Help choosing Bearikade size

Might help if you could give an estimate of the size/volume of your items other than food and trash. I think most here can estimate the size can you need for the food given the number of days/nights. But how would we know the volume of your proposed other stuff. Also, if the ‘trash’ is more than just the food packaging, then would help to know that.

Christopher D, welcome to the forums.

The Bearikade is a great product — well made, lightweight, and effective. You have described a vast variety of scenarios in terms of length of trip and needs so it’s hard to pick one that does it all. Even if we had a breakdown of all your items, it sounds like that will vary from trip to trip depending on length and conditions.

One may swear by the Scout and another may insist on the Expedition (huge by the way) so your best bet is to rent several Bearikades to determine what is best for you.

For sure. The trash is minimal, packaging from food and used sterile cotton mostly.

the hygiene kit is in a 2 liter roll top dry bag, rolled 3-5 times

Thanks Robert, I think you’re correct and figured I’d throw it out here just to hear opinions.  I’ll edit the OP with some more information

Volume of trash is a 1 liter roll top dry bag. Volume of hygiene is a 2 liter roll top dry bag.

I’ve used a BearVault BV450, which I think is smaller than the Scout. It’s fine for long weekends and could do a longer trip with attention to efficiency. You can always pack your days food in your pack. I would only size up one size at most unless you do more longer trips.

Hi Christopher,

I’d suggest to take some cardboard with the dimensions 14.5″x 28.27″ to make a cylinder with the dimensions of the Bearikade Expedition (diameter 9 inch, height 14.5″). Now make markings on the cylinder at the height of the Scout (8″), the Weekender (10.5″) and the Blazer (12″) and start packing your smellables into the cylinder. You can easily see how high you fill up the cylinder and which model fits your needs best. In my experience the the length of my trip determines the needed food and I have the Expedition for longer treks like the JMT as well as the Scout for extended weekends, where I use the freed-up volume in my backpack for a luxury item or two as I don’t mind carrying the extra weight on a shorter trip.

Have fun out there!

Manfred

I think it’s simpler than all that. For 2-3 nights for yourself, get the Scout. It’s by far the most packable of the Bearikades. It’s a delight to carry. I can’t imagine taking an Expedition for 3 nights, or 5. That takes up a huge amount of volume. That still leaves you with the one time a year 7 night outing. My thinking is, forcing yourself to carry a huge canister on your common trips in order to accommodate a once a year trip is…overkill. Get the Scout and then figure out an alternative for that rare 7 nighter.

by the way, the Scout can handle that upcoming 5 day 4 night trip easily, if you pack the right foods. I’ve done that dozens of times. actually it could go for five nights, if you carry the first nights dinner and lunch outside of the canister.

BTW… choices are not limited to the standard sizes… you can order custom sized on their web page in increments of 1/8″ length… so could perhaps compromise between the Scout and the Weekender…  food (and trash?) for thought…

How small can you get your food? Do you like playing Tetris? I have, with considerable effort and compromise, been able to get ~3300 cal into 1.1 liters of volume. That’s really pushing it and not fun to pack. Drop it down a few hundred calories and it becomes much easier. The Scout is almost 9 liters to I can get a week in it.

In order to really maximize space there will be some shoving. I don’t think a cardboard container is a good way to really explore maximizing capacity but you might not be interested in squishing everything and getting weird about volume. There is something to be said for packing the can without trouble, particularly if you have a large pack that you like carrying.

Thank you all so much! To answer a few questions, I don’t really wanna Tetris the food, I’m accepting the bulk of the can. I do want to keep even the days food in the can (trying to not contaminate the pack at all).

I think jscott’s solution is going to be best for me. I’ll get the Scout now and just get a bigger one for the others, which sounds like the expedition is too large for even my longest plans. Thank you again all, I’m gonna get it right now.

Noooooooooo! Don’t stop now.

Hey I got a 9.25″ @ 12 years ago and love it. the Scout is 8″ I get 7 days out of the 9.25″ Consider you’re only packing dinner for the first night and breakfast for the 7th so that’s 5 full days + 2 meals.

Also consider the Nunatak Bears Ears packs. Very well constructed and carry great . Best part and worth the small weight increase over a typical UL type pack is the canister has it’s own ‘pocket’ or suspension so you can access the stuff in the main pack body without removing the canister OR access the canister without digging through everything in the pack.

Love it!

PS: The folk?(s)?  at Bearikade are really nice and easy to work with. They do have a very reasonable rental arrangement so testing a size is not some difficult proposition.

