Show Me Your Chuckboxes/Camp Kitchen Setups

[Corey]

After we got back from vacation up at Mount Rainier National Park the second week of August, I began the hunt for a smaller/lighter chuckbox.
I did not rally care for the other wooden offerings on the market, and I was going to pull the expensive trigger on the Kanz Kitchen, but he is pretty much out of business for now.

Then I came across the King Charles Chuckbox by Trail Kitchens who make assorted camping kitchen setups.
I spoke with them about adding a cable to the front door to hold it horizontal like my wooden one, and they said they could do that.
This way I can set a cutting board on there and chop away.
I wanted an upper compartment added to house the stove like on my old chuckbox, but they could not do that they said.

You can put a stove all the way on the bottom as seen on Trail Kitchens website, but I am using that for plates/bowls, etc.
I will have to hunt for a bag for the Camp Chef Denali stove.
Camp Chef has one, but they are out of stock, so I may have to look elsewhere for one.

Overall I am very pleased with the new chuckbox.
Fully loaded it weighs less than the empty wooden chuckbox.
The wooden one loaded weighs in between 80 to 100 lbs, simply too much for me to be lifting in and out of the rig these days.

I may look in the future to the FJ Cruiser plate system by Goose Gear, and add in their fridge slide module with a drawer on top.
Where they show the fridge, I could just put the new chuckbox in there instead.
This way I could slide out the chuckbox and actually cook off the back of the rig.
That will take a lot of planning though, as I would have to delete my current cargobox, and go with a drawer system of theirs on the other side of the fridge or kitchen module.

Links:

Trail Kitchens Website

The King Charles Chuckbox

Pics and one video:

You do loose the upper stove compartment like I had on the wooden chuckbox built by member Pat Lambert, but this new box is so easy to lift, even fully loaded

My old silverware tray fit just fine in the upper pull out tray, and it has more sections than the one they included

The old paper towel holder works (yeahhhhhhhh), but alas the one for a hand towel will not work

Inside shot of the sections, and I fit just about everything I had in the old chuckbox
I did switch from the heavy Magma 10 piece cookset to the GSI Pinnacle Base Camper non stick Large and Small cookset.
Customer service there did a test fit for me and found that all the pots from the small set will nestle in with the large set just fine.
I found the large set I had the pots were just too big if you only had to heat up a small item.

 

[Steve]

Here ya go:

Kitchens- Lets See Em

DIY Portable Camp Kitchen

Scout Equipment Overland Kitchen (completed pics)

Plano Camp Kitchen (Beta Box Version)

Let's see your Fold out kitchen

Chuck box ideas

My Camp Kitchen Chuck Box

 

[Epic Overland]

Slowly getting mine dialed in.

 

[buckwilk]

OP, on the old box with the stove on top, did you cook with it up there? How far off the ground was that?

 

[Jeff Swain]

Here are some pics of mine.

 

[Corey]

OP, on the old box with the stove on top, did you cook with it up there? How far off the ground was that?

Yes I did, I always cooked with the stove on the box.
On Mount Rainiers picnic table it was a little higher than normal (not sure how high), but this way I only had to setup one of my K9 tables at the other end for a few things.

 

[Corbet]

My kitchen box is a simple pelican case that stores below my fridge. All my cooking kit is in that single case. Food in the fridge and an action packer. Space is at an extreme premium with a 100lb dog. Plus we are generally always camping in bear country. I can not leave my kitchen outside unsecured. So I cook on my tailgate. The carpet has been removed in favor for a giant cutting board panel. Everything stores below the dog platform. When I don't have the dog the roof rack gets a break.

View attachment 33932

 

[theSkyWhale]

View attachment 33931 My kitchen box is a simple pelican case that stores below my fridge. All my cooking kit is in that single case. Food in the fridge and an action packer. Space is at an extreme premium with a 100lb dog. Plus we are generally always camping in bear country. I can not leave my kitchen outside unsecured. So I cook on my tailgate. The carpet has been removed in favor for a giant cutting board panel. Everything stores below the dog platform. When I don't have the dog the roof rack gets a break.

View attachment 33929 View attachment 33930 View attachment 33932

What size pelican is that?

