Flounder said:
Now let's look to all the crap we toss in and on our rig. So the trail warrants some protective steel, and the trip justifies some creature comforts. You add a roof top tent, roof rack, 2 jerry cans, fridge, drawer system, and pack the kitchen sink. Let's say all of that is a combined 600+ pounds. Will all of THAT stuff have a negative impact? What's the tipping point? Do you bring along your favorite cast iron cook set or do you bring Ti pots and pans?
600+ pounds!!!! Zowie!
What you take along is important but where you put it is at least as important as what. An important goal of driving, especially off road driving is to keep the centre of gravity inside your vehicle's wheelbase. The higher the centre of gravity, the harder it is to do this. If the centre of gravity goes outside your wheelbase the vehicle will fall over and go boom.
Ideally you would want your centre of gravity to be at frame level at the centre of the vehicle.
I suggest that you find a local public scale and do some weighing with your vehicle empty just to get a feel as to where the weight is located before you start packing it. I like to get a full vehicle weight, front axle then rear axle weight and a separate weight for each side. If you are lighter on one side than the other you can put more heavier things on the light side.
I personally prefer my rear axle & suspension to carry slightly more weight than the front. I feel it is easier on my suspension when it gets unloaded then then loaded (I prefer a four point landing to a hard nose landing :Wow1: ). Besides The factory designed Series Land Rovers to carry about 70% of any payload on the rear axle & suspension.
Spend a little time under your vehicle looking for unused space that can hold heavy items. Inside the frame rails between the front & rear axles is best, between the bumper & axles is not as good. I have found space to put 3 fuel tanks (42 gallons of fuel), a 15 gallon water tank, 5 gallon propane tank, 5 gallon compressed air tank and a second battery all at frame level in otherwise unused space without impacting the interior space. That's the functional equivalent of the stock fuel tank plus six 20L jerry cans, three 20L water cans and a big box of propane canisters. All at frame level without taking up interior space. It is worth looking for space and thinking about what might be made to fit.
A roof rack is the worst place to put weight. It can dramatically raise the centre of gravity and can be especially troubesome if you have a row of jerry cans on top with the cans on one side empty and the other side full.
The roof rack is where you want to carry light weight bulky things that would take up a lot of valuable interior space.
I admittedly put too much weight on my roof rack. I mostly use it for stuff I don't use everyday that would be in the way of my daily routine. For just a few days off road I carry a 5L jerrycan of 90wt, my parts cleaning kit (2 5L cans plus a pan for washing parts), and a plastic tote with a pair of bottle jacks, grease gun, oil gun & a couple other items. If I think I might need them I'll throw the aluminum bridging ladders up there as well. On a long trip I add: 3L spare drinking water, a spare 3 gallon aluminum propane tank, a second tote that carries such things as replacement filter for my water system, water hose for refilling my built in water tank, large nylon tarp for a rain awning, my tent shower and my hand crank washing machine. If the weather is cold I'll add a 5L jerry can with antifreeze. When I travel with other people I'll add a fold up chair and maybe a share of fire wood (I normally don't have a fire when I travel alone).
I know a 109 2 door has a different interior space than a Disco but it is all I have to illustrate my style of packing. The back of a 109 2 door is 6 feet long, and 4 feet wide at the top of the side boxes. I choose to camp inside my Land Rover and have built in furniture.
My rear interior looks the same full packed or empty. Except fully packed includes a chase lounge pad down the middle for a dog bed.
I have found that my built in furniture weighs less that stand alone furniture that you set up outside the vehicle. Built in furniture doesn't always need back or the sturdy frame a stand alone equivalent would need. The vehicle body and adjacent furniture provides a lot of structural stability. Wood furniture looks nice but it is heavier and thicker than sheet metal furniture. I suggest staying away from wood built ins. Aluminum is lighter than steel and doesn't rust but you need thicker sheets of aluminum to get the same structural integrity. If you decide to build in any furniture, racks, shelves of boxes, I suggest that you consider aluminum. There's a lot of extruded shapes you can use for framing.
