Dockbox Recommendations

[dant]

I dont have anything at my tiedown yet for putting things like wet covers in to. My research so far as led me to either "crazy expensive dock box" or "cheap rubbermaid box that handles 'extreme' temps of 100 degrees".

Anyone have any good or bad experiences to share?

Thanks!

[mhoran]

We have a storage chest like this: https://www.homedepot.com/p/RIDGID-48-i ... /300748574. It's been on the ramp for 7 years and though the paint is faded has held up great. It generally keeps everything nice and dry inside, though in really blowy snow sometimes water gets in. I haven't gone out since the storm we had up this way yesterday so hopefully this is still true!

[Colin]

I bought a dock box at West Marine. Back in 2005 I think it was $200. It looks like that same thing is about $550 now, which seems outrageous. I like the look of the thing from Home Depot.

[Rich]

I used one like Matt's for several years at KPAE. Moisture did find its way into it via condensation and horizontal rain, so I kept a dessicant pack inside to try to absorb it. It was also chained and locked to a tiedown ring to prevent someone else from acting on a fondness for it.

[Steve]

Maybe Texas is unusual, but I've never seen an airfield with storage boxes on the ramp. Aren't they a hazard for taxiing aircraft? Or, maybe I've just led a sheltered life...

[Rich]

Maybe Texas is unusual, but I've never seen an airfield with storage boxes on the ramp. Aren't they a hazard for taxiing aircraft? Or, maybe I've just led a sheltered life...

It’s fairly common around here to use one when you have a reserved tie down spot. I grabbed some of those reflective stick-on letters/numbers to put my N-number on the box.

[Soareyes]

Maybe Texas is unusual, but I've never seen an airfield with storage boxes on the ramp. Aren't they a hazard for taxiing aircraft? Or, maybe I've just led a sheltered life...

Same here. Took me a while to figure what you guys were talking about.

[Rich]

At some airports you can not drive up to your plane. So you have to either leave various stuff in the plane or lug it out there when you do. At KPAE specifically we could drive our cars to the plane and, depending on where the spot is, leave it there when you go fly somewhere. (This may no longer be the case, as there is now regularly scheduled airline service from the field.) But which vehicle would vary - often it was a motorcycle.)

My box, to name examples I can readily recall, had spare oil and filler spout, rags, various wrenches and screwdrivers, and deice fluid (for ice/frost removal).

[dant]

Technically I can drive up to the plane at KPAE now, however the east tiedowns have a manual style gate and you have to do some seriously squeezing around wings to get around the lanes. On top of that, there's the dance of moving the plane out and parking on the tiedown spot. So I park outside the fence and walk up.

I suppose I could carry everything back to my car. I should at least try it before committing to the box. It would probably add 3 minutes to both unpack/pack phases of flight.

Oddly, today I didn't see any boxes - there was at least one a few weeks ago! I remember thinking I would look at the model for comparison, heh.

[Rich]

For those KPAE East fence tiedowns it's a short stroll to the man-gate. No big deal. As long as you're there a box probably isn't worth it. Certainly bringing the car in isn't either. My tiedown was along the West side of 34R/16L - far from access through the fence. This is also true of Central parking.

I wonder also if maybe boxes are no longer allowed in certain areas of this airport. They can be more of an obstacle in the typical nested t - tiedown spots than in single-row ones like mine where all spots faced West and lots of open space was available.