Best Way to Organize Your Gear : Pack Mule

Guys, we live busy lives and one of the best ways to save time is to have all your gear organized. Now we need organization whether it's on an everyday basis or definitely in an SHTF or just being prepared. Having your items around where you can get to them where you know where they are. I spend a lot of time looking for different items. It's great when I'm working on something that I have everything right there together and one of the big things that I've found that really helps me to get organized are tool rolls. You roll them out everything's right there in front of you. I mean it's just a great way to get organized for a lot of different things. We're going to take a look at the pack mule by Roaring Fire Gear. We've looked at it before but I've lately been doing some things and honestly I have it typically up here on my wall. Know where it is. It looks great. It's that heavy duct canvas and I get a lot of questions about it. So we're going to show a few setups of how you can get organized hopefully to give you some ideas but honestly I came across a tool roll one time at Home Depot. It was just sitting there and I thought man that might be a great way to get organized and ever since I've been a big fan of tool rolls. There's a number of different type sizes but Roaring Fire Gear has a lot of different types that can suit about anything that you're planning to do. So first we're going to look at just some standard tools and this is just a setup that I was working on. You guys we're going to take all these tools and we're going to place them into the pack mule. As you can see you're trying to find something. I mean it is all over the place. You got to dig around. You stick yourself in the hand. I mean this is you know basically what I do when I'm going through a toolbox. Now this is just a container but this is some heavy tools and this really fits well in the pack mule. So let's see we can get all this in the pack mule. Now this is a sturdy pack. Again it's just a 16 ANN canvas water resistant and it's not waterproof but it definitely keeps the elements out. It sits really nice. Adjustable straps you can see with keepers so it keeps those straps handy. We have some buckles here. We have a hand grip right here that's padded. Very comfortable because you can really feel this thing up and we have a strap and it has buckles that actually turn. This thing's full and we took all those items that we were showing and we have loaded them into here. So we're going to go ahead and unbuckle it and then it just kind of folds out. Now you'll notice this flap right here and this just keeps things protected, keeps them covered. So first we have two zippers and we can just bring those over. These are YKK zippers. They're the top in the industry. Here's your flap. Open it up. We've just got a ton of tools. I mean you can load this thing however you want to. A lot of the pliers we have put down in here. These are ample pockets. They're not too big where everything's flopping around but you know you can test those out. But we just have a number of different tools. We have this elastic and I think there are 13 loops here. We have eight pockets at the bottom and then we have a zippered pocket right here and this just opens up again YKK zippers. I've just got one of these sets of Torx and this is just great for different things. You know we've kind of gone away from the standard Phillips head and flat head and one thing I like too is the color combination. This is a contrasting color so I can see what I have in here and obviously I can pack this a heck of a lot more than I have and really those straps are adjustable to fit a lot more. But you know sometimes you just can do overkill. But this is the first side and it's just right here. Everything just kind of pulls out the elastic straps. They're easy to be able to adjust to whatever kind of tool or whatever you're doing and so we're going to go ahead and put that back over it and then we can zip it up and it just keeps it contained and it protects it so anything you've got in here it's not going to open up and just fall out. Now we're going to turn it over and this side is unique and of course we have our YKK zippers. They're double so we can adjust them and not have to search for them and again we've got that flap. Now this side has four pockets and these are zippered pockets. The cool thing is these are removable so if there's something in here and I don't want to haul the pack off or I've already got it laid out and I don't want to have to reassemble it I can just pull one of these pouches off. Now you can see I don't have these things slammed full but I could. I mean it gives you a lot of room to be able to pack these things out but in here just have a set of wrenches. They fit really nice and then here we've got a pretty large this is a 10 inch wrench and it fits in here with room to spare and then some smaller wrenches and again all we got to do is pull it off. Now it's you know it takes a little bit of strength to pull that off but that's going to hold it into place and so here I can just take these wrenches if I need to do something I can get to it and then it just goes right back and it's real easy to line up. Here we just have some files and I just put an assortment of files in here if I need to do whatever kind of detailed work it'll take a lot longer bigger files but this is just what I had for this setup. Now these two are closed in these are canvas again they have that different color to them but the inside of these again you've got that contrasting color so you can see the items that are down inside. Here we have a little bit of a translucent kind of mesh material it gives you an idea to see through here but it also keeps this somewhat water resistant on the side. Now YKK zippers again and that's all throughout and we have hammers we've got some pretty decent size hammers in fact I've got three in here. Now we don't have the standard hammers I mean these are more ball peen type hammers but we could put other smaller