All of the Dewalt boxes around here are still full price.
For those guys that have them, I was wondering if you thought they would be good for storing clothes in on a hitch cargo carrier. I'm filling up my vehicle with kids now and have a hitch cargo carrier that I'm going to try to use for vacation. Thought the large Dewalt boxes might do the trick. 2 things I'm concerned about is are they fully waterproof and secondly would they make the clothes smell?
All of the Dewalt boxes around here are still full price.
For those guys that have them, I was wondering if you thought they would be good for storing clothes in on a hitch cargo carrier. I'm filling up my vehicle with kids now and have a hitch cargo carrier that I'm going to try to use for vacation. Thought the large Dewalt boxes might do the trick. 2 things I'm concerned about is are they fully waterproof and secondly would they make the clothes smell?




Total cost............... $0.00
There's also 16 of the 12171T 2 coil boxes that aren't in the pic. I dealt with the lovely ladies at the customer service desk for an unrelated issue when I first walked in, and one mentioned that when people ring the penny items they just give them to them. Well, I found a cartload of Hitachi nails on the shelves, and didn't bother going to the registers. I went right back to the customer service desk. They needed manager approval, since there were so many, but that wasn't an issue. They took a count to correct inventory, marked out all the barcodes so they couldn't be returned, and sent me on my way. Was a great day.
Home Depot currently has the Milwaukee clamp meter and Milwaukee multimeter on clearance. They are both .06 here last time I checked as well.
All of the Dewalt boxes around here are still full price.
For those guys that have them, I was wondering if you thought they would be good for storing clothes in on a hitch cargo carrier. I'm filling up my vehicle with kids now and have a hitch cargo carrier that I'm going to try to use for vacation. Thought the large Dewalt boxes might do the trick. 2 things I'm concerned about is are they fully waterproof and secondly would they make the clothes smell?

*** Hijack Warning ***
Are you thinking about storing the clothes inside the trailer, or outside using the DS400 as a tongue box? Inside storage wouldn't be as demanding for air/water tightness because you're only fighting humidity/mold/mildew. A tongue box would be directly fighting the elements like rain/snow/road spray. Will your storage requirements be short or long-term?
Most of the guys seem to be buying them on the premise that they're airtight/watertight and that they'll protect tools from rusting when they're stored outside in a garage or a shed in a humid environment. Or in your case, clothes in a trailer that could be subjected to humidity.
I'm not sure they're 100% watertight. But then I haven't actually tested them with a garden hose, by leaving them outside in a storm, or by trying to dunk then in water. Tad is pretty serious about these boxes -- maybe he has already done the tests.
The problem that I'm worried about (which I have to add is theoretical and unsubstantiated conjecture on my part) relates to the rubber seal that's supposed to seal the top/bottom when the lid is snapped shut. I had originally thought that the seal was a rubber o-ring (in which case you'd have a great water-tight seal if properly lubed and compressed by the lid fitting tight on the case). It turns out that the "rubber" seal is not actually an o-ring that is inlaid into the recess in the top of the case. It's actually an expanding foam that has been squirted into place with a caulking gun while it's in the liquid state, which then firms-up and looks like an o-ring when it cures. (Think of the expanding polyurethane foams.) I never even realized this until I got a DS400 where the caulking was sloppy and there was a trail of caulk that was outside of the groove.
The problem that I'm having with many of my cases is that I don't feel any compression of the seal when I snap them shut -- they just snap shut without giving the sensation of a positive pressure lock. The result is that the "air screw" on the top of the case never "burps" properly. When a Pelican case gets closed the seals are tight, some air gets compressed in the case, and the bleed screw will burp. Not my experience with the DeWalts.
