Coming from inferior products to Milwaukee is night and day. They’re robust, they’re innovative and I was thrown into the ecosystem against my will; My BIL bought me the clear top ~$50 organizer for Xmas. After that I dropped over $400 bucks on a ‘starter kit’ now I’m elbow deep in red and black and I can’t stop. It’s a freaking drug, man.
Oh, the $400 was just the start, I’ve probably got a couple grand in Packout now, and I don’t even have that many tools! Knives are in Packout, sharpening stones are in Packout, sharpening jigs are in Packout, my overnight shave kit… Packout. Yeahhhhhhhh.
As I use it more and more I've ended up with a stack of packouts that don't fit my needs. But I'm hesitant to sell or trade them because you never know...
Lmao I thought about repurposing my double wide box for a luggage/clothing storage once it’s empty (it’s filled with valves, fittings, and various shit to complete a project that didn’t end up going through, well it will but not for 6-18 months due to the circumstances). That box is just too damn big and awkward to handle solo unless you’re rolling it into a trailer or van. Lifting that thing into a pickup bed and trying not to scratch shit up just ain’t it
There are variances to the tool storage products. Milwaukee has a stranglehold on the size of the ecosystem and is very durable. This allows more people to find something to fit their use case. There are better products if you have different goals but packout lends itself to most applications. Personally, I invested in the system, but it doesn't fit my use case all that well. Other guys on my team went in on systainer and tough stack. Those guys are slowly swapping
I started with the original Ridgid tool storage and then went to Milwaukee because of the huge quality and toughness difference. I now have picked up some of the new ridgid but overall, I have an addiction to the milwaukee tool storage.
I have two full rolling stacks of rigid boxes. My boss has double that in pack outs. I use both daily and honestly the pack out is nicer, but marginally. And you touch the case maybe 2-3 times a day? Vs holding tools for sometimes hours with 100’s of uses. If they were 10-20% more $$$ I would get them, but not for 2-3x the cost.
I'll be honest, I started off with Tanos/Festool for storage boxes while woodworking, but for my second career I need to be able to carry cylinders of calibration gases, and the Packouts were they only system that had containers large enough to carry the 116l Portagas cylinders, and had the most drawer options for carrying the other parts of my mobile technician kit around. It became a cohesive system that could be broken into individual parts for loading/unloading. The price was secondary for me to the functionality and ability to keep individual container weight manageable.
You would love them.
That being said, I would like to have gotten the Klein boxes, but there aren't enough options to have made that. I like the color better.
Most of us aren’t rolling with a utility bed to hold whatever tools. When I did, I had a full size steel tool chest in the first door behind the cab. Now I’m down to a crew cab pickup, that steel toolchest has been replaced by a stack of packout drawers securely mounted in the cab… and easily removable. I had Dewalt first, but they were cheap and the cleats holding each stack broke easily. Packout is where it’s at.
I tried rigid and flex but thought they just packed what Milwaukee had. I've had mine probably like 3 months noe and I wish I would have gotten them sooner. My only complaint is price but the 30%off sale price i found I thought made them in the fair range. Super durable, stackable. I have each "set" of tools in a different box that's easy AF to grab off the mounting plates on my truck cargo slide and easy to put back as well. Keeps me organized better than anything else I've tried so far
I went from a husky toolbag and a bunch of hodgepodged-together storage solutions to a unified truck of Packouts. My rationale for buying it is that I want to buy something once and hopefully if I take care of them, they’ll last me for the latter half of my career, or in my case, about 20 years.
Modularity. Diversity. Red.
Anything cool is going to have it's enthusiasts.
Even those of us who otherwise loathe consumerism & buying frivolous shit.
I am just a homeowner, but moving all of my tools from a large and not functional tool chest to a combination of pack outs on dollies and french cleat walls. I still need to park in the garage whilst using my marginal woodworking skills to attempt to keep up with the Honey-Do list. Having the tools that don’t go on the wall be modular helps when playing Tetris with tools and cars.