hammers in here and obviously this is actually about 12 inches and then it's four inches across and it puffs up to a lot of volume so there's a lot of things you could put in here and again you don't have to just separate just to the hammers but you know where they are I keep everything organized that's one of the big things I love is I can just open this up and get to what I need to and then again these will just pull right off and then here on the other side I've got a bunch of punches I've got a micrometer I've just got a lot of different tools to be able to use for various things and you know some really nice punches actually but this is just a great way to keep smaller items that won't fit in the front organized and you know where everything is and again because this is removable it's just very simple so again we can cover that up and we can protect it and then let's just go ahead and fold it up so we want to put it on one side like this take it just fold it over once fold it over again now we can take our straps and they are again fully adjustable straps and so we're going to lift it up and just bring it over just lock that in I want to make sure that I have them in the correct orientation and guys once you get this set up you can tighten these straps down to fit whatever you want to really comfortable grab handle straps thin but this is something you're just going to be transporting for a little while it's not something you're necessarily going to carry over a long period of time this is great to go into the back of your vehicle or to go just on the back of a truck bed and you can just lay everything out and you can get to your items now in this setup I have more of a get home bag I mean this gives you a lot of survival items this is a survival kit again we're going to go ahead and drop our buckles and lay it out now this is again when it opens up you're going to have the elastic bands you're going to have the pockets across on the back is where you have your pouches so we can go ahead and open up our zippers and bring this up let's turn this around so you can get a better look at it and guys we're going to go through a lot of these we didn't with the tools because tools are tools but this is a little bit of a different type setup first off one of the big things for me is fire and so I like to have a fire kit I like to have a designated fire kit but you'll notice that we have a number of fire tools right here together and we also have some tender on this side so first we just have one of the match caps excels I love these because I can keep lifeboat matches in there and it's just sealed up it has a striker at the bottom so this just makes an excellent option this is from exotac I'm a big fan of exotac because they just make great fire tools and then we have one of the fire rod excels this is a ferrocerium rod and it will give you a ton of strikes and that's one of the things I like about a fire steel is I can just go ahead and make sparks make sparks not like matches which are sooner or later going to run out I mean you'd have a big box of matches to match this one fire steel and then we have just a standard bic lighter the most convenient way to start a fire but I'll tell you guys if something will go out it'll be a bic lighter either the fuel will go out or this will get corroded where it won't turn even the fuel goes out you do have some striking capability where you can create a spark so don't throw those away if you run out of fuel and you have it in your pack but keep track of it let's see we've got this this is actually another I meant to put one of the butane lighters but it's the same size and it's the same thing as this one and then here we have just a knife and this is a Benchmade now I'm kind of upset with Benchmade right now but this is their triage it's great for survival it's great for medical and then we have some fire tender and this is just some impregnated wood that actually lights really easily and I'll I can actually break this up just like I'm batoning but very micro batoning and really guys you need some tender when it comes to your fire starting capability one of the things about this XL fire rod is we have tender tabs in the top and we have some duct tape around the side so this just gives us a lot of different options and again these are made really well you can get the smaller version if that's what you want a griffin tool this just gives me a lot of options for a multi-tool pry bar we've got nut drivers we've got bottle opener and we have a little ruler so this just gives us a number of different things and the guys over at griffin tool are just great guys and then we have just a razor and I think this is one that I got from Obai but it's just a little small razor you can change that out and sometimes razors are more important than a knife and sometimes obviously a knife it has certain tasks now here we have an emergency whistle with a small compass and guys always test your compasses and make sure that they are on and you should have actually a couple of different compasses you want to make sure you can confirm the direction you don't want to doubt it but this is a really nice whistle with a compass and it's just small this is another little pry bar with a nut driver and this has the phillips head and the flat head and so I like that because it gives me an option if I come across something I need to you know unbolt here I just have some water purification tabs now this is a last resort because really I have one of the frontier filter straws right here that I can get directly into the water it removes the taste it removes the sediment and that's one of the things that this does not do it'll purify your water but it'll still have sediment and it'll have an odor a lot of times so I really like to have some kind of actual water filtration system and these little frontier pros are so small and they're easy to pack and I like the standard straws as well then we have just a flashlight we need flashlight you need light light is your number one security tool I can actually use this