One of my tall cabinets, the rear tea cabinet, the second sink stand (yes I have 2 kitchen sinks) and the refrigerator stand were all made by me of aluminum. I purchased a small sheet metal brake for the project then resold it afterwards for almost as much as I paid for it new.
Deciding what to take along:
When I was laying out my interior and deciding what I needed, I broke my camp activities into tasks; cooking a meal, eating the meal, cleaning up after a meal, sleeping, cleaning cameras & loading film, changing clothes, staying clean & keeping the interior clean and just hanging out after dark. Next I decided what I needed to accomplish each task. Things I choose to build in or bring along are based upon accomplishing specific tasks.
But since the space is small and everything must fit inside my storage areas each item I wanted to bring had to be weighed against the useful value of every other thing I wanted to bring. Anything that would have more than a single use was more important to bring than single use items and mission critical things were more important than mission nice things.
There are some guidelines for choosing gear that must be established before you can start selecting gear.
Things such as:
- will you be camping inside or outside
- What kinds of food do you like to cook (gourmet or minimalist)
- expected normal traveling terrain & climate
- how long between times to come in for resupply
- How to handle trash & human waste
- How much trash are you willing to generate for the sake of convenience
All of these things & more will influence what you bring along. If you define these before you choose gear you can do a better job of choosing.
Using myself as an example again, I often camp in places where it is cold, windy and often wet or dusty. I reserve one day in 7 as refurbishment, cleaning and restocking day where I go completely through my vehicle to check fluids, look for any damage, make field repairs as needed, clean everything out, empty and recharge my porta pottie, wash clothing, restock fluids & food and anything else that might have gotten away from me during the week. So I assume I don't need to carry supplies that need to last greater than a week's duration. I try to practice tread lightly leave no trace camping. As part of that I bring along a porta potty so human waste is not left behind and I try to minimize trash. That means washing dishes instead of throwing away paper plates & plastic utensils, no burying trash and no leaving them inside fire rings pretending that a small wood fire will burn bimetal cans and glass bottles. I even carry an empty 5L jerry can for used oil and solvent needed for any repairs. Most of my camp sites are outside of organized camp sites and are often just a wide point in a trail. I won't light a camp fire except where an existing used fire pit exists so just got into the habit of doing without a camp fire.
All these things influence what you need to bring and what gear is best for you. For instance, if I normally had a camp fire I would likely pack some cast iron cookware, grill and other things for camp fire cooking. But I cook with propane. Besides being heavy, cast iron has a low conductivity. It takes a lot of heat to bring cast iron up to cooking temperature. Cast iron cookware holds it heat well while cooking and the heat is uniform over the cooking surface but it can take about half the propane to cook the same meal in thick wall aluminum cookware. Thick wall aluminum cookware has high conductivity (less heat to get to and maintain cooking temperature) and provides an even cooking temperature almost as good as cast iron. Stainless steel has a very low thermal conductivity. It takes a lot of heat to get up to temperature, though not as much as cast iron. But because of the poor conductivity, thin stainless steel cookware will get hot where the hear is applied but be much cooler along the rest of its cooking surface. Food cooked on thin stainless steel camping cookware often tends to be a mixture of burnt and undercooked. For cooking over propane I'm a big fan of anodized thick walled aluminum cookware. I hate running out of propane because it ALWAYS happens when I'm cooking a meal before it is done enough to eat.
While on the subject of eating, I might mention plates & bowls. Lots of folk make do with blue enameled stamped steel camp dishes that is commonly available wherever camping gear is sold. The only problem with the stuff is that metal is a good conductor of heat compared to most any other plate material and it can easily suck the heat out of your food long before you can finish eating it. I much prefer plastic dishes. They are strong, light weight and won't suck the heat out of your food before you can eat it.
I just read over this reply and realized while I was just getting started discussing packing, I was also writing a book so I'll cut this reply short.
