Load Capacity of Your Vehicle ?

[The Stig]

Do you know the maximum cargo capacity, in pounds, of your vehicle?

As a result of this move process I found that my little Rav4 is rated to 1,000lbs of cargo (including the driver and any accessories).

1,000lbs sounds like a lot right? If you are talking tents and socks, then yes.

However, I found I could easily overload my car if I put all of my ammo in it at once. It would be a rare situation when I'd be hauling my entire stock of ammo at once, but consider 6 or 7 cans of ammo, some water, some propane tanks, food and then the family. Again, it would quickly drive the total weight past the upper limit (and that's before you'd consider a roof-rack, trailer, etc.)

So I resorted to using a bathroom scale to measure out how much weight I was actually putting into the vehicle and planned accordingly.

All the basement warriors talk about "bugging out" but I wonder how many have considered this little detail?

[gunbuilder69]

Bravo my brother,Bravo. This right here is the basic elemental foundation of being prepared!!
Not who has the most new toys,how many MRE's in the garage. But what can you actually do with what you have at hand?
How well can you move from 'A' to 'B' w/ a load,w/ a family, w/ a wounded or sick person? I could'nt begin to scratch the surface of what is'nt known, but you bet your asses I'm finding out every day. This journey into the mindset of being prepared does'nt end,ever! it just gets higher and higher with humility and long bouts of patience.
Thank Stig for both the roses and the lesson in where we are!

[gunbuilder69]

Sorry my sense of obviousness got hold of me...

Anyhow,one of the things I do is to weigh the totes I have filled for various stages and situations.
My AWD chevy astro is a work horse,but like you mentioned,it has it's limitations. I can put 1700 lbs of ccargo in the payload/fuselage area,and another 300lbs on the hitch mounted platform. The roof rack is limited(by me) to only 100lbs of readily available gear with a cargo net over it.
The wife has a 4wd pathfinder with a payload cap of only 1200lbs.That is really not much in both vehicles,what if one vehicles breaks down,becomes static,or we have to abandon it. These are serious considerations EVERYONE needs to addres. Just get a little piece of mind.

[The Stig]

Bravo my brother,Bravo. This right here is the basic elemental foundation of being prepared!!
Not who has the most new toys,how many MRE's in the garage. But what can you actually do with what you have at hand?
How well can you move from 'A' to 'B' w/ a load,w/ a family, w/ a wounded or sick person? I could'nt begin to scratch the surface of what is'nt known, but you bet your asses I'm finding out every day. This journey into the mindset of being prepared does'nt end,ever! it just gets higher and higher with humility and long bouts of patience.

Thank you for the kind words. I agree 100%

To further reinforce the point I have five 6 gal plastic water cans. If I were to take all 6 that's 240lbs of weight (8lbs per gallon) and nearly 25% of my total weight capacity. Item's like water, fuel and ammo are very heavy for their size and it's easy to forget that.

I think many of us with faux-SUV's would be shocked how little we can safely haul with us. I can easily envision a bunch of suburbanites packing their Highlanders to the gills and ending up broken down because they blew out their suspensions.

[alaska]

Been thinking about a small trailer. Looking more and more feasable as I read this.

[bacpacker]

+1 on the trailer. I pull both a camper and a flat bed trailer to haul my farm tractor and weight is a huge factor. My truck only has a payload of 1850lbs. However it has a towed payload of 7500lbs. You still have to know what you've got with a trailer but it will handle a lot more than with the vehilce itself.
The best way I know to determine you various wieghts, go to a truck stop in your area. They have scales that will measure each axle indivually even with a trailer. That way you know exactly what you have, you can even move stuff around if your heavy on a particular axle. When I got camper, I knew I was going to be close to my limits so I stop and wieghted the full load, I had done this before with just the truck. I ended up having about 700lbs to spare which allows for supplies and water in the camper. I can also load ammo on the truck and will come out about even. I really need a higher payload truck, just don''t want the debt right now.

[alaska]

i have lots of experience towing trailers with everything from gravel to bobcat size equipment and your right,tow load by far exceeds payload. I just have the jeep cherokee so i wont be to big on the trailer. Momma has the 99 expedition that has a significant increase on both payload and tow load but that thing is probably getting traded in since that v8 sucks on gas mileage. May do the identical rigs and trailer thing so I can decrease the amount of spare parts I would keep around. same size trailers on rigs and trailers. But thats a different topic. didnt mean to get of course on this thread

[LUNCHBOX]

I looked in to this before due to knowing that we would be on the go at some point. I can do more than 2000 lbs in the horse trailer hooked to Durango and another 1000 lbs on my little flatbed hooked to my truck. I hope to think 3000 lbs would be enough, you look at some select items and bang...there it goes. Quad--600 lbs, water--@400 lbs and there goes a third. I think we would still be ok but you/me/everyone planning to move should work the numbers. Good thread Stig.

[alaska]

I am not planning on moving a lot of water. Lots of water sources up here so my cooking methods will be conducive to making water safe along with a few water filters

[bacpacker]

Same here Alaska. Maybe 20 gallons or so. But there is plenty of lakes and rivers, creeks, etc to resupply from. Ammo, tools, and certain foods are small but densely heavy. Trailers are your freind to add more weight, it just hurts your manuverablilty, cut fule milage. Also be sure you have a jack, lug tools, and spare tire for the trailer. It's way too easy to have a flat. Also keep the tires fully inflated and make sure they are in good shape. Tires will dry rot before you know it, espically if left out in the sun/weather. One last thing, wheel bearings, make sure they are packed with grease and in good shape.