as an impact tool or a defensive weapon a crenulated bezel and this is one of the warrior threes it's an excellent light it puts out a heck of a lot of light and it is rechargeable and you can add actually cr123s or you can have a battery backup if you want to recharge your lights here I have a knife sharpener this is one of the workshop sharpeners I have the full size version of this these are excellent you can get an edge as a diamond pad right here and then we have a ceramic and this makes it great to be able to sharpen knobs and since I've already got the bigger size that's actually table mounted I know how to use this it's very simple in fact this little edge right here will set your angle so when you go down you're already at that angle and you're not trying to guess at it also we have a couple of pens I have a fisher space pen we have a right and rain pad in the back but a fisher space pen these things are great they'll write in any orientation and then we have a sharpie I love sharpies and also in here I have another light and this is just a small pocket light one of the things a good friend of mine that's in law enforcement said is that when I ever have a light it typically when I need it it goes out and so he always keeps three or four lights with him and so that's just great advice here we have a multi-tool and this is one of the gerbers a suspension nxt and there are times where pliers are vital and then of course you have all your other tools here as well and that just fits right in here it has a pocket clip so it actually slides down in here now we have zip ties guys there's a bazillion uses for zip ties this goes kind of with my repair kit which I'll show you in the back of the pack so this is the strong arm and this is by gerber as well this is a really excellent knife and so and these are made in the USA they're just really good quality I have used the fire out of this knife and it comes with a really nice sheet so I can take this out put it on my belt and I have a fixed blade knife handy and then here the ever-present silky saw and this is one of the smallest that they make but guys if you're cutting any kind of limbs or small trees this is one of the best ways to do it and it's actually safer than an axe and honestly I think it's faster and so it has a little safety there and it just closes down guys say silky saws are big I mean they're they're one of the tools that I have in everything and I actually learned about silky saws at a fieldcraft survival survival school and lieutenant mike gave me one of these to try and ever since then I've been hooked on these now this is the pouch and this is the one that's attached it's a little bit larger than the ones at the back here I have a trauma kit I have a hemostatic agent I have a tourniquet I have compression gauze I also have a an emergency space blanket but this is one of those disposable types and so this is my trauma kit it's right here when I open it up and then again we can just close the flap and this is protected then we're going to flip it over okay here we go with the pouches and this is a great way to just put a lot of gear and really make some kits put together so I like that again these are removable like we've shown we just ykk zippers this is my repair kit I have some trip wire I have some paracord and then I have a fire starter fire guys I'm telling you it boils your water cooks your food gives you light gives you heat it builds your morale keeps predators at bay fire is essential here we have some bank line and it's on a small little spool and it even has a cutting edge on here so that's a very versatile tool even though this isn't for repair I have a small fishing kit and there is a bobber in there with hooks sinker line and this is just a great little tool maybe you need to eat and this gives you a way to do that here we have some kevlar and this is thread and we have a couple of buttons and so this is going to be great for the repair kit as well then I have one of the rip spools and this is by exotac as well this and I've got this thing taped up but this is a great way to be able to open this up it's got duct tape all the way through and then we have a sail needle and we can do repairs and it does have kevlar thread and I've got it taped because I've used this in the past and the kevlar thread has just come loose over time with the small strands so I just go ahead and keep that taped up and if I need it I can just pull it out and I have one of the cock seals this opens up a lot of different water valves gas turns off gas a lot of times in the cities if you'll see a faucet and it doesn't have a handle but it has a really unusual key these typically fit four different type fixtures and so these are excellent especially in urban survival and that is my repair kit here we have just some larger tools first off we have a folding knife and this is really a zero tolerance it's an excellent knife and I just have that in there with my fixed blade knife which is an essie and this is the essie 4 it has been very well used and I really love essies they are super sharp they retain an edge and so I got one of the kydex holsters for it and I can just clip it to my belt fixed blade knife is very important especially full tank and that's with the metal coming all the way through and through the end of the blade and then I have a right in the rain pad and I've got my fisher space pen to be able to write on this and sometimes guys you need to take notes you need to do something to remember things and so this just gives you a way to do it and then I just have a another flashlight this is the sidewinder by streamlight and so this gives me a number of different light options red and ir it gives you a lot of different choices to be able to get that light where you want it and the dial is marked for each of the different type lights but this gives you an angle head flashlight and you can actually attach this to your pocket to your vest or whatever and it gives you other options and this is navigation and rescue so here the first thing I have is a