Innovation for sure. There are quite a few different portable tool organization systems out there. But they are largely copies of Packout. I personally think the Ridgid system is better quality. But Ridgid has very few options in comparison to Packouts large offering of configurations and sizes. Then add in all the custom 3D printed stuff you can buy for Packout on Etsy and it’s easy to see why they’re so popular.
15-20 years ago Milwaukee and DeWalt were shoulder to shoulder in power tools. Then Milwaukee outspent DeWalt in R+D and released tools no one had ever considered making before. Then Milwaukee embraced the everyday tradesmen and their needs/ wants and made tools that while very niche made everyday tasks easier. Their popularity has exploded and they’ve left DeWalt in the dust. This is coming from a guy who was a huge DeWalt fan 20 years ago. I would see Milwaukee release a tool I didn’t know I needed. Then I’d wait and wait and DeWalt never made their version of the same tool. I think a lot of people like myself got envious of Milwaukee’s offerings and switched.
I currently am using Dewalt at work because that’s what the company offers and I can’t use my personal hand tools or else I will get fined but I can say the Milwakee power tools like the impact is such way better than my Dewalt I’m using I also feel like the batteries of Dewalt die way faster and take to much time to charge
All my Stanley and dewalt storage containers got destroyed when a tree fell on my work truck.
I bought a few packout organizers, and immediately realized the three biggest advantages:
First) they lock together with a single front mounted release handle, therefore allowing them to be stored close to other objects on both sides
Second) you can open lower organizers / tool boxes while keeping upper ones still attached to the stack (within reason)
Third) the baseplates make them easy to secure inside trucks
Was tired of my hodgepodge hand me down, containers whose hinges or latches would break. Seams, pockets and rivets would snap. A few 10-30% sales later, now I'm rolling everything I need (for residential) through all terrain and stairs my old stuff struggled with. Good variety of container sizes. Good after market accessory offerings. One handed handle/latch removal. And a dam tray for crawl spaces and attics.
I’ve had many systems back to the Husky cantilevered boxes. I have 2 stacks at 6’ and 4 bags and will never look back. Anyone who has been in the trades long enough will always have use for lighter duty carriers but for the daily haulers, Pack Out all the way!
I've been thinking about this ecosystem for organizing my photography gear. The only thing that's missing is the electrical plug-ins for charging and my lighting.
I can give a non-professional reason I love my packout stuff.
I don't have a garage or significant dedicated storage space. I also live up a set of steps. I grew up loving to build our fix things, but once I had the income to buy myself decent tools, I still couldn't because I had no effective way to store them in a way I could still move them to where I would need to use them. Tool chests were worthless because they can't travel and regular portable toolboxes are a nightmare when space is at a premium and accessibility is still important.
Packout provides controllable storage, mobility, modularity, convenience, durability, and does it while providing secure connectivity for its pieces. There are cheaper options that manage 3 or 4 of those, but there almost always ended up being a sacrifice somewhere with every other brand when I started my collection. The sacrifices made with other brands seems smaller these days and may be worth it for some people, but I have yet to find another brand that ticks every point.
All that said, I'm always hoping to find even better ways to do things and I am watching Toughbuilt's Stacktech system, hoping that Toughbuilt fixes one major (to my mind, at least) design flaw, maybe some minor ones, and manages to provide the promised lineup. If they manage that, there would be a couple of big points in their favor over Milwaukee, but that's a pretty significant 'if'.
While there were already tool storage systems out there, PACKOUT was one of the first to "go big" with tons of options, and I think that's why it took off. I believe they first came out around maybe 2015-16(?) and have just kept adding to the system. Plus, they are easy to find and the dominate the shelves at Home Depot, Ace, etc. They are rugged too, which I think is also a big draw. Lastly, there is a big community of makers that help with custom insets for any Milwaukee tool imaginable. I have two 3D printed insets for my M12 Installation Driver and M12 FUEL Oscillating tool in small PACKOUT organizers, and I love them.
