Organize Your Adventure Gear with MOLLE Panels

Not just for looks, MOLLE will take your overland storage game to the next level.

You’ve seen it before; beautiful Instagram photos of off-road rigs; tires wet, paint shining, covered with gadgets and gear and perched up on some rock for the perfect shot. Upon closer inspection, you may start to notice that many of these beautiful builds have an interesting commonality: many have thin, metal grids hard mounted to the interior and/or exterior of the vehicle. What are these parts? Some kind of Mad Max-esque armor for protection in the mall parking lot? Well, for those folks out there who really are just doing this whole “off-road” thing for the ‘gram, pretty much. However, for the rest of us, these are called MOLLE panels, and they are one of many strategies for organization in your overland and off-road vehicle.

MOLLE panels, as simple as they are, are an awesome vehicle upgrade for new and experienced off-roaders alike. From their military origins, to their now-seamless integration into most 4×4 vehicles, MOLLE (a.k.a. Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment) panels offer a new way to organize, store and access your gear while in the field. If you’re well on your way into your 4×4 build, and are beginning to notice the many shortcomings of having your gear and equipment thrown all around the inside of your rig, MOLLE panels are low-hanging fruit for upgrading your vehicles utility, and gaining back some valuable space . In this post, we’ll explore the history of MOLLE, its benefits for overland and off-road applications, and why this simple yet powerful upgrade can transform how you use your truck.

The History of MOLLE: From the Battlefield to the Backcountry

MOLLE, short for “Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment”, was developed in the late 1990s for military use. Designed primarily for backpacks and body armor, the system replaced older load-carrying designs, offering a modular approach to gear management. MOLLE compatible bags and vests utilized a grid system of stitched-on webbing, which allowed users to attach pouches, tools, and accessories securely to their bag or person. To this day, this design enables soldiers to customize their gear loadouts to meet specific mission requirements, and is standardized, so no matter where a piece of kit is acquired from, it will attach without issue so long as it’s MOLLE compatible.

In practice, MOLLE proved to be incredibly efficient. Over time, outdoor enthusiasts, first responders, and other professionals adopted the MOLLE system for the same practical benefits it offered soldiers. In recent years, the off-road and overland communities have embraced the MOLLE system, integrating it into our vehicles to meet the unique demands of adventuring.

What Are MOLLE Panels?

MOLLE panels are rigid surfaces equipped with a grid-like pattern of cutouts compatible with MOLLE attachments. Instead of the webbing used on bags, armor and pouches, MOLLE panels are made of metal (often steel or aluminum), are hard mounted, and serve as mounting platforms for various accessories, including pouches, tools, and gear. MOLLE panels can be mounted in different areas of your vehicle, such as the interior of doors, rear cargo area, center console, or ceiling.

Designed to optimize storage and accessibility, MOLLE panels provide a customizable and secure way to organize virtually any equipment. The modular grid design ensures compatibility with any MOLLE-compatible gear, and makes it relatively easy to adapt any other gear for mounting as well. By acting as a blank-slate for gear mounting, MOLLE panels make it easy to mount and store gear in whatever orientation and layout you choose.

Why MOLLE Panels Are a Must-Have Upgrade for Off-Road Vehicles

1. Enhanced Organization

If you’ve spent even a little time off-roading or vehicle camping, you know that your rig can become packed with gear fast, especially when heading out on longer trips. MOLLE panels provide a structured way to organize your essential gear, ensuring that everything has its place. The above image shows our MOLLE panel system for the Jeep Gladiator, and you can begin to visualize how gear can be mounted easily with this setup. While we all need open storage space for transient gear (i.e. things we often remove from the vehicle, like camp chairs, backpacks, bags, etc.), there’s plenty of gear that many of us carry that stays with the truck at all times. Pieces of kit that fall into this category are usually perfect opportunities for permanent storage on a MOLLE panel. For example, our rigs, we keep the back seat open and clear for camp chairs, a small table, our Joolca shower tent, etc. Permanent gear, like our fire extinguishers (yes, plural, we do drive a Jeep XJ after all), med-kit, small fishing poles, toiletry and cutlery bags, hatchet, GMRS radio, etc. all get mounted to MOLLE panels in various locations around the cab that we find convenient.

