Camping item(s)

[dgale]

My Cabelas Cooking Station arrived today and I'm definitely pleased. - it's bigger than I thought it might be. I was able to set the thing up in about 30 seconds. My biggest concern was that it was going to be too rickety under the weight of the camp oven/stove I bought (see photo above), but it is totally solid even when weighed down with the oven. Probably my only concern now that I see it is the longevity of the panels on the side tables - they feel like some sort of masonite or particle board and I wonder how they'll hold up if they get rained on a few times etc. For $44 this thing is a steal and I'll be more than happy to figure out how to mod it if/when that become a problem. Another plus is I was at a loss on where I was going to store the griddle that came with my oven, as it doesn't fit inside the oven or stovetop when it's closed up. There's ample room in the storage bag that came with the cooking station to fit it in there, so problem solved. The storage bag seems adequately heavy duty as well.

Thanks a ton for the tip - I look forward to having the picnic table back.

[Mels E]

Originally Posted by dgale

Sounds great - keep me posted and let me know if you need any input on potential places to camp.

Hi there dgale, we now have a thread going for our camping event in Aug in Humbolt that I mentioned was in the works. What a great place to use all of our newly purchased camping items. I sure hope you can join us or at least visit.

[Mels E]

dgale, glad to hear the Cabella's deal worked out for you and in more ways than one (using the storage bag for a place to store the gridle). Also to set up in 30 seconds is awesome!

[dgale]

I just bought one of these "Modular Hauler" set of storage bags for camping with my E:




I've always had a good experience with other Mountainsmith items I've bought and these seem well made. I bought them at Sierra Trading Post for $48 (retails at $99):
http://www.sierratradingpost.com/mou...colorFamily=70

The above link lists it at $75 but as a "preferred customer" (which means nothing more than I signed up for their regular bombardment of sale notice e-mails) you can get the $48 price. They also make a 3-bag version as well but I opted for the larger 4-bag version. It arrived a few weeks back and I've used it once so far - it's pretty handy for organizing things and is well made, so it should hold up to the camping rigors just fine. My only gripe at this point would be that it needs to be fairly full of stuff in order for the grey carrying bag to maintain it's shape so you can carry it around - if there's not much in some/all of the bags then it kinds of slumps and sags a bit when you carry it. Not really a big deal but more of an observation - with 2 adults, 2 kinds and a dog typically going camping, I won't have any problem filling it up but Mountainsmith could have easily put some sort of stiffening supports in the grey carrying bag to deal with this. I could probably come up with a pretty simple stiffening fix myself for the grey bag myself.

Anyway, I thought this might be of interest to other E owners as well - either for camping or just for storage and organization in general in the back of the E. For $48, I'd say it's a solid deal and will see plenty of use.

[rchid]

a nice item to add to your camping gear would be a hammock!! I got an ENO hammock for christmas and it's the best gift i have ever received! the slap strap setup is so easy I just keep it in my E in case the moment is right for some relaxing...

[dgale]

Funny you mention a hammock - I just bought a hammock and stand from Sierra Trading Post as well - they are collapsable and easy to stow in the car between sites. The hammock itself came with a carrying bag and the stand is a series of painted steel tubes with quick-connects so it's easy to take apart and put together. I had a regular hammock for years but every time I brought it camping, I had to get really creative to figure out how to string it up somewhere that worked - this one is free standing so can pretty much go anywhere I want as long as it's relatively level and flat. I think I paid a little over $100 for the hammock and stand combined.

[skellington]

Thanks dgale for the link to the modular hauler, seems similar to the Honda storage bag but with extra storage and a better price.
Going to have to check into one of these.

[rchid]

not a bad deal on your hammock setup! I didn't really think of the setup issue lol... I live in central texas so the issue I have is that the trees are too close to each other!

[dgale]

Originally Posted by skellington

Thanks dgale for the link to the modular hauler, seems similar to the Honda storage bag but with extra storage and a better price.
Going to have to check into one of these.

I'm pretty happy with it - it's well made and durable and looks good. As I mentioned, I wish it was more freestanding when empty so I could use it more like the Honda storage bag, but I think I can devise something to keep it open and standing when empty fairly easily. For everyday use, it would be nice to maybe have a couple of the bags full of stuff I routinely want to store back there and then have half of the big gray bag open for grocery bags etc.