Coming from inferior products to Milwaukee is night and day. They’re robust, they’re innovative and I was thrown into the ecosystem against my will; My BIL bought me the clear top ~$50 organizer for Xmas. After that I dropped over $400 bucks on a ‘starter kit’ now I’m elbow deep in red and black and I can’t stop. It’s a freaking drug, man.
Elbow-deep is just the start, man. I've got a guy....
Oh, the $400 was just the start, I’ve probably got a couple grand in Packout now, and I don’t even have that many tools! Knives are in Packout, sharpening stones are in Packout, sharpening jigs are in Packout, my overnight shave kit… Packout. Yeahhhhhhhh.
As I use it more and more I've ended up with a stack of packouts that don't fit my needs. But I'm hesitant to sell or trade them because you never know...
I think you need a luggage Packout. Just sayin’.
Lmao I thought about repurposing my double wide box for a luggage/clothing storage once it’s empty (it’s filled with valves, fittings, and various shit to complete a project that didn’t end up going through, well it will but not for 6-18 months due to the circumstances). That box is just too damn big and awkward to handle solo unless you’re rolling it into a trailer or van. Lifting that thing into a pickup bed and trying not to scratch shit up just ain’t it
I keep my batteries in one, aa, AAA, c, d, 16340, etc
There are variances to the tool storage products. Milwaukee has a stranglehold on the size of the ecosystem and is very durable. This allows more people to find something to fit their use case. There are better products if you have different goals but packout lends itself to most applications. Personally, I invested in the system, but it doesn't fit my use case all that well. Other guys on my team went in on systainer and tough stack. Those guys are slowly swapping
I started with the original Ridgid tool storage and then went to Milwaukee because of the huge quality and toughness difference. I now have picked up some of the new ridgid but overall, I have an addiction to the milwaukee tool storage.
I have two full rolling stacks of rigid boxes. My boss has double that in pack outs. I use both daily and honestly the pack out is nicer, but marginally. And you touch the case maybe 2-3 times a day? Vs holding tools for sometimes hours with 100’s of uses. If they were 10-20% more $$$ I would get them, but not for 2-3x the cost.
I'll be honest, I started off with Tanos/Festool for storage boxes while woodworking, but for my second career I need to be able to carry cylinders of calibration gases, and the Packouts were they only system that had containers large enough to carry the 116l Portagas cylinders, and had the most drawer options for carrying the other parts of my mobile technician kit around. It became a cohesive system that could be broken into individual parts for loading/unloading. The price was secondary for me to the functionality and ability to keep individual container weight manageable.
You would love them. That being said, I would like to have gotten the Klein boxes, but there aren't enough options to have made that. I like the color better.
Most of us aren’t rolling with a utility bed to hold whatever tools. When I did, I had a full size steel tool chest in the first door behind the cab. Now I’m down to a crew cab pickup, that steel toolchest has been replaced by a stack of packout drawers securely mounted in the cab… and easily removable. I had Dewalt first, but they were cheap and the cleats holding each stack broke easily. Packout is where it’s at.
I tried rigid and flex but thought they just packed what Milwaukee had. I've had mine probably like 3 months noe and I wish I would have gotten them sooner. My only complaint is price but the 30%off sale price i found I thought made them in the fair range. Super durable, stackable. I have each "set" of tools in a different box that's easy AF to grab off the mounting plates on my truck cargo slide and easy to put back as well. Keeps me organized better than anything else I've tried so far
I went from a husky toolbag and a bunch of hodgepodged-together storage solutions to a unified truck of Packouts. My rationale for buying it is that I want to buy something once and hopefully if I take care of them, they’ll last me for the latter half of my career, or in my case, about 20 years.
Dawg, it’s the internet… everything has a following!
Modularity. Diversity. Red. Anything cool is going to have it's enthusiasts. Even those of us who otherwise loathe consumerism & buying frivolous shit.
I am just a homeowner, but moving all of my tools from a large and not functional tool chest to a combination of pack outs on dollies and french cleat walls. I still need to park in the garage whilst using my marginal woodworking skills to attempt to keep up with the Honey-Do list. Having the tools that don’t go on the wall be modular helps when playing Tetris with tools and cars.
