How to pack a Jeep for a weekend without losing your mind

By the SquadBox familyUpdated September 20266 min read

Three Jeeps parked at a mountain overlook

The problem with packing a Wrangler is not space. It is that a Jeep moves. Everything you put in the back at home ends up somewhere else by the time you reach camp, usually the footwell, usually the thing you need first.

Here is a system that holds up.

Pack in zones, not in bags

Four zones, front to back.

Zone 1, arm's reach: the things you grab without stopping. Tire gauge, headlamp, snacks, phone mount, leash, first aid kit. This belongs on a wall, not in a bag, which is what MOLLE panels are for.
Zone 2, locked and small: wallet, keys, sidearm, camera bodies, anything you would not leave on a seat. A pair of small lockable compartments handles this. If you do not have them, this stuff travels with you every time you get out, which gets old fast.
Zone 3, the main load: camp kit, clothes, food, tools. Flat and heavy on the bottom, light on top, nothing loose.
Zone 4, dirty and wet: recovery gear, muddy boots, wet towels, the shovel. Keep this away from everything else and keep it easy to hose off.

MOLLE panels and gear organized inside a SquadBox — Zone 1 on the wall: MOLLE keeps grab items off the floor.

Heavy low, light high, nothing loose

A Wrangler has a high centre of gravity to begin with. Put the heavy things on the floor and as far forward as you can. Anything above the belt line should be light and strapped. If you can slide it by hand, it will slide on a washboard road.

Tie it down, properly

Tie-down points are the difference between a packed Jeep and a loaded Jeep. Four points on a load is the usual answer, two if it is small, and a diagonal if it is tall. A ratchet strap and two seconds beats picking your cooler up off the spare tire.

Leave these at home

The full tool roll, when a small kit covers what breaks on a weekend. Three camp chairs for two people. The second cooler. The "just in case" duffel, which is always the bag nobody opens.

Make it repeatable

The best thing you can do is build the setup once so you are not solving the problem every Friday. Once everything has a place, packing goes from an hour to fifteen minutes, and you stop leaving things behind. That is the real reason to put a proper storage system in a Jeep. Security is why you buy it. Not thinking about packing any more is why you keep it.

See the SquadBox cargo system, or read how Jeeps get broken into, and what actually stops it.

Author photoWritten by the SquadBox family. Twenty-eight years in the Army, then a workshop building cargo storage for the Jeeps we drive.