10 Nifty 4WD Storage Solutions You Probably Haven’t Thought Of

Love camping and 4WDing but hate packing? These 10 storage solutions will make your next trip out bush or beach, smooth and easy.

Have you, like me, noticed that every time you go camping, or head out on an off-road trip, that there just isn’t a right spot for everything? Or that you somehow always have less space on the way home?

Worse, you might be copping the blame for misplacing the head torch, toilet paper, or other vital camping items!

These 4WD accessories and storage solutions won’t save your life, but they will certainly save your relationship with your significant camping other.

I’ve spent almost a year travelling around Australia in a 4WD, plus countless other trips, and I can vouch that organisation is key to a good time.

I have a holy camping mantra; ‘everything has a place and it goes straight back in that place when it’s done’.

We took a Toyota Prado 150 souped-up with all the Kaon gear for an organisational-test-run, to find out which storage solutions ensure you’ll have the perfect place for everything.

1. Standalone Rear Roof Shelf

Whether your car is tiny or huge, there probably never seems to be quite enough space for the last few things, or you might wish there was an extra nook for your bits and bobs – this is where the standalone rear roof shelf comes in.

Sitting snugly in the roofline of your boot, it’s out of sight and out of mind, along with some of the smaller items that are hard to find a place for.

Generally this is where I like to place a larger medical kit, some rain gear, extra tarps or gazebo walls, plus some packing cubes with other useful odds and ends.

Taking up the previously unused space in the roof cavity, you’ll wonder how you ever camped without it.

2. Light Cargo Barrier

Not only will the light cargo barrier save you in the unlikely event of an off-road accident, and prevent your cargo flying into the cabin on rough terrain, it also doubles as a storage solution.

The cargo barrier is designed to fit additional accessories as you see fit, as well as being compatible with both PALS and MOLLE webbing and storage pouch sizing.

The clever Kaon design has it installed in under 10 minutes, utilising factory mounting points, so there’s no drilling!

It’s also compatible with child seat restraints and is adjustable for different seating positions. Best of all, the smooth laser-cut finish makes it look like it came out of the factory with your rig.

3. Side Molle Panels

These side panels are the perfect spot for smaller, lighter items you want quick access to. This is where I always hang my snake bite kit, small axe, and class-A fire extinguisher (for wood fires).

Like all Kaon storage solutions, they fit in factory-drilled holes and bolt straight in with ease.

Again these are MOLLE and PALS compatible and also suit popular Quick Fist clamps for items with a handle or fire extinguishers.

If you’ve ever wished for just that little bit of extra storage and an easy mount and grab storage solution, the side molle panels are what you’re after.

4. Fridge Cargo Divider

Like the side panels and barrier, the fridge cargo divider gives you additional mounting surfaces for whatever you need tucked away securely and easily accessible from the rear of your fourbie.

Designed to bolt in-between your other Kaon 4WD accessories, the slimline divider also prevents your cargo flying side to side on rough tracks and helps stop anything falling in around your fridge and blocking up the vents.

5. Rear Door Table

A must for any off-road adventure, the rear door table is the perfect spot to cook up a storm or place some cold drinks after a long day on the road.

The table is weight-rated to handle your cookers, pots and pans, plus any food or drink sitting on top.

We confidently throw our triple burner stove and cast iron pots on top and it’s sturdy as a rock – throughout this trip I made simple burgers on the double burner.

There’s also an optional clip-on chopping board and (coming soon) a kitchenette clip-in sink extension for those that need the space for prepping and cleaning up from a big meal for the whole gang.

6. Rear Door Cages

If you’re like us and enjoy elaborate camp cooking, the clever designers at Kaon also build rear door cages for all your herbs and spices, plus plenty of space for extra food, cleaning products, as well as plates and cutlery.

But whether you’re into fishing, climbing, or just need accessible baby stuff, you can put whatever you like in there.

We had this on our Prado test vehicle, so I can confirm it was super handy to have spices and condiments in reach while cooking burgers on the fold-down table. We even made a reel, watch it in action.

7. Out-Back Gas Bottle Mount

The endless dilemma. What to do with the gas bottle! You certainly don’t want it in the car, and ideally not on the roof either.

While I’ve seen some ingeniously dodgy solutions to overcome this, the Out-Back Gas Battle Mount will have you ‘cooking with gas’ in no time. Not sorry.

Even for off-road animals, this mount will fit on tyres up to 37” and can be mounted left, right, or on top.

If you pair this with a fold-down table, you can simply run the gas line around the door, straight to your cooker.

This mount suits all the popular 1.25kg and 2kg Companion, and Gasmate LPG Gas Cylinders.

Like other Kaon gear, it’s Australian-made from stainless steel and powder coated, so it’ll never rust and let your gas bottle become a highway grenade.

8. Maxtrax & TRED Flush Flat Mount

I’ve seen all kinds of crazy solutions to mounting recovery tracks, but most importantly you want them flush, quick and easy to access, and obviously not in the car.

The Maxtrax and TRED Flush Flat Mount makes sure you can get your recovery tracks in a hurry and keep them out of the vehicle after a muddy rescue.

The flush mount also means they cause almost no drag on the highway and gives you that little bit of extra clearance in car parks, necessary if you’re running the now almost standard 2-inch lift with 33” tyres!

You probably guessed from the name, but these mounts are compatible with the well-loved and tested Maxtrax and TRED recovery tracks, and may also suit some other brands.

9. Roof Rack Table Slide

Forget the Sydney Opera House, this is an engineering marvel to overcome the peskiest camping storage problem – the table.

While there are some decent compact tables out there, nothing beats a big sturdy trestle table at your campsite, but packing it is always a pain.

This Kaon table slide allows you to fit the classic (some would say iconic) Bunnings Marquee 4ft Trestle Table perfectly in the slim cavity between your roof rack and vehicle’s roof.

Yes, you read that correctly. Plus it allows it to be smoothly slid in and out of the space.

@kaonaust

Keep in mind this is compatible only with the Rhino-Rack Pioneer Platform Series 4 or 5 and Front Runner Slimline II.

Note: Provided hardware may not suit platforms mounted on top of Cross Bars and you’ll need a minimum 50mm clearance between your roof and roof rack.

10. 270º Universal Awning Brackets

Whether it’s steaming hot or cold and raining, an awning is a must-have 4WD accessory and Kaon have you sorted with a tough, lightweight, and adjustable universal 270º awning mount that’ll suit most popular rack and awning manufacturers.

Unlike many other mounts, these are designed to evenly spread the load across your roof rack, and will securely hold even the biggest awnings, up to 40kg, to make sure you don’t go viral on 4WD fails.

The 270-degree awning (mounted on these brackets) certainly saved our skin when we were out testing all this gear on a 36°C day on the upper Clarence River.

The flat bracket design means you can still mount other items over the top on your roof rack.

Casey’s been 4WDing all around Australia, but he was initially reluctant to start driving off-road. But after not too long, he gave in, and bought a fourbie to get to all the best far-away campsites, pristine waterholes, white-sand beaches, and remote hikes around the country. Read more about why and how he became a 4WD guy.

Photos by @ben.savage