Organization is a key component to enhancing your overland travel experience. From mapping out your route and menus to sorting your gear, having some semblance of a plan goes a long way toward boosting the fun factor. I have found that a little bit of organizing ahead of time even allows for more spontaneity in your experiences as well—the less time you spend rummaging around for tools, headlamps, and cooking utensils, the more opportunity you have to embrace the adventure itself. Moving beyond traditional hard and soft storage solutions, the Rux Essentials hybrid storage systems is a unique solution for keeping your rig and your gear sorted.
We tested a version of Rux’s Essentials set, which included a 70-liter collapsible box, a 25-liter bag, and a 3-liter Rux Pocket. The three items are useful on their own but also work together as a modular system (Rux’s Adventure Set [$325] also includes a 25-liter dry bag). Made of waterproof TPU-coated nylons and polyesters, the materials on the Rux units have a sturdy feel to them, and the box features a handy transparent panel for readily identifying the contents within. The 15.7 x 19.5 x 13.8-inch box has soft sides that are supported by collapsable metal stays. The hinged material in the middle of each stay allows the box to fold flat when empty. It can support up to 50 pounds and has both shoulder straps and handles for easy portability.
The bag and the pocket can be used in concert within the box or attached to the outside as a way to conveniently sort gear and add some extra utility. More commonly used items can be slipped into the smaller bags and quickly grabbed from the box all at once. I recruited the pocket as the spice rack for my camp kitchen setup, keeping all the seasonings together and ready at hand. I slipped my pots, pans, and dishes into the bag, occupying one-half of the box and the remaining space I used for dry food storage. Simply snagging the Rux system from the back of my Land Rover got meal times off to a swift start.
The Rux box’s folding feature also proved to be something of a headache. If the box isn’t at least 80 percent full, the bendable corner stays have a tendency to collapse in on themselves when bumped from the outside, leaving a lopsided crate and a dislodged lid. This happened more and more often as I ate through my food during trips and the box emptied. This also means the boxes aren’t exactly stackable. That said, their low profile, light weight (5.3 pounds), and flexible sides make the Rux boxes easy to stuff into irregular corners of your vehicle, and they take up almost no room at all when folded down. You can mix and match a variety of colorways to complement or contrast your setup (as well as create a color-coding system for sorting gear). The Rux Essentials Set costs $393, which offers a $30 savings over buying the components separately, and it comes with a lifetime replacement warranty.
$393 | rux.life
Read more: 9 Best Hard Storage Cases for Overlanding
Images: Stephan Edwards
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