Large gear storage box - suggestions?

[Hatul]

I have the big Rubbermaid bins - handiest things for dive gear. No metal parts. Get one for each of you - otherwisae it starts getting heavy and awkward to carry.
Those Stanley units are pretty trick, but the metal will corrode anywhere near salt water.
There are other branded bins - especially in Wal-Marts and K-Marts, but the plastic in the Rubbermaids holds up way better in the sun and getting banged around.

I use the large Rubbermaid bin with wheels on one end for home storage, shore diving and to rinse my gear-- it's waterproof. It's large enough for two sets of gear (minus the tanks and weights). Even though it's wheeled it's not that easy to pull because the handle has no reach.

For boat diving I use a soft wheeled dive bag.

I put the tank and weight bag on a luggage cart.

Adam

 

[underwaterjon]

I use multiple rubbermaid bins to distribute the weight. To lug the stuff around I use a collapsible hand dolly. Landsend makes a pretty sweet one that has large enough wheels to handle rough pathways.

I used to store all my gear in a soft gear bag. Unfortunately roommates consistently mistook my gearbag as a great thing to store their stuff on top of. Rubbermaid bins provide a great level of protection from those that cannot read signs saying "Dive gear. Do not move or store stuff on top."

 

[PTAaron]

Thanks for the additional feedback.

I did a little shopping around today and ended up coming home with the Stanley storage box on wheels. I liked the sturdiness of it and the fact that it is solid enough to use for getting on a BC/tank as D_B pointed out.

I stuffed my and my wife's fins/boots/snorkels/masks into it just to see how it was for capacity - and it looks like it will work well for one person's gear... so we will probably pick up a second one in the future. The Lowe's by me only had one in stock.

Here are a couple of pictures... I like how the tray can come out and sit on the pull handle.

 

[D_B]

Cool beans
I don't have any room for my tray
probably cause on the bottom I put my BC weights (next to wheels) mask box, spare, and two other mask boxes (purchased for a dollar) filled with save a dive stuff, boots, light

Oh, cut off the protusion on the lid for holding a saw (oval shape, lower right) it sticks down quite a ways and could damage a wetsuit if you put it on top of your gear

 

[mustang_5l]

Looks like a great alternative to my rubbermade container! I'll have to check one out for myself.
Thanks for the great Idea!

 

[PTAaron]

Cool beans
I don't have any room for my tray
probably cause on the bottom I put my BC weights (next to wheels) mask box, spare, and two other mask boxes (purchased for a dollar) filled with save a dive stuff, boots, light

Oh, cut off the protusion on the lid for holding a saw (oval shape, lower right) it sticks down quite a ways and could damage a wetsuit if you put it on top of your gear

I noticed that and I was wondering if it would cause a problem. Thanks for the tip!

I wasn't sure if I'd be actually using the tray down the line... but for now I have a small enough gear setup that it should be able to stay for a little while!

 

[RJP]

I have the big Rubbermaid bins - handiest things for dive gear.

+1 on the Rubbermaid.

 

[PTAaron]

Just a little update on this...

My wife thought it would be cool to customize hers to match her Pearl BCD that is black, gray, and blue ... so last weekend we had some fun with spray paint.
Here are some pictures of the almost finished project... what you can't see here are the wheels painted with metallic aluminum paint. The end that is still wrapped in paper is still in process with another Firebird logo:

The formerly yellow tray:

A base layer of white paint that bonds to plastic was used as "primer", then a layer of the blue was applied to create the trim, a custom cut Firebird logo was added... and everything was layered in gray.

We're still going to probably do a layer of clearcoat just to help with durability...

Anyway... just wanted to share!

 

[diveat4850]

Contico storage locker (WalMart), The locker is just the right size, durable enough for TSA and has wheels. But has its faults, cheap wheels that break and cheap steel hardware. Could be improved with some tailgate engineering.

 

[B.L. Justice]

I picked up a Dive Box from Ebay at a smoke'n deal. It holds a ull set of my gear plus a tank in the tank well. It works on the Catalina Express and I can sit on it and lock it. You can get a Stanley box for a bunch less at retail but I found my for $100.00 delivered and it has been a life saver.

California Diving Company