Explorer Box Storage Compartments

Front Empty Side Empty Rear Empty
One of the Explorer Box’s primary features is its shelved storage compartments for organizing your kitchen, cooking, food and miscellaneous camping items.  The side compartment is for smaller items.  The front compartment is for larger items with a stove and lantern shelf sized for commonly available Coleman equipment.  There is also a rear compartment for bulky items and storage containers.

I find it useful for people to do an inventory of their current and planned new camping items.  Lay everything out, see what goes with what, how things fit together, what can be stacked and how big stuff is.  If necessary when building, it’s simple to modify the number and height of the shelves to better accommodate your gear.

Here is how we pack our trailer:
 
Stove Shelf The Front Compartment, Stove Shelf is sized around commonly available Coleman dual burner propane stoves, although many other stoves fit.  Her it is with my thirty year old Hillary stove.
Lantern Shelf The Front Compartment, Lantern shelf is sized so a Coleman lantern in a hard shell carrying case fits. There is as room for a 9v lantern style flashlight and a roll of paper towels.
Under Lantern The Front Compartment, Under Lantern shelf there is room for four 16.4 oz propane cylinders.  I also store our first-aid kit and a spare 9v lantern flashlight battery here.
Bottom Shelf The Front Compartment, Bottom shelf is for our dishpan, pots, pans, bowls and miscellaneous storage area. A Sterilite 0657 dishpan is perfectly sized of stacking pots and pans in it and sliding into the back corner. Many companies make nice stacking pots and pans sets.
Middle Shelf The Front Compartment, Middle shelf is used for food storage.  Sometimes we use Sterilite 1624 ultra storage baskets for organizing.
Side Loaded In our Side Compartment goes items like plates, bowls, utensils, glasses, coffee mugs, paper towels, candles, matches and garage bags go to name a few.  On the bottom two shelves we use Sterilite 1624 ultra storage baskets as drawers.
Rear Loaded In our Rear Compartment goes items like folding chairs, small propane barbecue, campfire kit, clothes, and table.  We use Rubbermaid action packer or roughneck containers to organize extra food and miscellaneous items. The yellow duffel is our “boat in a bag” kayak.
Front Deck The Front Deck is where our cooler and water jugs go.  When in camp, it doubles as counter space for food prep or cooking.  I really like Coleman steel-belted coolers.  Our main cooler is a fairly new stainless one, although my first one, now 30 years old is still in service.  We also use Coleman 5-gal water jugs, they have a nice on/off spigot.