map guys you need maps now this is a big map of the USA I typically have more local maps for my general area but whatever area you're traveling in having a good map if GPS goes out and you're like me it's kind of like when we learned math as a kid and then they came out with calculators and we forgot to do math and then I have a headlamp headlamps are very important especially hands-free and you can put this on and then if I need to I can also take this light off and use it and it is an angle head flashlight and these are from olight and guys they're just excellent and then I also have some batteries in here I can recharge this it has a rechargeable battery but the cr123s will work this is a suto compass and I have a mirror this is a signaling mirror with the hole in the middle so I can signal craft or whatever from a distant ridge I can if they're rescuers around I can use that also I have tent stakes now you say for rescue why do you have tent stakes I can set up some kind of shelter and I do have my emergency space bivy or emergency blanket and so I can wrap up in this or I can set this up I can make it as a shelter but really my favorite is the space bivy but it's a little bit larger and then I have a bandana bandanas are great for keeping smoke out of your face different debris you can just use it for so many different purposes this is one of those survival items that's just so multi-purpose and I highly recommend having a bandana and I think that's about it in the rescue and just actual survival pouch and here on the end this is more of just it has medical in it but it's more like a boo-boo kit and this is one of the amp threes it's just an emergency personal injury kit and so that gives me some options and I have a triangle bandage in case I hurt an arm or sprang my ankle or whatever I can wrap up with this I have one of those little toilettes you just add water and this thing just folds out and gives you a full towel but it keeps it really compact have some advil chapstick and I have some camp soap so this these are little sheets and if I need to wipe down guys hygiene is very important especially if you're out in the wild and you can keep your hands and your face clean these little towelettes also have a small mirror in case I need to look to see if I've had an injury or something especially on my face or around my neck so this just gives me the option to do that I can use my signaling mirror but I like to have this just in there just for extra redundancy and then I have a spork and this is the k-bar spork which actually you can open this up and pull out a blade so if I'm preparing food I can use this of course I have my knife but it may be dirty it may be contaminated and this just gives me a small little knife and obviously I could use that if I needed to for self-defense or for that matter this spork I mean this is a very strong material and that's it this is a lot of gear and it's all contained in this pack guys if you have it in a big box like we've shown I mean it's just everywhere and so this just keeps everything organized again you can transport this really easily and it's in one solid pack and so this makes just a great option and guys there's so many other things you can do with a car kit you can do for an emergency repair kit you could put a complete fire kit or medical kit in this and it would work so it gives you a lot of organizational options and so there are a number of things you can do one thing also you could do if you're into crafts or hobbies or something like that and you want something to be able to organize different items I mean let's face it guys we all have different things we like to do and so this just gives us a great way to pack it out now these run $75.99 at Roaring Fire and it's just a solid pack you do get 10% off using RF-10. These are one of their most popular items and because of that they have just gotten restocked so if you're thinking about it you might want to run over there and pick up something that discount doesn't run during sales but then you get a deeper discount or you get a discount and so great item these are shipped free in the continental U.S. and they have a lifetime warranty which I think is crazy but I mean these are just solid packs I've been using this one for a long time and I've had a number of different setups that I use it just really comes in handy and again there's a number of other different tool rolls on there I highly recommend you check them out in fact my favorite is the Pioneer wax canvas tool roll that is just a beautiful classic tool roll and it's smaller for more of your fire kits or just a small survival kit or just a small tool kit and obviously these are tool rolls they're made for tools but these are tools for survival and then of course we showed the regular tools as well so great option and this gets you organized guys being organized is great but being able just to roll out everything and just look at it and it's right there in front of you you can pick and choose what you need you just put it back it has its place it's really refreshing honestly and guys as preppers a lot of times we do store up some items and then we try to categorize it but it just makes it difficult having a tool roll keeps everything right there together it's portable it's handy and again if I need it just grab it and I'm going so tool rolls big fan and I hope that I've shown you some things that just give you some ideas now we really appreciate Roaring Fire Gear honestly I've had this pack of mule for a good while and it's just an excellent way to pack a lot of things and then again if you need smaller ones you know they have smaller different type tool rolls but it's just a great way to get those smaller kits together or for big projects just gives you a lot of room be strong be of good courage god bless america long live the republic god bless america america I mean it cooks your water and I've got my spacer that I highly recommend and and Roaring Fire does award you can get a good workout with this thing but that's what the shoulder straps for