Not to steal from this post: http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=10&f=17&t=624413

I mentioned to the OP in the above post that we are going car camping fathers day weekend for 3.5 days. Last time was REALLY tight due to the large family tent I purchased (Springbar 7 person "family camper") that can be seen here. that is made locally. Several coworker have one or in most cases many, one has had his for over 30 years and its still going strong and holds out the water. He said his has seen wind that he would swear was going to pick them and tent and drop the in the land of OZ. I decided to fix the storage issue with a roof rack on the soccer hauler. Ended up going with a Thule MOAB that I got delivered for $320 from Backcountry.com, which are also local, I had to pay taxed because of this, then purchased a set of 4 locks and the basket net. Installed the rack at work the day after it came in during lunch (co worker helped me lift it over the SUV since the girl could not reach that high). The factory bars are rated for 165 lbs, the rack weighs 35. That leaves me with an available 135 lb if need. Thing went together and up FAST. Seriously 20 minutes for the 2 of us who have never done this before. When I first installed it I opted to leave off the wind deflector.... bad mistake. The wind noise driving home at 80 (really over 40 was loud as well) was unbearable. Made me think I was driving the racecar again. Got home and added the deflector. Hopped on the freeway and shot up to 80, little, very little, noise. Up to 100 (yes speeding but only for a minute) the stereo easily drowned out the noise. Girl did not notice it at all the next day going to work, but then she listens to the music at full volume. Been raining a few times a day for the last 2 weeks (news has had stories on entire neighborhoods that have flooded worse I see was a neighbor to a friend who had 7 feet of water in his basement... felt bad for them). Today is, or was, beautiful... storm just rolled in again, but I had plenty of time to load up and check the stuff out. Decided to make it fun (so be it the girl thought I was a DAM nut job), I thought I would try it out as a mock bug out and go for a drive around the valley to observe any issues. I feel I am pretty organized, so this is not as hard as I really thought it would be. I did not load the cooler Just took a few seconds walking around the kitchen with it, also did not load clothes or the hygene kit, again just walked in the closet/ bathroom and fumbled thru the drawers/ shelves. I figure if it really comes to it, I will skip the cooler and just grab a few cases of MREs/ MH foods. The non pershible foods are organized well and I can grab what I need quickly to augment or build meals... .since I do all the cooking. Once the stuff from the apartment was loaded, pulled partway into the garage and loaded the rest of the camping stuff. Took me almost 30 minutes to do everything. I then drove around the valley for a hour in various areas, freeway, city, backroads, ect. Came home started to offload and took a few photos of the rack. Figured the mock BO was good since living in an apartment (will be in a house in a few months) there is NO WAY in HELL I would want to stay here. If a actual BO occurred I would skipp the cooler and add more water container (pre-filled in one of the closets that I drain sterilize and refill every 6 months), a few cases of MREs/ MH/ Various freezedried/ dehydrated foods. A dutch oven. A few ARs in addition to the Shottie, the spare parts/ conversion kit I keep prepackaged, and a few ammo cans of 5.56, 12g, 45 (was CCW the XD45C  the whole time doing all this as well, come to think of it), and top off the tank with stored fuel (just 10 gallons) but its all I can have here, and grab a few extra propane bottles and gallons of coleman fuel/ and what ever camping equipment I think is essential to fill it up.... So I figure in less than 1Hour of "go time" we could be on our way so be it the car will be pretty full... its doable, hopefully never done.

The last time I did this I found out that rushing you can forget stuff, so I made "lists" that I printed up and keep in an envelope in the dresser, so I can cross/ check stuff off as I go. What is hard, is doing this while not attracting attention to ones self in such a high public area. I had to start early to get out of here before everyone was up and watching me. Like I said, thank you mother nature for working with me. A few things I determined... neatly compressing sleeping bags make them MUCH smaller than a quick half ass attempt, but I was on the go and figured the half ass would be the worst case example. I have already added to the spare tire area a large sheet of clear plastic drop cloth so if I need to mock up a water resistant system, I can.. this was the first thing I did upon returning. There is already duct tape, bungees, and the cargo net down there with other items. Again mother nature was on my side. Started raining about 70 minutes after I was done unpacking.