 

[000]

I spent some money and a weekend building a nice chuck box like I remembered from Boy Scouts and used it a couple times before realizing it was way too heavy and took up too much space. I bought two of these tailgaterz from amazon, 1 for kitchen stuff and 1 for general camping stuff like headlamps, bug spray, etc. I just toss them in a tote with the stove, pots and pans and fuel and unroll and hang them on the side of the truck. It’s worked out way better for me. Cheaper, lighter and more organized and easy to use. I now can fit pretty much all camping gear into one tote and dry food in another with cold stuff in the fridge and a small yeti with beers and cocktail ice. I got a narrow plastic fold up table from Costco that everything sits on in the bed while traveling.


Sent from my iPhone using OB Talk

 

[Corbet]

What size pelican is that?

1550

 

[vegasjeepguy]

 

[FireMedicPQ1]

Interesting thread. I have been struggling with my kitchen set up. I have the REI fold out kitchen, but I found it to be cumbersome. I was thinking about a box set up, but they just look so heavy and take up valuable space. I like the idea of the pouches hanging from the awning (Tailgatorz?) used in conjunction with a small foldout table for the stove. I think I will play around with that idea over the winter for next season.

 

[Corey]

Here is an update to mine, I got a new Goose Gear cargobox a few months back, and then added a Tembo Tusk fridge slide to it.
The stock slide out rails were too short to extend the box out past the rig to open the drop down door/table, so I got longer rails from Jerry and installed them two Thursday ago.
I can now use the chuckbox and cook with it still attached to the rig if I want too instead of taking it out and putting it on a table like I have with my old wooden one.
Of course I can still remove it from the fridge slide and place it on top of a camping table, I carry two of them strapped to the side of my fridge.

In the pics here the stove sits up too high obviously, and I found a solution yesterday to extend the legs on the stove so it can clear the doors hatch on the chuckbox, thus letting me sit the stove down at a more comfortable height.
I had some plastic plugs from a stand for monitor speakers, and they just happened to fit in the holes on the stoves rubber feet.
When it quits raining here, I will get some additional pics of the stove at its new location on top of the boxes door/table.

Only drawback to the longer rails is they have to protrude into the cargo area, but no problem.
That space between the rails I can fit my 60 and 73 liter Alu-Boxes perfectly stacked on top of each other.

I even have room to have a Blue Ridge Chair Works chair tucked inside of the rail too.
This pic here though only shows the 42 liter box there as a test fit.
The two camp tables are on the outside of the rail, and strapped to the side of the fridge.

Here are three new pics from last week of the chuckbox after putting in the longer rails.

With as high as the stove is now, I cannot even see the inside of a pot if it was on the stove.
You can see the latch for the chuckbox door how it sticks up, and that will not let the stove sit flat, but with the extensions I put on the rubber feet, that should work.
If I get a break from the rain later, I will try and snag some more pics.

 

[Corey]

Last update to the chuckbox, well maybe
I also put up pics in my build thread, and the What Did You Do To Your Rig Today thread.

As I mentioned earlier, the stove would not fit on the chuckboxes door/table due to the latch sticking up, and the stove bottom hitting it.
Used some plastic plugs I had laying around, and they inserted nicely into the rubber feet.

The stove can now be used at a more comfortable height in case I want to cook from the chuckbox too.
Actually it would be better to set the stove on a camp table, and use the drop down door/table of the chuckbox to set a cutting board on to prep food.
It all comes down to testing it later in the field which is going to be a while due to winter.

 

[bonsaidave]

Here's my camp kitchen it's more of a base camp kitchen.

 

[Tex68w]

I love it! Looks heavy though.

 

[bonsaidave]

I love it! Looks heavy though.

Thanks Tex68w, yes it's a little heavy. But I have no money into it except for my time. And you can say I'm rolling heavy with a 79 Bronco with a big block 460 in it. Last year I added a thermal siphon with a cooler as a holding tank. It's so simple and it's nice to have hot water at A Primitive camp.

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

 

[Longshot270]

I was thinking about building something like that with a transmission cooler I had laying around, but that looks more durable.

Here's my new chuck box/grub hub.

 

[Jeremy M.]

I work out of a tote as well. I remember the chuck boxes we had in scouts been very heavy and I’m trying to stay light.


Sent from my iPad using OB Talk

 

[Corey]

I work out of a tote as well. I remember the chuck boxes we had in scouts been very heavy and I’m trying to stay light.


Sent from my iPad using OB Talk

Yeah, that is why I moved to my new lighter Trail Kitchens one.
The wood one I have is purdy, but oh soooooooooo heavy