Collection: Tool Storage

What is a PACKOUT, and how does the system work?

PACKOUT is a stacking system rather than a single toolbox. Every full-size box, organizer, tote and crate carries the same molded cleat pattern on the lid and the same slots underneath. You set one unit on top of another, slide it back until the cleats seat, then throw the two side latches. From that point the stack moves as one piece. To take it apart, flip the latches out and lift straight up.

Because the interface is identical across the line, you can buy a base now and change what sits above it later. The pieces we stock cover the three jobs most people actually need. A large tool box takes the bulk — cordless tools, cords, a hard hat, anything that does not want to be sorted. A tote is the one you carry into the unit and set on the floor, open at the top, so the hand tools you reach for every few minutes are never behind a lid. An organizer with a clear top and removable bins is for fasteners, connectors, terminals and everything else that otherwise ends up loose in the bottom of a bag.

Two Milwaukee items here are tools that happen to be built on the same footprint: a PACKOUT wet/dry vacuum and a pair of PACKOUT-mounted flood lights. They latch into a stack exactly the way a box does, which is the whole point. The vacuum rides on the bottom of the stack to the job instead of being carried in a second trip.

PACKOUT mounting plates and rail mounts

Mounting hardware exists to put that cleat interface somewhere that is not another box. A mounting plate is the general-purpose answer: an anodized 6061 aluminum plate with locking slots and a latch hole, fixed to a wall, a bulkhead or a rack, that accepts full-size boxes, half-size boxes and crates. The latch hole is the part people overlook. It lets the box's own latch engage the plate, so the box cannot be knocked off sideways by a knee or a swinging door.

Cleats are the lighter option. A pack of individual mount cleats lets you hang one accessory in one spot without committing to a full plate, which suits pegboard, a cabinet door, or an odd-shaped panel inside a van where a full plate will not sit flat.

Rail mounts work from the other direction. They clamp to the aluminum side rail on the box itself and extend the system outward. A rail side mount hangs a half-size box off the flank of your stack. A universal rail clip gives you M8 threaded holes so you can bolt on whatever you want. Level holders grip a level along the side of the box and are handed — left and right are separate items, so order the side you actually want. Folding side tables and a magnetic work table give you a flat surface at waist height, then fold away when it is time to roll.

Nearly all of it installs the same way. Back the rail off, slide the bracket on, reinstall the rail, tighten the set screws. Nothing gets drilled into the box, and it comes back off without leaving holes behind.

PACKOUT wall mount ideas for the garage, van and truck bed

A wall is the easiest win. Fix a mounting plate into studs, or into a plywood backer screwed across several studs, and set the height so the heaviest box in the stack ends up between your knees and your chest. Anything above shoulder height should be the light stuff. The same logic applies to the charger and battery racks in this collection: a bracket whose holes line up with the keyholes already on the back of a charger, an angled twin bracket that keeps packs seated when the assembly is mounted vertically, and simple slotted racks that get loose packs off the bench and onto the wall.

In a van, the usual approach is a plywood-lined wall or an existing rack upright, with the plate through-bolted rather than screwed into thin panel. Leave yourself clearance to swing the latches and to lift a box straight up without hitting the roof — that vertical lift is easy to design out by accident. In a truck bed, plates go onto a bed rail, a headache rack or a cross-box lid, and the stack wants to sit as low and as far forward as the rest of the load allows.

Be clear about what mounting hardware does and does not do. A plate, cleat or rail mount holds a box in place through normal driving: corners, braking, a rough site road. It is not load securement. None of it is rated to restrain a loaded box in a crash, and none of it replaces a ratchet strap, a cargo bar or a proper tie-down point. If the vehicle is going on the highway with a heavy stack in it, strap the stack as well as mount it.

Genuine Milwaukee or aftermarket: what you are actually buying

This is worth saying plainly, because search results rarely make it obvious. The boxes, organizers, totes, the vacuum, the flood lights and the SHOCKWAVE kits on this page are genuine Milwaukee product. Most of the mounting hardware is not. Plates, rail mounts, cleats, level holders, folding tables and caster kits are made by independent manufacturers who build to the PACKOUT interface.

That is not a downside, and it helps to understand why. Milwaukee makes a narrow range of mounting parts and most of them are molded. Independent makers machine theirs from 6061 aluminum, which is generally stiffer than a molded part of the same shape and does not creep under a sustained load in a hot garage. The trade-off is that fit is engineered rather than guaranteed by the tool manufacturer, so read what each item says it fits. A rail mount needs a box with aluminum side rails. A caster kit and a handle pin kit are for the rolling toolbox specifically, not for every box in the line. And one cord holder here bolts to a third-party rail system rather than the factory rail, which its product page states outright.

On the rolling box itself, two upgrades come up constantly. A front caster kit converts it to four-wheel mode so a loaded stack rolls beside you instead of pulling on one shoulder, and folds away when you want the factory two-wheel behavior back. Quick-release handle pins let the telescoping handle come off in seconds, which is exactly what you want when the box has to sit flush in a van rack.

Milwaukee kits that arrive in a PACKOUT case

A quiet way into the system is to buy something you needed anyway that happens to come in a case that already stacks. Several Milwaukee kits do exactly that, and it changes how they live in the truck.

The 100-piece SHOCKWAVE driver bit kit ships in a PACKOUT compact low-profile organizer with a clear top, so the whole set locks to the stack and you can see what is in it before you open it. Two hole saw kits do the same thing — a bi-metal HOLE DOZER set and a carbide-toothed BIG HAWG set, both in compact organizers on the same footprint. The SHOCKWAVE impact socket sets in 3/8 in. and 1/2 in. drive have PACKOUT versions where the tray sits inside a case that latches to the rest of your stack, rather than a blow-molded clamshell that does not.

The practical difference is not the contents of the kit. It is that a cased kit stops being a loose item rattling around behind the seat. It stacks, it latches, it travels with everything else, and it is where you left it. If you are shopping for the consumables on their own merits — which bit suits which screw, which socket suits which drive — that belongs on our accessories page. Here, the case is the point.

The PACKOUT tumbler is the same idea at a smaller scale. It twist-locks onto a PACKOUT surface so it rides on the stack instead of tipping over on the dash.