Overpacking

[DintDobbs]

@Sea Diamond GVWR? What's that? You mean my 4,000 pound truck isn't designed to carry 8,000 pounds of gear I'll never use, but am scared to leave the house without?

My truck is rated from the factory to have a maximum payload of 900 pounds. Four below-average-sized passengers give you 600 pounds, add the weight that the lift kit and hitch receivers add, plus my fat spare tire, spare fuel, and all my tools and recovery gear, and we're looking about 750-800 pounds. That's without food, clothes, or a tent. I have neither winch nor heavy bumpers, but many of our ilk have, and that weighs the vehicles down quite a bit as well.

Besides the terrain physics that break when you drive extremely heavy vehicles, I question the excessive strain on the frame and vehicle components just driving them with all that extra weight all the time.

I guess there's a reason everybody else breaks tie tods and control arms and axles, and bends their frames on the trail.

 

[rgallant]

@DintDobbs @Sea Diamond those are good points, my Discovery has 1600lbs of allowable cargo. Tent rack, and me 340 ish, tires probably another 80-100 in total over stock. Leaving me 1000, which I never ever even come close to, but I should go up to the local dump and get my Disco weighed when it is loaded

 

[gatogordo]

Been following this thread and no one has mentioned Gross Vehicle Weight...maybe I'm being too serious. But if you consider all the cool after market extras...rtt...rack...oversized tires...lift kits...big bumpers...winches...extra batteries...ect. This really starts to interfere with the kitchen sink ;-)

Having said that: I would think that some modifications could increase the GVWR or vice versa? NO?

 

[Sea Diamond]

Having said that: I would think that some modifications could increase the GVWR or vice versa? NO?

I reckon the answer would be no...unfortunately. Everything is engineered to withstand a percentage of overstress, but nothing we do to our vehicles actually increase strength to the more vulnerable items DintDobbs mentions above...and I could easily add a dozen more. Consider for a moment the additional stress on wheel hubs with oversized tires and wheel spacers, compounded with GVWR limits being pushed...it can all easily end with a resounding ouch out on the trail. Personally, it is more important to get out from where I've driven, than to fool myself that I'm driving a monster truck.

 

[DintDobbs]

@gatogordo Sure, if you want to design and build your own tube frame chassis, roll cages, and custom suspension from the ground up... but most find it more practical to start with something akin to what they intend to finish with. GVWR should be considered when you purchase the vehicle, and you should never attempt to increase it. The results can be deadly.

Even 2500 pickups have been known to snap in half just under the weight of a slide-in (there was a recent article about a Dodge Ram that showcased this) during moderate off-road use. The way some folks load so much into their rigs makes me cringe. I sure understand why everybody else breaks their suspensions and drive trains so often. I've never damaged a hub or bent a tie rod or control arm, or broken an axle.

I have always wondered why on earth the off-road/overland cross-section doesn't value light weight. Some of them lug literally thousands of pounds of gear and spare parts everywhere. If you don't overstrain your truck lugging all of that, you're a lot less likely to need it.

And seriously, somebody explain to me how they don't sink into the ground? Mine sinks when I park it anywhere, but these 10,000 pound guys on skinnies don't? What sorcery is this?

@Sea Diamond Smart guy. I totally feel the same way; if anybody wants a monster truck, he should just buy one. But if you've ever been to a monster truck show, you know they break them all the time just doing what they're designed to do. No machine is indestructible. Personally, I like to spend more time driving my truck than fixing it!