The family bags consist of a Wiggys FTRSS superlight "hunters with hoods setup". These are rectangular bags with hoods that allow more room for the woman. I have the mummy FTRSS superlight in OD green and a few USGI bivys. The girls pads are full out, ,twin, blow-up matresses. They are like sleeping at home. I have a Ridgerest large,  and the new addition a prolight plus large that offers more R value than the older pro4 that now sits in a box in the garage. The bags can be seen here...

http://home.comcast.net/~utspoolup/Wiggys1.JPG
http://home.comcast.net/~utspoolup/Wiggys2.JPG
http://home.comcast.net/~utspoolup/Wiggys3.JPG

I keep 8 prefilled USGI water cans in a few closets and cycle the water ever 6 months. I keep 2 empty just for camping use, the rest are in storage. Use to use the aquatainer 4 gallon, but had 2 leak, plus I found out they can not be stacked when full... only empty... that really sucked. Thank god for my steam cleaner to suck up the water, and lucky I noticed it really quick. Its really amazing with how much wasted space I have seen in a few friends homes. I mean my place is just a little over 1K sqft, and I have stuff to actually live AND function. they have pretty and costly. I found out living in an apartment one really has to think ahead of anything happening or what they plan on doing. I have been luck in this regard. Hopefully no one minds my little ramble I just made, but here is the contents of what was packed (or mocked) and some photos.

*Tent Body- On MOAB
Tent poles- in SUV
Tent stake bags- In SUV, small duffle
Hammer- In SUV, small duffle
Glasses- In SUV, small duffle
Shovel, NATO- In SUV, small duffle
*Sleeping Bags- In big black duffle on MOAB
*Mattress’s/ pads- In big black duffle on MOAB
*Mattress pump- In big green duffle on MOAB
Fox tail and dust pan- In SUV, small black duffle
*Tent ground cloth- In big green duffle on MOAB
*Coleman 2 burner compact stove- In big green duffle on MOAB
*30” bow saw and spare blade- In big green duffle on MOAB
*Coleman lantern, propane- In big green duffle on MOAB
*Lantern, battery- In big green duffle on MOAB
*Cookware, GSI base camp pinnacle large- In big green duffle on MOAB
*Cookware, GSI 10” pinnacle skillet- In big green duffle on MOAB
*Floor mats- In big green duffle on MOAB
Potty shelter- In SUV
Potty kit- In SUV
M590A1- In SUV
Ammo (20 rd of Brenneke slugs, 10 rd of 00)- In SUV
Kelty Basecamp Kitchen- In SUV
WD40- In SUV, secondary containment
Fuel x2 (in 33oz MSR bottles)- In SUV, secondary containment
Propane x3 (1lb Coleman bottles)- In SUV, secondary containment
Heater- In big green duffle on MOAB
#Dishes and utensils- In SUV
#Paper Towels and Toilet paper- In SUV
Cooler and perishable food- In SUV- mocked up
Non perishable food- In SUV- mocked up
#2X 5gallon USGI water can- In SUV
#10L MSR dromedary with shower hose kit thing- In SUV
#Water filter and MP1 tablets- In SUV
#Clothing- In SUV- mocked up
#Flashlights- In SUV
#Personal Hygiene equipment/ sun block/ bug spray ect- In SUV- mocked up
#Family First aid kit w/ hand san, cold compress, Benadryl cream, additional meds- In SUV
#Spare batteries- In SUV

The stuff marked with a astrik (*) was in the rack. Total weight with rack was 145. Figured this out last night when making up the list.
The stuff marked with apound (#) is stuff I keep in 2 "emergency totes" in 2 closets, I just cycle this stuff in these for the new stuff when old stuff runs out. Its tricky to keep up with a growing child's clothing backup like this.
Potty kit consists of a "privy potty tent" that I got at emergency essentials (also local), a 6 gallon bucket, a toilet seat that can clamp onto the bucket, a box of double bagged chemical toilet kit things, a small container of bleach, a few kitchen garbage bags, disp gloves, 2 rolls of TP in ziplocks, a sealed lid if I can not find a outhouse to seal up the kit for the ride down the canyon.

I will be taking a few knives out and doing some construction/ batoning/ ect tests with them and hopefully taking pictures of it all. I will update here when I return. So far the weather guessers are hoping that it will be a great weekend.... more luck rolling my way, about time.

Photos of the rack after offloading and removing most the inside stuff. The bags were individually strapped down before the net was added, but came to my senses about taking a photo of this for this thread and just tossed the net back over. Not sure if the other bungees are overkill or needed, but it only takes a minute more to add them, and what can it hurt? Windnoise was there, but not as bad as I thought it would be. Figure if I need to tarp it up, the noise will increase a lot. No really hiccups or issues with the around town test. Got a few thumbs up and waves for some unknown people. I really was getting worried due to the dark clouds peaking over the mountains. the middle bag you see is just the canvas for the tent. Its a great setup, but heavy, large and defiantly for car camping. I plan on ordering this Friday a Kifaru Paratipi with small stove for single "me" use. Well my daughter just woke from her nap so I need to get busy again, hopefully no one minds me adding to the space at ARF.

Got pics of it all packed inside?

Looks good. tag for further reading.

No, kind of like I was saying the last paragraph... I came to my senses and decided to photograph it AFTER unloading it. Ill get more in about 5 days but it will be 8 days till I post them.

Thanks for the AAR.