Outdoors

My Camp Kitchen packs a full wilderness kitchen in a box

My Camp Kitchen packs a full wilderness kitchen in a box
My Camp Kitchen offers both storage and food prep space
My Camp Kitchen offers both storage and food prep space
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Keep both food products and hardware organized and accessible
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Keep both food products and hardware organized and accessible
You can use the Outdoorsman as a standalone kitchen or skip the legs and keep it on a table
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You can use the Outdoorsman as a standalone kitchen or skip the legs and keep it on a table
My Camp Kitchen offers both storage and food prep space
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My Camp Kitchen offers both storage and food prep space
Unlike a cardboard box of kitchen gear, My Camp Kitchen gives you a place to prepare meals
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Unlike a cardboard box of kitchen gear, My Camp Kitchen gives you a place to prepare meals
My Camp Kitchen survives some serious off-roading
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My Camp Kitchen survives some serious off-roading
A leather handle makes the Summit Traveler easy to carry to camp
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A leather handle makes the Summit Traveler easy to carry to camp
My Camp Kitchen Summit Traveler
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My Camp Kitchen Summit Traveler
The Summit Traveler stores neatly in your car or truck and lets you carry all your kitchen essentials in one trip
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The Summit Traveler stores neatly in your car or truck and lets you carry all your kitchen essentials in one trip
The Summit Traveler includes a lower cabinet and counter
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The Summit Traveler includes a lower cabinet and counter
Unlike a cardboard box of kitchen gear, My Camp Kitchen gives you a place to prepare meals
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Unlike a cardboard box of kitchen gear, My Camp Kitchen gives you a place to prepare meals
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If you've ever camped, you know how difficult it can be to stay organized. There's so much gear that you need just to eat, sleep and relax, and if you lose just one piece, it could ruin your whole trip. My Camp Kitchen is a kitchen storage solution that keeps all your cooking and eating gear in one neat package.

This past week, I took a mountain biking trip to Moab, Utah. The wind was harsh for one particular day and night, so I chose to sleep in the back of my Dodge Durango rather than chew on sandstorm all night. That was the best night of sleep I had all trip, and the Durango was so functional as a makeshift camper, I've decided to outfit it a little further for the purpose.

One of the challenges of converting a regular SUV to a camper is that you don't really have space or headroom for things like kitchens and bathrooms the way you would in a full RV or trailer. The My Camp Kitchen makes for a good solution for outfitting a small camper with cooking equipment. It's a purpose-built hardwood box with a variety of shelves and cubbies designed to hold all your cooking gear in one small, easy-access place. When you arrive at camp, you can pull the box out, unfold its legs, pull out the counter and use it to prepare all your meals. Your cooking gear is always right where you need it.

The Summit Traveler stores neatly in your car or truck and lets you carry all your kitchen essentials in one trip
The Summit Traveler stores neatly in your car or truck and lets you carry all your kitchen essentials in one trip

The My Camp Kitchen (or something like it) would work great for my Durango camper in that it would give me a single dedicated space for all my cooking equipment, instead of the series of boxes, bags and coolers that I use now. It also pulls out in one motion, so that I could quickly repurpose the interior space for sleep mode.

My Camp Kitchen comes in two primary models – the Summit Traveler and the Outdoorsman. The Outdoorsman starts at US$350 for an unassembled kit and runs through $575 for the fully assembled and finished product. Both prices are for the hardwood components only; the actual cooking gear costs extra. You can get gear through the My Camp Kitchen website – the $399 package gives you a single burner propane stove and a series of cooking and eating tools and dishes – or you can outfit it with your own gear.

The ~$500 price tag seemed a little expensive when I first read it – it is just a wood box after all – but it is competitive with similar camp kitchen storage solutions. The assembly-required version is nice for saving money, and if that's still too spendy, you could always use the MCK as the inspiration for a home build.

My Camp Kitchen founder Richard Snogren, an aerospace engineer by trade, has been field testing and fine tuning his designs for decades. Several other designs, including a grill system, are scheduled to join the Outdoorsman and Summit systems in the product line.

Watch the My Camp Kitchen go through the wringer in the following video from the recent Overland Expo.

Source: My Camp Kitchen

60-Second Overlander - Exhibitor highlights (No 28) Overland Expo 2012

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12 comments
12 comments
William Jolley
The boy scouts have been making and using these things for decades, this is just a rip off of someone else's idea.
Peter Kowalchuk-Reid
The one my scout group used only cost about 12$ worth of plywood too.
Joe F
Agree that you could easily build one (and much cheaper), but that doesn't make this a copy. From the website, it sounds like this was just the owner's personal design that he used for years and eventually manufactured for sale. A lotta people have more money than time/woodworking skills.
Mark A
Yes - 1960 Boyscouts used these regularly. Everything old is new again.
toller
I do like the inovation of the fold out wings to make a bigger surface. We didn't have that on our patrol boxes. Nifty.
It looks like baltic birch. Superior materials.
Oops, the fold out wings are in addition to the base price. Ouch!
They are fun to design and build if you have the woodworking abilities. I would have to have a yuppie salary before I would buy one.
kuryus
The idea goes back to at least the late 1800's when cattle drives had a chuck wagon with a box in the back like this. The idea probably goes back much further in history since military campaigns required lugging all their gear around. It doesn't really matter how old the idea is, it's a good idea. Joe F is right on the money that not everyone is able to make their own version. I could make all my own furniture, but I buy almost all of it. It's just more convenient to buy something ready made. I need something like this to put in my van for camping trips, I'll probably make my own tho, because my needs are a bit different.
Paul Anthony
I'd like to see an IKEA version of this
jeanbanaay
It's so nice, when you are having a camping you can easily carry your kitchen box because it is a hand carry box.
Katy Walradt
This product is something the boyscouts used and use. My father made a great one for the troop he was involved with. You should give your profits of these to the boyscouts. It is not a new innovation.
BigGoofyGuy
While it is not new does not mean it is not innovative.
http://www.smartcarofamerica.com has a section on recreation. It has been mentioned that it can fit into the back of a Smart car.
I think it is great since I could use something like that but don't have the room in my apartment to build one but enough room to store it.
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