Took the Jeep TJ camping this last weekend (Great trip; perfect weather, good people, excellent location...) and confirmed very quickly during packing that the gear pile is too big to fit into the vehicle. Had to leave the area rug, indoor fireplace, floor lamp and one tote of miscellaneous noncritical stuff behind. Even doing this the vehicle was pretty well packed tight. Soooo... consolidation is in order;
By bulk the most space consuming items are the cot with foam pad,
Having searched long and hard for a n adequate nights sleep this stays; but the thin foam pad can be replaced with the hospital egg-crate pad, effectively packing the two best pieces into the same space.
The hospital quality egg-crate mattress pad (roughly 16 inches in diameter and 30 inches wide, rolled)
I will trim the edges so that it packs in place of (folds inside the cot) the much thinner foam pad that comes with the cot from Coleman.
And the stereo speakers...This one is easy I will spend (sigh) money on a smaller powered Bluetooth speaker, thus eliminating the current speakers, wires and amp; saving about a cubic foot of volume.
By doing these mods ; I will at least be able to see out the back window when packed...
I found packing that jeep had complicated the back seat mechanism making the seat much harder to remove and leaving pieces and seat belts that interfere with packing; I will remove these items (no use for a back seat in any case...).
Still need to find/make a compact effective tent heater preferably with a thermostat... the fall back plan is to use cans of gelled ethanol fake fireplace fuel for temporary/emergency heat...
The planned Cornelius keg water supply will not fit instead I will see about pressurizing the 10 liter Sceptre water carrier...
...thoughts?
Enjoy!
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