Landed Gear Has Landed A Great Van Life Product
*The people at Landed Gear gave me these prototype MOLLE panels to test and review. Landed Gear links on this page are not affiliate links.
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Landed Gear San Diego California check out their full line of van accessories.
What Is A MOLLE Panel
MOLLE is an acronym for Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment. They are used by the military and police to attach various items to steel, aluminum or plastic panels. The fabric version seen on backpacks and vests are called PALS – Pouch Attachment Ladder System, but MOLLE and PALS seem to be used interchangeably.
So let’s look at the various uses for van life. Rear doors are a very popular place for people to put MOLLE panels to hold things like propane hot water heaters, fire extinguishers, carabiners, hats, water bottles and anything else you can think of. Some companies also make them for the back of your seats.
These specific MOLLE panels are designed to attach items with straps that weave through the various holes and slots cut into the plastic. Most MOLLE bags come with these straps and can be easily attached. I did hear that Landed Gear is working on their own accessories that can be mounted to their panels. Stay tuned.
I would suggest putting your lighter items on the top MOLLE panels and heavier items on the lower door area. I have these MOLLE panels on the rear section of my doors, but you might [email protected] to see if they will be making lower panels.
Why Would You Want One
Storage is something all van owners struggle to find more of as they buildout and travel in their vans. With MOLLE panels, you can buy bags of various sizes, shapes and colors to store all sorts of items.
We store our first aid kit, porta potty deodorant, extra dish soap, sponges, small tools, spare screws and bolts and fasteners.
As we travel more we will fine tune our bags and what we store in them. We still have plenty of space.
Features
- Custom made to fit the contours and holes of the Ram Promaster rear doors.
- Made of very sturdy ABS plastic.
- Very nice rugged textured black finish.
- CNC machined in house in San Diego California.
- Plastic door panel push clips quickly and securely fasten the panels to the door.
- Multiple holes and slots machined into the panel to accommodate a wide variety of modular MOLLE panel accessories.
Installation
Installation was very straight forward and only required an allen wrench and a screwdriver. The MOLLE panel comes completely assembled, but I did need to loosen the allen bolts a bit in order to get the plastic fasteners in place. Here are my steps.
- Made sure I had at least 12 of the included plastic fasteners.
- Removed the stock upper panel from both rear doors with a phillips screwdriver.
- Loosened the allen bolts a few turns so it was easier to put the plastic fasteners in the panel holes.
- Re-tightened the allen bolts.
- Held the panel up to the door and pushed one tab in until it clicked. See picture below showing red highlights over the existing door holes you will be pushing the tabs into.
- Went around the panel pushing the remaining five tabs into the existing holes in the door. I used the head of a flat head screwdriver to help push the tabs down.
- Repeated on the other side.
Real World Use
I wanted to get this review out so people can get in on the first run of this product. I will update this post as we use them more and adapt our needs to the endless storage possibilities.
Conclusion
The look alone would be enough for me to purchase these blacked out MOLLE panels, but they are also incredibly useful for storage. Over time we will dial in what we want to put on our MOLLE panels, but for now I’m happy with the two bags I have hanging from them. The quality is solid and the installation was a breeze. I highly recommend these to anybody looking to mount gear on your doors or if you just want a really cool looking modification.
Here are the bags we currently have on our MOLLE panels.
Tacticool 2-pack MOLLE pouches
As of the writing of this review, these MOLLE panels are not yet in full production, but if you e-mail [email protected] you can have a set made.
If you have any questions or comments about this product, please submit them in the comments section below or e-mail Landed Gear directly.
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Safe travels,
Steve & Marla
