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A Folding Campsite Organizer

…with an unwise material choice

By Rain Noe - October 31

in Furniture Design

Something about this screams ID Student Project, but this object is actually on the market. This Robinia Folding Pantry is a fold-flat cabinet for camping or tailgating. The briefcase-like form unfolds to provide a 31.5" high surface, with shelves inside to store your foodstuffs.

While the designers went with aluminum rails in order to save weight, they--unwisely, in my opinion--opted for freaking MDF for the tabletop and shelves. At nearly 18 pounds in weight overall, that puts this object firmly in the car camping category. And I think MDF was a terrible choice; as a piece of outdoor furniture, is this object expected to never get wet? And while the face of the boards are presumably sealed, I'd imagine heavy use would undo that and eventually allow liquid to penetrate.

The object might make more sense inside a tent, as a storage object.

The one shown above is made by one of those blandly-named, no-history, no-backstory companies flooding the market, this one called Timber Ridge. L.L. Bean also sells a version of this design (for $110, versus Timber Ridge's $90) so it's possible these are either re-badged objects from overseas, or that one has knocked off the other.

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Juan Cano

a month ago

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Nothing better than storing food in a cloth container; animals are gonna love it!

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v p

a month ago

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a fold-flat container to contain things you brought with you in some other container. brilliant

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Phil Heid

a month ago

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Is it bear resistant? No? Then it's useless for any kind of camping food storage.

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Benjamin Wood

a month ago

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Nope. This thing is going to get used once and go into the landfill. I'm sure the designers and engineers were cursing their managers as they drew this up. This was clearly designed by a spreadsheet.

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