Car storage ideas

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chadm

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May 27, 2010
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Have a new opportunity to fish more but I will be in a car and will need to keep items in the trunk and probably for a few days at a time. how do most people do that? Tupperware container? How do you keep the stink down?
 
I'd go the other way, for the sake of not ruining expensive equipment, you gotta try to keep air circulation, dry them out as best you can.

For waders, I usually take a hanger, and if they gotta stay in the car, I hang them from the "oh S%^t" bar in the backseat, like you would a suit, and lay the legs along the seat to air out the best you can.

For boots, I sometimes put them in a plastic bin to save the car a little, but no lid. I wouldn't put them in the trunk, I'd put them on the floor in the rear and keep the windows down as much as possible.
 
chadm said:
How do you keep the stink down?
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Occupational hazard. Learn to live with the smell or do as suggested above. I've done both in the past. The bonus of learning to live with the smell is often your non-fishing buddies don't want to ride in your car so you end up being a passenger. Good if you want a dd.
 
Of course, the best solution is as much air on them as possible, but as you said with a couple of days I don't think that's a big deal. I quick rinse when you get home and then a proper drying asap. In the meantime, I would think the Tupperware container would work during your travels.
 
As there is never enough time to properly dry out wading gear between consecutive outings, I keep waders & wading shoes wet until I get home for a few days to properly dry them out.

I store them in a decent quality dry bag (I like the SealLine Baja) that also works like a wet bag. That keeps the rear of my car or anywhere else I store stuff, bone dry until I get home.

I once forgot about a pair of wading shoes I stored wet in a Baja Bag once and they were still wet 7 months later...

...and they fared and smelled just fine.
 
The ideal method, when I had a truck, was to just keep them in the bed, under a tonneau cover. Stink was completely separated from the cabin.

Now, my fishing vehicles are a 4Runner, or my wife’s Outback. I put an oversize tote Tupperware in, with no lid, as mentioned. Contains the mess from boots and waders and keeps the interior of your vehicle much cleaner.

There’s times where I miss the truck, and mutli-day fishing trips out of the vehicle are one of them, but 95% of the time the enclosed, weatherproof, and security of the cargo area of an SUV win out IMO.

Your boots and waders will be fine a couple days at a time staying in your car overnight. Dry them fully as usual when you get home.
 
If you can't properly dry your waders, turn them inside-out so that the insides have the best chance to dry and the stink stays mostly on the the outsides.
 
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It's the enclosed trunk in a sedan that worries me a little. I have an outback and the shoe bin goes in the hatch area. But if I had a sedan, I'd be leery of keeping them wet in the trunk for days. It's a small enclosed space with no air circulation at all, that gets hot easily. Once wet, I'd have them in the backseat area somewhere.
 
pcray1231 said:
It's the enclosed trunk in a sedan that worries me a little. I have an outback and the shoe bin goes in the hatch area. But if I had a sedan, I'd be leery of keeping them wet in the trunk for days. It's a small enclosed space with no air circulation at all, that gets hot easily. Once wet, I'd have them in the backseat area somewhere.
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I was assuming the OP is wearing them during the day, and storing them at night, when trunk temp is less an issue, but maybe shouldn’t have been. Also possible I suppose he’s fishing on day 1, and then not fishing on days 2/3, retuning home on day 4, etc.

OP - Do you have any options for storing them outside of the vehicle overnight? Are you camping - Hang them off a tree limb overnight to dry? Are you staying in a hotel - Take them inside and hang them in the shower? Cabin or relative/friend’s house - Toss them over the porch/deck railing? Etc.

Boots take days to dry in ideal conditions anyway. Sometimes I fish on a Saturday, put my boots on the rack in my garage when I get home, and they’re still slightly damp a week later when I go to fish the next weekend. I never notice any real stink from my boots though. The stink is the waders, and from your own sweat in them. Waders though, unless left out in the rain or really humid (like 70 deg dewpoint) Summer weather are almost always completely dry overnight.
 
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Try not to let the wet waders and boots freeze. I've seen wader material delaminate in very cold conditions.
And frozen boots are very uncomfortable to wear and get into.
 
