Car-Dwelling Essentials

Nick C wrote:

The one I have is stainless steel. What do you clean it with if you don’t use anything hard?

C.I. is CAST IRON, just saying.....hot water at most, never soap, don't use it for everything. I have to say, popping popcorn in some oil regularly makes cast iron skillets happy! Just wipe with a paper towel after.

Stainless steel is....not cast iron, lol!

Best, Helen

I like to clean my cast iron with a metal dish scrub. The ones that are like a rougher steel wool. Is that bad? That's part of the reason I like it, that I can clean it without using any water. Scrape out anything big, hit it with the metal scrubbie, little oil on it and boom good to go.

Yes that's bad! But if it works for you then it's all good.

You should have a layer of oil between the Iron & the food you are going to eat. Also it will cook more evenly. Cast Iron does not heat evenly & the seasoning helps it even out.

Renters ins. is a must. I locked the back of my truck with padlocks , so they stole the whole truck! My next step when I got it back was to do away with the ignition key & make my own off on switch that went with me when I left the truck. 

A hipster beard and some Rivers Cuomo glasses are probably the two highest priorities

Artem Vasilyev wrote:

You can get renters insurance without having a residence that you are renting? 

During an extended period of #trucklife my insurance company agreed to write a renter's insurance policy for 12 months when the address I was renting was a self-storage unit where all of my household effects were stored.

When my truck was stolen they never got into the back, but they took the seats and everything in the cab including the steering wheel. Renters Ins. paid for fixing my truck & it would have paid for the truck had it not been found. If I had been in an accident it would not have paid a dime. 

Insurance is weird sometimes. My neighbor had an ATV catch fire, burning up it, and the pickup it was in. Almost caught the house on fire, as it was parked next to his house.

Homeowners didn't want to cover, because it involved his own vehicle (not someone else on his property), and it wasn't a house fire.

Auto insurance didn't want to cover it, because it wasn't his almost new pickup that caught fire.

ATV company didn't want any responsibility, even though this was a known defect ...

Catch 22s, lots of them.

Best, Helen

I would agree that a two-burner stove and rotomolded cooler (like a yeti or equivalent) are game-changers. You can then cook and store real food rather than just eating camping food all the time. Put some block ice in the cooler and you can usually go for about a week without needing more ice.

Not sure about needing an actual residence for renter's insurance.  I bundled mine with my car insurance and it is pretty cheap for $15,000 - 20,000 worth of coverage. 

When dealing with Ins.companies you need to call you state Ins. commissioner. When my truck was stolen the Ins. company told me tough luck they were not going to pay out anything to me. I called the Ca. state Ins. commissioner & Kemper Ins. hand delivered  me a check for $6,000.00 the next day.

They eat a lot also.

$10 Ace hardware .5 gallon weed sprayer.  Pour a tea pot of hot water in and pump it up and you can have a full spray hot shower.  Also great for rinsing the dishes.  Can add some tubing to make the hose longer and easier for showering.

My strategy is to make sure valuables are out of site, but people can see in the car. Meaning if you cover the windows, thieves will think you're hiding something valuable inside and break in. So leave the interior visible. Anything valuable is hidden away, e.g. a pack of climbing gear is hidden under a old crappy duffel bag with the top open and just your street clothes showing. You can't hide everything, so make sure the stuff that's visible is the stuff that's not really worth stealing. I'd consider adding a lock box for really valuable stuff, but again I'd put something over the lock box to cover it up, otherwise thieves will think there's something valuable in there and break in. Even if they can't get into the lock-box they may break your windows and steal other stuff.

Renter's insurance is a good idea. Document everything with pictures and get a low deductible.

A roof box is a great way to free up space in the interior of the car, but are easy to break into. During the day I put my light bedding and other not so valuable stuff up there. At night you could put a lot of stuff up there to get it out of the way and since you are in the car hopefully no one would be breaking into it.

All you need is a girlfriend.

To actually live with.

At her place

Bonus if she buys all the food, too.

Jeff G wrote: $10 Ace hardware .5 gallon weed sprayer.  Pour a tea pot of hot water in and pump it up and you can have a full spray hot shower.  Also great for rinsing the dishes.  Can add some tubing to make the hose longer and easier for showering.

Hit it with a coat of  black spray paint and leave it out in the sun all day while you're out climbing, and you'll have warm/hot water at the end of the day.

Artem Vasilyev wrote: ...
I have a few questions for MP - most importantly - how do you secure your valuables from trail head thieves? I have over 10k of climbing gear that cannot get stolen and much of which I will not be using while I am out climbing on a given day. I was thinking of bolting some kind of strongbox inside my truck (no open bed on an fj) and storing my most valuable equipment in there. The assumption would be that your average meth head would be unable to break into it. I would need to fit things like ice screws, crampons, ice tools, cams, portaledge, bags, etc.

What do you folks do to deal with this problem?

My experience with car break-ins is that the perps either 1) steal the vehicle or 2) smash, grab stuff, & run. 

The strong box won't help with 1); maybe a steering wheel lock/club instead, especially if your vehicle doesn't have modern RF-ID ignition interlocks. 

If all your stuff is in neat duffle bags, it is convenient to take. If you leave all your stuff loose in the vehicle, it is tedious and time consuming to remove; the resulting chaos might not be convenient to live in. 

You can easily run steel cable through most climbing gear and padlock the cable(s) down to seats or child-seat connection points. A downside, this makes adding that extra cam from lock-up to your rack at the last minute into a tedious chore. 

Pacsafe makes an eco-mesh steel cable pack/duffle protector ( pacsafe.com/products/120l-a…;_sid=ec9cfada3&_ss=r).

The steel cable solutions are easy to outsmart with wire cutters, so really this is a just deterrent against opportunists; and don't leave your leatherman tool on the dash...

Josh Gates wrote:

Do you have a link for it? ...ballpark cost estimate, if not? Intrigued.

I shit ye not, I got it for five bucks at Wallyworld.

Brian Wirtz wrote:

Hit it with a coat of  black spray paint and leave it out in the sun all day while you're out climbing, and you'll have warm/hot water at the end of the day.

Jeff and Bryan, that’s a winner! I can’t stand paying five bucks to take a shower. That buys a lot of beans and rice!

Only thing I haven't seen listed here that I think is totally essential is a 12x12 tarp.  Pair that with your cozy chair, roll up table, two burner stove with 10lb LP tank, and a roto-molded cooler and you're set to be happy during what would otherwise be a miserable day.  A Jerry Can for water is a lot better than the leaky collapsible water jugs so many people have.  A good sleeping pad and a nice pillow are also key. 

Long Ranger wrote: 
Bonus if she buys all the food, too.

double bonus if she climbs 5.12 and can put up ropes for you!