PPS: Get a slim 1″ diameter SS  bolt washer and tape it to the canister. You may be glad you did.

Thanks! I do plan on carrying the van exactly like that. I have a load shelf under my pack that can accommodate that position of carry.

My thinking is similar to @jscott except I would get the weekender.  On short trips there is no need to repackage anything, just toss in the bucket and good to go.  Even real bread, eggs, etc.  For the once a year trip, with careful packaging and 1st days food riding out of the can you are set.  AND you always have a stool to sit on.

Whether that last bit is a selling point for you depends on where you go.

My wife and I can’t get 3 days of food into our Bearvault 500.

The Weekender “just” barely fit in horizontally at the bottom of my old Mariposa frameless pack, which is not the same as the current iteration. I use a Luxury Lite frame with a lip on the bottom that holds a bear canister perfectly. the frameless Marioposa  “sack” is strapped to that frame. I carried the Weekender or Scout inside of the pack, horizontally on the bottom, and rested that  on that lower shelf of the LL frame. (I didn’t use the LL canisters). Very, very comfortable. I’m guessing that the OP’s “load shelf under my pack” is something similar…?

Most packs aren’t wide enough to accept a Bearikade horizontally, except for the Scout. For most folks, this isn’t an issue. My one-off pack works best with the canister on the bottom shelf/frame horizontally. I suppose having the canister bottom resting on the shelf would work too.

If you scroll way down you’ll see a picture of a pack strapped onto a LL frame, with a bear canister at the bottom. The pack sack that I used was WAY more minimalist than the ones shown. And as I mentioned, I carried the canister inside of the pack at the very bottom.

http://www.luxurylite.com/index.html#stackpack

I have an expedition, which I bought when my husband used to backpack with me. Then I bought a weekender for my own use. I wish the blazer had been around then. That seems like the perfect size to me, because I’m doing longer trips lately. The expedition is just way too big. I velcro’d a quarter to the top of the can; that works well for a while. Eventually the velcro loses its ability to stick. Duct tape works too, for a while. I always have a spare coin in my 1st aid kit just in case. If you carry a multi tool knife you don’t need to bother.

I carry a super light one blade knife. When its folded closed, the metal back of the knife fits perfectly into the slots that turn the fastening gizmos on the top of the bearikade; plus the length of the knife helps to twist it open. I also duct taped a quarter on the lid.

Just like @jscott I use the back of my Spyderco Ladybug to open my Bearikade and it was like it was designed for the job.   I also occasionally use the end of my Sea to Summit spoon (not the end I eat with) and it works, but it does scar and damage the spoon some.

“Just like @jscott I use the back of my Spyderco Ladybug to open my Bearikade and it was like it was designed for the job.  ”

Yep, that’s the one, or one very like it. Perfect fit for a Bearikade. 20 grams. Great, super sharp blade.

I went ahead and ordered the weekender. It will fit horizontally in my pack or horizontally on the load shelf outside of it. Thank you all so much for your input!

Some great discussion going on here.  I can share my experience as a long term eastern sierra resident and backcountry fanatic.

My trips are anywhere from 1 to 9 nights without resupply.  Usually I rock a BV450 for short stuff and use the expedition for anything longer then 4 nights.  The weight of the expedition is less than that of the BV500.  Using a hyperlight pack I just strap the expedition horizonal using the provided straps. Easy peasy.

Over the past 30+ years, I’ve tried many.  I have garcia cans too (the black one) as well as a BV500.  BTW, I eat a ton on big trips so I like my calories, even with an endurance athlete build.  Thus I like capacity.  I  originally got the expedition for some 9 day trips and other shorter ones with food for 2 dogs and two kids with wife.  It has served its purpose well.  On thing for sure, it is really easy at the end of a long day getting all the things with scent into the can.  No more playing tetris with food, trash, and scent items!  Did I say the expedition weighs less then the typical sierra hiker loadout, the BV500?

Thank you, Brian. That’s precisely my thinking. I’ll pack efficiently, but I don’t want a small puzzle to solve at all. Interesting, I may still end up getting the Expedition if I have trouble standing off the weekender. I have a repaired pelvis and slight paresis in my right leg and use assistive devices. So we’ll see how it goes when it arrives.

There seem to be a lot of models of the Ladybug and a Manbug also. I planned on machining a precise tool to turn the locks, but a a simple knife would be great. Do you know what model Spyderco Ladybug you have?