting these pictures!

[toms]

Tim this is a great post. Thanks for starting it. And since you did - I will post my camp box. This one was given to me as a gift. It is still sold by many of the camping outlets. I think mine came from Campmor (http://www.campmor.com ) but I saw then in Cabela's catalog. This is a small box about 11 1/2 x 23 x 14 1/2 high. I use it for equipment, staples, spices, and some back up meals. Most of the time I just open it inside the vehicle just as you see in the pictures. With the tail hatch up I have some protection too. I found a set of legs for a camp table and modified them so I can set the box outside if I want too.

Strapped Down - any gear in front of it will be off loaded in camp (cooler, Dutch oven, Food box)

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Open inside vehicle

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Drawer out

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Setting on some bootlegged legs

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Lets see some more camp box set ups!

[OLLIE]

Dang it you guys... I don not have any more room to add stuff to my rig. Please stop putting such cool ideas in my head....

My box is made by Rubbermaide

[gon2srf]

Yup I need one of the those bad, great ideas.