Packing that trunk for travel

[Duke583]

Now that so many have returned from Destin, I wonder if you could share with us any T Bird trunk packing secrets that you have discovered.
I am awaiting the arrival of my 2003, around the first of the year, and my wife and I plan to use it as much as possible. I realize that long trips will be a challenge because of limited trunk space, and am curious as to how others have met the challenge.
Do you do it with conventional luggage, go with the canvas bag type, or what?
Helpful tips will be appreciated. Thanks.

[joelja]

The key to successfully and effectively packing the trunk of a new TBird:

Rule#1: Let your wife take whatever she wants and put it in the trunk first.

Rule #2: In the space that is left for you, put one toothbrush, one pair of underpants, and one suster.

Rule#3: NEVER forget Rule #1

[Gobird]

No matter what Joel says, We made two trips to Florida this year. We put one soft sided sute case in the trunk and a lot of soft bags, plus soft bags in back of the seats. It can be done, just a little more planing.:moreek:

[DavidA]

TE42 suggested to me that I get those roolup bags that you roll the air out of. I went to a local camping store and bought 2 large ones and 2 medium ones. They were great. We rolled up our clothes into small rolls, then put them in a soft sided suitcase. Wat a space savings. If you do it right, (we didn't), you might not have to iron them when you unroll the bags.
Another idea was to put the hard boot behind the passenger seat. It's out of the way there and you have it for when you put the top down. :thumbsup:

[saj]

My wife and I managed a week-long driving trip in our red bird. We had two soft-sided/canvas type suitcases, a dirty clothes bag, two coats, a camera bag, a spotting scope, and a tripod in the trunk. On the shelf behind the seats were the tour books, bird watching guides, bottles of water, binoculars, CD case, and snacks.

It all fit just fine. The only issue was having to watch what got left behind the seats so it didn't fly out with the top down.

The good part is, you get to question everything on the "have to have" list because of the limited space. :thumbsup:

[YLO BRD]

I remember one of the members that went on the route66 trip used their entire trunk as a suitcase. Instead of packing everything, they just layed their clothes flat in the trunk and used a small case for overnight stuff. It worked real well for them.

[RTBRD]

David, I never thought about a roolup bag, I bet they are great for packing susters.

We went on a 19 day, 8500 mile trip in August and had no problem at all. We had two sport type soft bags, one for warm weather and one for cold weather, both were needed, we went from 104 degrees in NM to 36 degrees in WY. We also had a small soft side hand bag for daily toiletries, a suit hanger for two leather jackets, a bag for dirty laundry and a backpack for toting thing around when on foot.

In the cabin we had a narrow Rubbermaid cooler which could hold 12 cans plus snacks. This was put between the seats and did not intrude into the cockpit. Behind the drivers seat we put the cameras, binos and the laptop. The backpack went behind the passengers seat.

There is room on the floor in front of the seats which was perfect for storing the empty coffee mug/thermos. On the floor behind the passengers seat, which was not fully back, we would keep the maps and tour books. You could reach them while driving and you did not have to worry about them blowing out while driving with the top down, which was done every day except the final two on the way home.

We also have the soft boot which I folded and laid on top of everything in the evening.

We found that a weeks worth of cloths was sufficient. We would stop at a hotel that had a guest laundry and take care of that weekly.

I have to thank the wife for her wonderful job of rounding up the bags, she knew what to do after using the car for the weekly food shopping.

Bottom line, if you want to do it you can.

[0bird2]

I found on the trip to Sandestin that I could put the softboot
in the top well along with two light jackets when the soft top
was up and the empty softboot bag and the jackets would lay on
the folded softtop with the softboot in place (top down). There
was still room to put other light/flat stuff on top of the
folded soft top. Next time I'll probably carry an umbrella in
there as well. The main thing is to be sure the well is empty
before putting the soft top down, might break the glass otherwise,
then put the stuff back in on top of the folded top. Can't do
this with the hard top.........
Oh, I did have a couple of towels in there for a while with
the top down, as well as the other stuff.

[DavidA]

I never put anything in the top well for fear of forgetting and breaking the glass like someone here did. I just re-though the rollup bags and what RTBIRD said. The bags are quite inexpensive. There's no reason you can't roll up a day's worth for two of you in one bag. Have enough bags for the days out and you will have an easy carry to the hotel room, and more than enough room in the trunk for everything you need. Roll up the dirty clothes in the bag you take the fresh out of, so you are not going to need more space than you started with. As for an umbrella, I always have one. It's a small one and fits in the door pocket, neatly out of the way. :goof:

[5bird7]

Since we considered the Destin trip a short trip, packing really wasn't that much of a problem. besides the well that George started using, we also found room in the trunk for 2 of those fold up chairs that fit in those long, round bags - perfect for the drive-in and the car show the next day. Our trunk included 1 gym style soft bag, 1 normal style softbag, a bucket with cleaning supplies and numerous other small, soft bags filling up all the nooks and crannies. We even had enough room in the trunk to pack an extra Rubbermaid cooler that 15again had bought from us so that gave us even more room after delivery of the cooler. oh, yes, the ever present suster found room too and numerous towels for wiping down the car. Our own cooler was behind the seats and used frequently - filled with ice, water and cooling down George's :beer:

[Te42]

In addition to using the soft bags if you want to keep the boot in the trunk instead of behind yhe seats pack the bags between the folded boot.

[Gobird]

Te42, That's what we did for Destin, Worked just fine.

[Lady 007]

Joel has my vote for his way to pack, hehe, and whatever wife buy, mail home.