So I migrated my BOB to a new edition of the same pack (maxpedition) and found out some of my food had spoiled and opened.

My powerbars were smooshed, cracked, and oozing, not one was in 'good' condition. My pack is ~3 years old and I use it when I go camping, 4wheeling and ATV'n... it rides strapped to the back of one of them. I don't use things in it regularly but I do access it occasionally. I also had some beef jerky in there that was sealed and super greasy, and I was able to break it in half it had dried out so much.

On a + side my sardines were in perfect condition Also my mainstay was still holding up but the food in side had def. loosened up and was no longer tight in the vacuum seal.

Another thing to take note of was my trioxane tablets had almost made it through their mil. wrapper!! This could be extremely dangerous and bad if it was near your food supply as it is not healthy at all.

So, it seems anything with an aluminum/metal type wrapper has cracked, ripped at the seams or got a hole poked into it.

What are you keeping in your BOB to eat that can handle real every-weekend type carry?

If I had room I would use a nalgene bottle to hold the items that can be crushed but my pack is full!

-Todd

ToddW:
I use the Millennium bars, after being in my pack for Two years they still are tight. you can find them at www.beprepared.com
I must admit that they usally don't last that long before I eat them.
this will take you right to them:
http://beprepared.com/search.asp?t=ss&ss=millennium+bar

I would look for a small Pelican case or something similar to put them. You are already using that space anyway. I would also look for a way to compartmentalize in order to maximize the space. Also, look at shifting things out.

Re-evaluate the entire pack and see if something needs to be removed/added. I believe Hacksaw and Taurus re-evaluate their packs about every six hours or so it seems.

Either way, empty the pack and rethink it.

I removed items when switching packs I go through mine about once a year and remove/add items at that time. My biggest changes have been the realization of to many of the same thing. I have gear in my vehicles already, and this is like an extra-extra-safety net kind of thing since I don't hike with this it's only with me in my truck, quad, atv, jeep etc... so my 2 spare pair of socks in my BOB is pointless since I have 2 spare in my jeep. So I cut down to 1 spare in my BOB and that sort of thing. On a side note I did bring my BOB on a jeep trip w/a friend in his jeep and I did eat a power bar after we broke down and almost had to spend the night (then I could have used my hammock and other gear!!).

Great idea on the pelican case i`ll have to check those out

I have "sub-packs" (compartments I guess).. I have 4. Stove/Cups/Related. First Aid. Water Purification. Clothes.

I def. would not want to hike far with this but I could, and I could break it down by removing some packs and giving them to someone else to carry or holding in my hand to stabilize differently.

Another thing I noticed while taking apart the pack and putting it in a new one was I didn't have any source of renewable fire starting. I had matches, I had a $/bling wind-proof ligther but no blast match or firesteel (other than in handle of knife).

I used to have my entire kit on a post here but I think the pictures went away. I`ll have to make a new one soon.

Thanks I`ll have to get some and see how they do.

Link to old post about the BOB pics are gone.. I`ll re-upload soon:

http://forums.equipped.org/ubbthreads.ph...=true#Post66266

And as a side note I still have items to add from my old list

For food in water tight containers, I'd look more at a Lock'n'Lock container- lighter, less expensive, and more efficent in terms of space. You can run them over with a car without having them fail, but if you are looking for a second string of water protection and crush proofing, it will be might work out better in the long run.

What I keep stored is rotated out of BOB every six months.

As a suggestion, don't know if this can/would work for your set up, but you say that a nalgene bottle could work if you had the space for it. Since you are using a maxpedition pack which should have a plethora of PALS webbing points, is it feasable to attach either a small rolly polly or their new water bottle pouches to your pack? I'm thinking the rolly polly if you wanted the ability to collapse the pouch when not in use, the water bottle pouch if you wanted to squeak a little extra pocket space (they have a zippered pouch on the side). Just an option.

-Bill Liptak

IronRaven,

These http://www.organize.com/lolofostco.html look interesting for some other uses in packs - which sizes are you using, functionality, weight, good and bad points, etc, please.

IOW, review 'em for us, please!

They are cheap enough in the sizes I looked at that I am thinking about scouts PFAK in the very small sizes.

Tom

If your Mainstay bars are loose, then you've lost seal and those can't be trusted. I had some arrive that way in a shipment from SOSFoodLabs (different company, same type of thing -- they make the Millenium bars, too). When I called SOS, they asked me to throw them away and sent free replacements.