Packing Off road Camper Trailer please advise

We use plastic bins the council style ones with lids had no probs as yet also we pack so that everything is snug so min movement in camper we don't have external boxes everything is in the camper only thing in the car is us the dogs, travelling food and recovery gear.

Baz.

The plastic tubs refered to above are available from Nally. They come in three different sizes and by using a combination of all three we are abel to pack our trailer so htat they pack in snugly with virtually no movement. By packing like products in each tub and attaching stick on labels it makes locating things very easy. They are also water proof and if you use a wire twisted throught the lock hole are possum proof. So you can leave them out over night if camped in the bush. When packing things in the tubs we tend to use the original packaging ie eggs in the cardboard carton that they come in at the supermarket etc. Things like sugar are carried in tupperware. Also buy packs of foods that are one meal to a pack as this minimises the probs of carrying open packs. A trailer full of rice is a pain, although this is minimised if the rice is contained in the tub. I once had the lid come off a 5l bottle of engine oil, yukkkkk! but it was all contained inside the plastic tub and the only thing damaged was the packaging on oil and fuel filters also carried in that tub

Think about how you pack, heavy stuff like cans goes on the bottom while stuff in soft packs like rice, flour etc needs a bit of protection. Also heavy stuff generally at the front because you stop quicker than you accelerate.

In the car we carry the fridge, tools, spares, recovery gear plus maps and books about the places we are going. We have had very few breakages in over 8 years of travelling. Most of it is common sense just spend a bit of time thinking about it and look at what others are doing. We continue to learn by looking at what others do.

Happy travelling.
Duncs

excuse me if i'm stating the bl**din obvious, i assume you are reducing the tyre pressure on the trailer and the suspension is ok.people let their tyres down on the 4wd due to rough roads and forget the trailer is copping it as well.
i have had 4 X 85litre plastic tubs with small rollers and lids that are held down by the handles , bought from bunnings 4/5 years ago. 1 for food, 1 for lights etc.
found that packing everything pretty tight does the trick, even to the extent of keeping empty packaging to 'fill' the voids.
my tubs fit very nicely hence reducing movement and apart from a few eggs here and there, touch wood.

Thank you for your responses and we hear the msg re tight packing, but the packing in tubs is now not a problem it is packing the trailer. Do you partition the inside of the tent trailer for a snug fit. If so how ? Are the tubs tied down in the trailer and if so how ? We have fold up chairs, table etc. and the tubs go 3 down one side but there is nothing to stop them moving around in the trailer on one side. We try to take the minimum for weight, so there is still a lot of space.. Fortunately we did know about lowering the pressure in the trailer tyres - but nothing is obvious if you don;t know - so that comment was a good one to make. Where do we get Nally tubs, we are in Melbourne.

If you still have a lot of room once you have packed every thing, then I would sugest that you look at making some sort of tie down poits inside the trailer, so that you can tie all of your boxes/tubs etc securely together. That is about the best that I could reccomend without seeing your set up.

Agree with all of the above. I always use the 60/40 rule, 60% of weight in front of the axle and 40% to the rear. This will give you in most cases the best towing scenario.

I have thought about this problem for a while. I have just ordered a Tambo camper trailer and am having a couple of mods done. The mods are as follows: 38 mm Steel dividers welded to floor to prevent boxes from sliding side to side. A false floor above the boxes, this prevent boxes moving too far upwards and provides a stowage area above boxes for seats etc. Access to this area is from the top, lift up bedding area etc.

I am using the nally boxes with lids and heavy duty plastic cubes. These are both 300mm high, allowing almost 150mm of storage above the boxes, less floor thickness of course. Still trialling min thickness of ply to achieve desired strength. There is enough room for three rows of three boxes and one cube, with some allowance for ease of getting the boxes out. Also there will be an area of about 120 mm along one side for the storage of long items, not sure what yet, most probably fishing rods etc. This arrangement of boxes and cubes will still allow room for a drop down shelf on the tailgate, this shelf to be fitted with a two burner Lido Junior stove, bolted in place.

I plan to have an eye on each side of the trailer to allow me to hook up a ratchet strap to prevent boxes sliding to the rear of the trailer when moving. It is all theory at this stage, but I think, it will work. After discussion with Keith from Tambo Trailers, he seems to think it will work too! Only time will tell. Hope this has been of some assistance. Pics can be supplied after Chrissy.

For those still intersted I'll explain how the Nally tubs fit in my Trak Shak with no movement.

I use 5 tubs, 1 deep, 2 medium and 2 shallow. The 2 shallow ones sit on top of the 2 medium ones the deep one fits in between these two stacks. This is a snug fit across the trailer. Nothing is needed to hold this in place. If on a short trip I don;t need that much gear I simply carry the empty tub.

The Trak Shak luggage area is 500mm deep, the deep tub has about 100mm space above it. I usually cary either a tarp or, if I'm not using it, the stone guard folds up and fits comfortably in this space. The other two stacks are a snug fit. Because of the taper on the tubs the centre deep tub cant't jump up and down even if there is nothing on top.

Like I said this is a great arrangement in the Trak Shak and the only egg we have broken was one we froze. It was in the fridge, in the car. It might take some research but take your tape and measure everything before yo buy the tubs

Duncs