Losing Needless Weight and Adding Safety
January… The beginning of each new year. Gazillions of weight loss ads on TV and social media. Four years ago, these ads got me to thinking. No, not about me reducing my waistline. I’m a fan of tasty pastries with coffee in the morning. Every morning. So the loss of my waistline is not at risk.
Pastries and waistlines aside, at the beginning of 2021 I made a new year’s resolution to lose some weight in my PowerWagon. My weight loss solution was to remove the 219 pounds of crew cab seats I never used for passengers. The seats were always folded down, allowing me to store more equipment behind the front seats. RAM provided a pretty good “bench” to cover the seats, but its sturdiness was in question. Plus, I was forced to carry around the weight of seats I never used.
Rear seat removal in my PowerWagon however left me with a dilemma. “How to easily and safely store all the equipment I always put behind the driver and passenger seats in my truck?” Enter Brian Fulton and his innovate company, Goose Gear.
Before we wander too far afield here, let me tell you a bit about Brian. In the overland manufacturing space, like any market arena, there are innovators and there are good people. When top notch innovators are also good people that care, you generally get quality products, outstanding customer service, smiles, and even make new friends. Brian is this type of individual. From my experience with Goose Gear, Brian is much like Mario Donnovan of AT Overland, Paul May of Equipt, Justin Andrews of Factor 55, George Carousos of Extreme Outback Products, Steve Sasaki of Power Tank, and Chris Cole of Safe Xtract, just to name a few folks I deeply admire in the off-road manufacturing space.
Back to my RAM truck. I have over 158,000 hard miles on my 2018 Power Wagon. My Goose Gear Second Row Seat Delete System for my RAM PowerWagon has been in my truck for most of my truck’s journeys. The product is really well designed, rugged, and weighs very little. As you can see by the photos taken in my RAM, the Seat Deletes provide you with flat surfaces, ninety-degree angles, and tie-down anchors for efficient and secure equipment storage.
I opted for the complete 100% Goose Gear Seat Delete System – behind both the driver (40% size) and passenger seats (60% size). I removed both sides of my crew cab seats to allow for total storage in the rear. If you wish to retain the one-person driver side rear seat or the two-person passenger side rear seat you can.
Safe Equipment Storage
Now for an important word about safe in-cab equipment storage. I’ll say it simply and without mincing words:
“In a vehicle accident, tip-over, or God forbid a roll-over, it might not be the abrupt vehicle movement that injures or kills you. It probably will be the heavy unsecured equipment hitting you that sends you to the hospital or morgue.”
I tell all my 4WD students and backcountry tour participants, to be safe you need to secure all the heavy items in your cab. Gear needs to be strapped in when driving on the pavement and off-road.
There are many ways to secure heavy equipment stored in your cab, but Goose Gear’s Rear Seat Deletes make this easy. When you purchase your Rear Seat Delete System, be sure to purchase their Round and Slotted Anchor Sets and Hardware Kits. This will give you the necessary tie-down locations on your OEM floorboard (at the seatbelt bolts), horizontal base plate, and back boards. For my money, it’s Goose Gear’s thoughtfulness about heavy equipment tie-down safety that makes this product a necessity for any overlander.
Storage
Goose Gear’s Rear Seat Deletes make use of every square inch of storage space when designing their horizontal base plates. The base plate for my truck has two storage locations – one behind the driver and passenger seats. In these storage locations I keep items I rarely need but are must-have pieces of kit no matter where I go. I label each storage compartment so I don’t forget where needed equipment might be located.
Click HERE to explore the Goose Gear website. At this time, the company makes storage, drawer, and transport solutions for sixteen brands of vehicles, covering most models and years. Goose Gear has practically something for every modern 4WD vehicle, topper, and camper.
(As per usual, this is an unpaid endorsement of Goose Gear and their products I use practically every day.)
Previous newsletters from Bob can be viewed here.
