The Five Gallon Challenge
The Five Gallon Challenge illustrates the benefits of carrying less backpacking gear and more compressible gear in a more visual way than is possible with a gear list. It’s particularly effective for gear shakedowns in groups where people can compare the volume and space that their gear requires with other people’s backpack contents.
Directions
To participate in this challenge, put all of the gear you carry inside your backpack, in the exterior pockets, or lashed to the outside, into a 5-gallon bucket. Leave your backpack out, in addition to food, water, water bottles, and fuel.
Emphasis on Gear Volume, Not Weight
The important thing to emphasize in the Five Gallon Challenge isn’t the weight of the gear in the bucket, but whether the gear fits in the bucket. Gear that is highly compressible and requires less volume is almost always lighter, if only because you need a smaller volume and a lighter backpack to carry it.
If you can’t get all of your backpacking gear into a five-gallon bucket, there are some common gear swaps or removals that you can use to reduce the volume that your gear requires:
- Quilts require less volume than bulkier sleeping bags
- Down sleeping insulation is more compressible than synthetic sleeping insulation
- Trekking pole tents require less volume than ones that require separate tent poles
- Siliconized polyester or siliconized nylon tents require less volume than tents made with Dyneema DCF.
- Single-wall tents, tarps, or mids require less volume than double-wall tents
- Stoves and fuel that can be packed inside cook pots require less volume
- Carrying fewer clothes reduces the required volume
- and so on.
More traditional backpackers who use bulkier gear or who bring extra clothes won’t be able to get as much gear into the bucket, which provides an opportunity to go through their pack and eliminate unnecessary items.
Relaxing the Five Gallon Challenge
If you’re trying the Five Gallon Challenge with a group, and it’s clear no one is going to be able to fit all of their gear into the bucket, you can relax the rules a bit by letting participants leave out a shared item like a tent or a bulky item like a sleeping bag. Going through the exercise will still have merit because participants will see the impact that bringing extra clothes, bulky cooking gear, or a large sleeping pad can have on the volume of their gear.
Credits
I didn’t invent the Five Gallon Challenge. I learned about it from two friends named Ken “DripDry” Holder and Lee “RevLee” Fields. They use it to teach Boy Scouts and their parents about the benefits of bringing less unnecessary gear on backpacking trips.
I think the Five Gallon Challenge is a brilliant idea and one that resonates with people who aren’t as number-oriented, but are more visual. An overflowing bucket does make for a memorable image.
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Excellent. Thanks for sharing this.
This is such a great idea. (Especially with a Philmont trip on the horizon with my boys.) But how does this translate into typical backpack volume sizing? It seems like 5 gal (~19L) is on the low size for most packs.
The guys who came up with this were scout leaders, as a matter of fact. While it is low volume, you can, of course, exceed it by piling stuff on top above the rim. Regardless, it’s still a good tool for shakedowns because it invites comparisons between different people and their loads. It also forces you remove all extraneous gear, helps you identify large items than can or should be replaced, and is attainable if you have a really streamlined (3 or 2 season) UL gear list.
Try it on yourself to see.
I forwarded the link to this story over to my sons former scout leader/group. A similar back and forth took place. Their argument that a 12-15 year old kid isn’t going to have a $400 UL down sleeping bag but I emphasized what Philip stated. It’s a great comparison tool. Even if they can’t fit in a single bucket who are the kids that are carrying 3-4 buckets???
Mine fits into a 55 gallon barrel…
You’re not supposed to climb inside it too.
I thought about this quite a bit while leading different groups and levels of experience on backpacking trips. I’m seeing a trend where beginners really want to achieve these metrics like volume but they aren’t thinking about the recommended amount of weight in their smaller backpack… so the actual mass and density is making their backpack burst at the seams or ride uncomfortably on their body. Mr Werner, I have read your blog occasionally for over 10 years. You have led groups with lots of different experience levels. Have you noticed this kind of behavior?
I don’t think beginners think about volume that much. They’re more obsessed with weight. But generally speaking, beginners are terrible at buying a pack that matches their volume needs. I tell people to buy their pack last after acquiring their new gear, but they never listen.
I tried buying the pack last. Ended up with just a tarp over the bed of the truck I bought to carry it all in.
I RECENTLY RETURNED FRON A TRIP TO ENGLAND where I spent a week with my wife and then stayed to hake the Cleveland Way trail, 109 miles. Everything had to fit in my personal item carry on size pack because I flew Spirit and I’m too cheep to pay for a full size carry on or checked bag. This pushed my UL packing list to the limit. I took a down sleeping bag And a Gatewood Cape poncho/tent. I planned to buy tentstakes and a sleeping pad there. 2 hiking stors didn’t have a sleeping pad so I was a little cold at night. Like the 5 gallon/20 Liter challenge it’s good to step back and take a hard look at your gear.
Might work but not in the Daks. You have to carry that stupid Bear can.
Added bulk on the DCF fly is true but I’ll take that any day over a wet and heavy Silicone tarp.
True weight and volume are important but I’ll take things like my Octa Fleece camp pants that are bulky over a thin pair of thermals any day of the week.
A five gallon bucket is about 19 liters . That’s really hard to get the right stuff in there and be warm at night.
Most Scouts don’t have the dough to go super light. I’ve been backpacking for over 50 years have the money to spend and still don’t have it right.
Hope this helps.
Keep in mind there is a bit of crew gear, first aid kit, rope and bear bags for hanging food and other smellables, 1 trick we did was carrying a rope with a pully to handle the load of hoisting a bear bag on their pre strung wires
Two 5-gallon buckets are still less than 40 liters. I carry a 60-liter pack in part because I’m averse to over-compressing down. I still think lower weight, well-distributed, is a better way to think than lower volume.. But — as a Scout leader I totally see the appeal of this challenge. Kids can be both concrete and competetive. Would still make it 2 buckets, at least for older scouts. For the 11-year-olds one bucket might be enough.
What a great way to do a gear shake down!
This is a great idea. I will start to incorporate this concept into my backpacking classes and trips. I think it’s a great visual aid for beginner backpackers.
Exactly.
As a former professional space planner : thank you, this is genius.
I really appreciate this method given my disability, but dang it’s hard to meet it with hammock camping supplies!