Swattie87 said:
I was assuming the OP is wearing them during the day, and storing them at night, when trunk temp is less an issue, but maybe shouldn’t have been. Also possible I suppose he’s fishing on day 1, and then not fishing on days 2/3, retuning home on day 4, etc.

OP - Do you have any options for storing them outside of the vehicle overnight? Are you camping - Hang them off a tree limb overnight to dry? Are you staying in a hotel - Take them inside and hang them in the shower? Cabin or relative/friend’s house - Toss them over the porch/deck railing? Etc.

Boots take days to dry in ideal conditions anyway. Sometimes I fish on a Saturday, put my boots on the rack in my garage when I get home, and they’re still slightly damp a week later when I go to fish the next weekend. I never notice any real stink from my boots though. The stink is the waders, and from your own sweat in them. Waders though, unless left out in the rain or really humid (like 70 deg dewpoint) Summer weather are almost always completely dry overnight.
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Honestly haven’t thought to much about it basically it’s a work car so ill have a hotel room I at least can open up in the room A lot of it will be more fishing first thing in the morning after meetings or after meetings then doing it the next day we’re they aren’t fully dry.
 
Chest waders were daily work clothes for me in some seasons so I realize that the following is an extreme example. Certainly, the boots got sweat on the insides, but primarily the moisture was condensation. The stench came from the interior if the owner was not careful to turn the waders partially inside out at the end of each work day.

I’ve had exteriors of fishing boots smell a little from the outside, but that smell never came close to the stench that can build up on the inside and make clothing smell that way too. Years ago, one co-worker’s boot interiors smelled so bad that his pants smelled the same way at the end of the day. His routine that summer was that his wife made him take his pants off before coming into the house. Turning the boots inside out, ie rolling them down and then part way back up, as a habit before they started to smell at all was good way to minimize the stench over a boot’s lifetime. Hanging the boots worked well once we got the interiors dry.
 
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If you will be doing this during late spring, prolonged exposure to high heat (stored in trunk during late spring / summer) will degrade any glued seams in the boots and waders themselves
 
I wouldn't enclose them for more than a short time. You will see black spots appear which are mildew and that is harmful to the material. If possible I hang waders out of weather on a porch or something at night and they do dry out. I have been more careful about not balling them up in back of car and it has definitely helped with longevity. Boots stay wet for days on end. My Patagonia boots are about 8 yrs old so I guess it does not hurt them.
 
chadm said:
Have a new opportunity to fish more but I will be in a car and will need to keep items in the trunk and probably for a few days at a time. how do most people do that? Tupperware container? How do you keep the stink down?
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Dear chad,

As long as you have the opportunity to take the waders out and air them out in a hotel room you should be fine. Toss a dryer sheet or two into the trunk, or better yet, get one of those stick-on air fresheners for your trunk if the smell gets too bad, or you if have drive with a client, or your boss.

I spent over 10 years as a salesman in upstate NY. I had to wear a dress shirt and tie. But I stopped often to throw a cast or 50, and had plenty of people along Catskill and Southern Tier Rivers blow their horn at me and wave, or laugh. But no one I ever met for a sales call ever accused me of fishing. Handi-wipes helped for that!

Have fun man!

Regards,

Tim Murphy :)
 
TimMurphy said:
Dear chad,

As long as you have the opportunity to take the waders out and air them out in a hotel room you should be fine. Toss a dryer sheet or two into the trunk, or better yet, get one of those stick-on air fresheners for your trunk if the smell gets too bad, or you if have drive with a client, or your boss.

I spent over 10 years as a salesman in upstate NY. I had to wear a dress shirt and tie. But I stopped often to throw a cast or 50, and had plenty of people along Catskill and Southern Tier Rivers blow their horn at me and wave, or laugh. But no one I ever met for a sales call ever accused me of fishing. Handi-wipes helped for that!

Have fun man!

Regards,

Tim Murphy :)
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My territory is northeast PA. Not planning on spending the whole day fishing but if I got some time to kill might as well.
 
Travelling to fish, we find that wet boots and neoprene go on easier when they are still wet from the previous outing. We only hang them outside (at camp) when we're sure they won't freeze. Another question... What happens to flyline, winding lacquer, and other polymers inside inside a closed car or clamshell topper on a hot day? How hot is too hot?
 
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