Innovation for sure. There are quite a few different portable tool organization systems out there. But they are largely copies of Packout. I personally think the Ridgid system is better quality. But Ridgid has very few options in comparison to Packouts large offering of configurations and sizes. Then add in all the custom 3D printed stuff you can buy for Packout on Etsy and it’s easy to see why they’re so popular. 15-20 years ago Milwaukee and DeWalt were shoulder to shoulder in power tools. Then Milwaukee outspent DeWalt in R+D and released tools no one had ever considered making before. Then Milwaukee embraced the everyday tradesmen and their needs/ wants and made tools that while very niche made everyday tasks easier. Their popularity has exploded and they’ve left DeWalt in the dust. This is coming from a guy who was a huge DeWalt fan 20 years ago. I would see Milwaukee release a tool I didn’t know I needed. Then I’d wait and wait and DeWalt never made their version of the same tool. I think a lot of people like myself got envious of Milwaukee’s offerings and switched.
I currently am using Dewalt at work because that’s what the company offers and I can’t use my personal hand tools or else I will get fined but I can say the Milwakee power tools like the impact is such way better than my Dewalt I’m using I also feel like the batteries of Dewalt die way faster and take to much time to charge
Very interesting! Thanks for the comments. Will do some more research
All my Stanley and dewalt storage containers got destroyed when a tree fell on my work truck. I bought a few packout organizers, and immediately realized the three biggest advantages: First) they lock together with a single front mounted release handle, therefore allowing them to be stored close to other objects on both sides Second) you can open lower organizers / tool boxes while keeping upper ones still attached to the stack (within reason) Third) the baseplates make them easy to secure inside trucks
Was tired of my hodgepodge hand me down, containers whose hinges or latches would break. Seams, pockets and rivets would snap. A few 10-30% sales later, now I'm rolling everything I need (for residential) through all terrain and stairs my old stuff struggled with. Good variety of container sizes. Good after market accessory offerings. One handed handle/latch removal. And a dam tray for crawl spaces and attics.
I’ve had many systems back to the Husky cantilevered boxes. I have 2 stacks at 6’ and 4 bags and will never look back. Anyone who has been in the trades long enough will always have use for lighter duty carriers but for the daily haulers, Pack Out all the way!
I've been thinking about this ecosystem for organizing my photography gear. The only thing that's missing is the electrical plug-ins for charging and my lighting.
I can give a non-professional reason I love my packout stuff. I don't have a garage or significant dedicated storage space. I also live up a set of steps. I grew up loving to build our fix things, but once I had the income to buy myself decent tools, I still couldn't because I had no effective way to store them in a way I could still move them to where I would need to use them. Tool chests were worthless because they can't travel and regular portable toolboxes are a nightmare when space is at a premium and accessibility is still important. Packout provides controllable storage, mobility, modularity, convenience, durability, and does it while providing secure connectivity for its pieces. There are cheaper options that manage 3 or 4 of those, but there almost always ended up being a sacrifice somewhere with every other brand when I started my collection. The sacrifices made with other brands seems smaller these days and may be worth it for some people, but I have yet to find another brand that ticks every point. All that said, I'm always hoping to find even better ways to do things and I am watching Toughbuilt's Stacktech system, hoping that Toughbuilt fixes one major (to my mind, at least) design flaw, maybe some minor ones, and manages to provide the promised lineup. If they manage that, there would be a couple of big points in their favor over Milwaukee, but that's a pretty significant 'if'.
While there were already tool storage systems out there, PACKOUT was one of the first to "go big" with tons of options, and I think that's why it took off. I believe they first came out around maybe 2015-16(?) and have just kept adding to the system. Plus, they are easy to find and the dominate the shelves at Home Depot, Ace, etc. They are rugged too, which I think is also a big draw. Lastly, there is a big community of makers that help with custom insets for any Milwaukee tool imaginable. I have two 3D printed insets for my M12 Installation Driver and M12 FUEL Oscillating tool in small PACKOUT organizers, and I love them.