Not that I'm complaining -- they're definitely good boxes, they're modular and the price is right. it's just that I'm going to need to do some testing before I trust anything with outside storage. For extreme weather outside storage, I use Instant Ocean/Reef Crystals (sea salt) 5-gallon buckets. They are heavy duty EDPM buckets with a true rubber o-ring and a spinning screw-on top that you close by hammering it on tightly. Dry synthetic sea salt in buckets is notorious for turning from a fine granular free-flowing powder into a giant solidified rock if it gets damp. I go through a lot of sea salt for my aquarium, and I've been storing salt outside on a pad in direct weather for years. I've never had one of those seals fail after I hammered them shut. I can only hope that the Dewalt Tough System boxes work as well, but I haven't proven them yet.
BTW, I do think the Dewalt boxes smell a bit, and could stand to be aired out for a while before putting clothes in them. In some respects, I think the DS400 might be overkill for the clothes storage application. I've travelled in all sorts of weather on bikes, and years of doing that has taught me the value of Ziplocs and garbage bags. Ziplocs, garbage bags and Rubbermaid tubs would be a cheap/totally waterproof way to store clothes in a trailer, and they're *nestable* when empty so they don't take up space when you don't need them. The DS400 won't do that.
If I used the DS400 for the clothes application I'd probably still use the Ziplocs/garbage bags -- just because the garbage bag adds an added layer of protection against water, and the Ziplocs make digging-out the shirt on the bottom of the pile so much easier, without disturbing the rest of them. With Ziplocs it's easy to have everything neatly folded, so you can pull it out quickly without making a mess of everything else that's folded. That's actually quite a big deal when you're trying to cram a lot of stuff into saddlebags for a cross-country trip.
HTH. We now return you to our regular program of deal hunting...![]()
Yes, the drip-edge will help immensely when it comes to rain. But I'm not so sure about how well a drip-edge will work with horizontally applied water, like road spray. Also, the drip-edge doesn't do anything to prevent wind borne humidity and condensation with weather changes -- the rubber seal is responsible for that. Before I go putting tens of thousands of dollars worth of tools outside where the weather changes, I need to know that the air/water tight seal actually works as expected.I can say that in an inclement weather environment, they WILL keep out moisture 100%. I've left them in the back of my pickup when it rained and not a drop of water got in. The seal is secondary as the lid is a tongue and groove where the top sits over the side panels to create a drip edge.
I already fed you, little bird.Been a long time lurker on the forum, newer to the hot deals. I read back nearly a hundred pages and still couldn't figure it out. I'm a little bird *TWEET TWEET* feed me. I'm in northwest jersey so from what I've read I shouldn't be much competition to anyone on here.
Been a long time lurker on the forum, newer to the hot deals. I read back nearly a hundred pages and still couldn't figure it out. I'm a little bird *TWEET TWEET* feed me. I'm in northwest jersey so from what I've read I shouldn't be much competition to anyone on here.
I found some Hitachi nails and one of the crappy Xenon M12 lights today. SCO lady never said a word as I rang up a pile of them.
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If you give a man a fish...
Don't damn them. You're supposed to "You ****" them.More finish nails I need. Damn you guys finding all these.
Yes, the drip-edge will help immensely when it comes to rain. But I'm not so sure about how well a drip-edge will work with horizontally applied water, like road spray. Also, the drip-edge doesn't do anything to prevent wind borne humidity and condensation with weather changes -- the rubber seal is responsible for that. Before I go putting tens of thousands of dollars worth of tools outside where the weather changes, I need to know that the air/water tight seal actually works as expected.
I think the best way to do this is to put a plate of calcium chloride (aka damp-rid) in a box and leave it outside for some seasonal weather changes. If the calcium chloride collects water then the seal is a fail and that will put tools in danger of rusting in humid environments.
The air valve screws all the way out. If you could find an adapter you could pressure test without drilling a hole.
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Didn't know you needed framing nails. I thought you had nails and no nailers.Don't damn them. You're supposed to "You ****" them. [emoji106]
I've been hunting those 21-degree plastic collated Hitachi framing nails for a long time. Never found them. You guys ****.
the problem is that have found plenty of nailers, and plenty of nails, but none that will work together.Didn't know you needed framing nails. I thought you had nails and no nailers.