I shoulda got a picture of this but I didn’t. Our upnorth friend Bill Perkins used to be the local Scoutmaster and he ended up doing a lot of picking up and hauling of stuff, for both campouts and community events.
He made something that made the pick-up and haul chore a lot easier.
He took a big plastic trashcan and bungiecorded it to a backpack frame, one with padded shoulderstraps and waistbelt.
This made for a great, huge packbasket.
I saw it kicking around his shop.
It got me to thinking that there are a lot of plastic/rubbermaid-type trashcans out there with shapes a lot like the traditional packbasket. You could pick most any size you like. And, heck, most even have lids of some kind.
So just take any of those and strap em or bolt em to a packframe.
But why stop there? Do you always really need a packframe? That’s probably best for the heaviest, most intense stuff, I suppose.
Why not just bolt shoulderstraps to the plastic trashcan?
After all, what’s an ash packbasket have that such a rig wouldn’t?
Traditional packbaskets don’t even have padded straps. They just have straps riveted to the basket. And they work fine. They can haul totally heavy loads, no problem. The basket flexes nice against the back, yet it holds its shape. Hello? So would a plastic dustbin!
I’d say to just rivet/bolt some straps to your bin. Pick a size that has a decent base. Kitchens make for easier balancing than the forest or worksites do. Get a wide-ish base.
And your DIY basket will be waterproof, too! Maybe even coon-proof! Just include inner-tube gaskets in with your rivets/bolts. Add some kind of fastener for the lid. Heck, maybe give the lid some inner-tube hinges so it doesn’t get away.
I googled this idea and came up empty. Seems like a winner, to me! …Just as good as kitty-litter bucket bike panniers!