With designated spots for the essentials, MOLLE panels make it easy to locate what you need in a pinch. This level of organization is especially valuable in high-pressure situations, such as vehicle recoveries or emergencies, where quick access to the right tool (again, fire extinguishers come to mind) can make all the difference.

2. Ease of Installation for Electronics

Another benefit to outfitting your truck with MOLLE panels is flexibility for mounting electronics. At some point in your overlanding career, you may start to consider an auxiliary power system for your truck. There are many ways to install such a system, but one area where MOLLE comes into play is the ability to mount certain components of that system within arms reach. For example, you may not need constant access to your auxiliary batteries and charger, so those can get stored under a seat, in the engine bay or in a custom built enclosure. You may, however, want quick access to things like your battery monitor, Redarc Manager display, etc. Mounting components like this on a MOLLE panel in the trunk of the vehicle is a great option, since this is the area many of us spend the most amount of time around while camping, and our battery system control and info needs to be within an arms reach. Another great example is the use of center console MOLLE panels for mounting things like your GMRS radio. I even use my A-Pillar MOLLE panel as the perfect place to mount my phone RAM mount.

3. Improved Interior/Exterior Protection

MOLLE panels can also serve as protective barriers for your vehicle’s interior. For example, window-mounted MOLLE panels shield your windows from impacts and scratches caused by loose gear. More importantly, they can protect ALL the gear inside your rig from would-be thieves. If you are unfortunate enough to have your trunk window smashed by a burglar looking to steal some of that expensive gear you carry around, they likely wont be expecting to see a hard-mounted steel barrier just beyond the window, completely preventing them from entering the vehicle. They might continue trying other windows, but we have already seen instances of thieves getting discouraged after MOLLE panels thwarted their first attempt.

Interior door MOLLE panels will also protect your vehicles interior from wear and tear. Door MOLLE panels protect your plastic door cards from damage as you get in and out of the vehicle. Mounting components to MOLLE panels also saves your vehicle’s interior from being drilled/screwed/bolted into to mount your equipment (other than the initial process of installing the panel itself). This added layer of protection helps maintain the condition of your vehicle’s interior, preserving its value and ensuring it remains in good shape for years of adventures to come.

4. Aesthetic Appeal

Okay, we’ve covered the obvious benefits, but it’s time to acknowledge the elephant in the room. MOLLE looks cool as hell.

We have a ton of fun designing our panels, and take pride in making something that performs great, and looks great too. Even without any gear mounted, the clean and organized appearance of a MOLLE-equipped rig not only enhances its visual appeal, but also reflects your commitment to preparedness and efficiency (a commitment that must be verbal-only at this point if all your panels are still empty, but I digress). MOLLE looks cool, and if you don’t agree, I can’t help you. As far as those mall-crawlers and Instagram warriors we joked about earlier in the article are concerned, (those who have kitted out their vehicle with MOLLE panels just for looks, and don’t intend to use them for their intended purpose) well, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. How your vehicle looks is extremely important to a lot of people, and if you think about it, there’s a lot of parts we typically install onto off-road vehicles that aren’t quite as functional as we convince ourselves they are.

Why Trail & Co. Offers The Best Panels For Your Rig

This one is simple; quality and price. We entered the off-road fabrication game because of how dissatisfied we were with the quality and cost of the parts we were buying for our own rigs. On top of that, many of the interior storage mods out there do not capitalize on functionality the way our systems do. Have a poke around the internet and look at the many different center console MOLLE panel systems out there for example. You will notice that many other companies sacrifice tons of usable panel space (in the case of center console panels, even as much as HALF) in order to fit features like logos on the panel, and that’s just bad design. Our designs have always prioritized maximizing usable panel space (and thus value) for our customers. Our systems are all CAD designed using 3D scans of each vehicle, ensuring a (literally) laser-accurate fit. Trail & Co. beats the big guys in both cost and quality, every time.

Ready to get organized? Head on over to our shop page and check out the awesome stuff we’ve come up with so far.