Distributing the weight........a weighty matter

[Spokerider]

With all of the "junk" we add onto our vehicles........winches, hi lift, large spare, heavy bumpers and carriers, fuel cans, cargo racks, shovel, axe, etc, what are we doing if anything to distribute weight between the axles appropriately.

I don't even know what the correct weight distribution between axles ought to be for road driving, mild off road to extreme buggy crawling? Anyone know? Anyone put any thought into this before bolting stuff down?

I ask, because I'm about to put a Hi Lift jack on the back bumper, and there's already a heavy rear bumper with swing away carrier, 33" tire, 5 gallon jerry can and mounting system. It's getting uber heavy back there on the little Samurai. I could put the Hi Lift on the front bumper I'm fabricating out of 2 x 6 x .125 steel tube, since I'm not putting a winch on the front. I do have a 300 lb vw diesel in place of the light weight 1.3 zuk engine however.

How do you distribute your "junk"?

 

[PPCLI_Jim]

Hey Spoke Id go with the highlift in the front.I mean if you have a decent front bumper you can add your mounts right on it. I forget what type of springs are you running? I have a burned out winch on mine, but when my zuk rolls into the shop i will be doing a frame stretch and CJ springs mounted front and rear. this will help when I swap to my diesel and to accommodate the winch also. I plan on running 235 on mine so the tire is lighter then yours .

 

[rayra]

Seems like a lot of stuff to saddle a Samurai with.

 

[4x4junkie]

I've always tried to shoot for something close to 50/50% front-rear, which has worked well on my BII.
Since you seem to have quite a bit mounted on the rear already, I'd agree with putting the jack up front somewhere on or maybe right above the bumper.

On my rig I moved my dual deep-cycle batteries (about 120lbs) from up under the hood to a cradle below the rear floor ahead of the rear axle. This alone made a noticeable difference in the rig's handling. I also stretched the wheelbase slightly by kicking the rear axle back about 3", and the front ahead 1".
Have a winch up front, 34x9.50" spare and a Hi-Lift mounted just above the bumper across the rear. Stuff that goes up top I always try to have only be lightweight stuff like sleeping gear, camp chairs, etc.

 

[comptiger5000]

Ideally, you want to keep as much weight towards the center (not the ends) of the vehicle as possible, and down as low as possible. Somewhere in the ballpark of 50/50 weight distribution is good (a little nose-heavy is fine, accounting for adding cargo in the back). But the less weight you have all the way out at the ends of the vehicle, the better it'll handle, especially on slippery surfaces.

Keep in mind, if you've got some room to move your axles around front to back, you can adjust weight distribution a little bit that way. And pushing the axles out further to stretch the wheelbase will get more of the weight between the axles (if the rig is nose-heavy, pushing the front axle forward can help, as it'll move a little weight onto the rear and it'll reduce the amount of drivetrain weight hanging in front of the front axle).

 

[Spokerider]

Thank you for your thoughts guys.

In an ideal world, I wouldn't have to carry any of that stuff when out on the trail, and the diminutive zuk would handle like a breeze. However, the reality of it is, when you need it, you need it, and thus my build with this weighty stuff continues.

I'm not sure what the weight distribution per axle or per side will be on my zuk just yet. I intend to drive it on the HWY scales and measure each axle in due time.

I will make provisions for mounting the Hi Lift on the front as suggested, and this was my original plan anyway. I know the rear swing away carrier will accept the Hi Lift, so IF it needs to be on the back for whatever reason in the future, I can move it back there.

Modifying the wheel base would be a lot of work and more build time right now, for ?? gain. I need to get this project on the road and so will leave it as is for now.

 

[Root Moose]

When we used to run a long wheel base Samurai we tended to get it loaded pretty close to even front to back. We had a ARB bumper / M8000 combo on the front and a home made rear bumper that was fairly heavy - maybe 1/3rd the weight of the front setup. The driveline was stock save for lockrights, 5.12 gears and 33" tires.

When we were fully loaded we had the rear bench taken out and two Sterilite[sp?] containers full of camping gear, food, clothes, water, etc. strapped down with a cargo mesh and we'd run a full length bikini top. Sometimes the doors would end up on top of the big containers depending on the weather.

There was a hi-lift in there as well. I used to put it on the passenger side as a way to offset a bit of the weight difference between myself and my wife. And we'd pack the rest of the stuff the same way to try to balance side to side. Our kit was mostly back-packing scale equipment so everything fit in the containers pretty easily. The spare was on the stock tailgate carrier so there was no uncessary weight.

I'm trying to remember the numbers... unloaded we were around 60/40% and loaded really close to 50/50% but that was almost twenty years ago so I can't remember much beyond that.

HTH

 

[Korben]

Concentrating on being front heavy is almost always better, even more so on a short rig like a zuk, and even more so for permanent items. Why, three reasons one was already mentioned, when you add cargo you add it to the back, need to plan for this so mount as much permanent weight as practical up front cause when you're loaded up is when it will be most critical. Secondly when off-roading the single most important time for front back weight distribution is climbing, when climbing it's better to be front heavy. Third it's hard to be front heavy at times, sure empty and stock most rigs are front heavy but that changes fast, soon there's no practical way to transfer anything to the front. So any planning that can be done to put permanent weight up front tends to be a good thing.

 

[Spokerider]

Concentrating on being front heavy is almost always better, even more so on a short rig like a zuk, and even more so for permanent items. Why, three reasons one was already mentioned, when you add cargo you add it to the back, need to plan for this so mount as much permanent weight as practical up front cause when you're loaded up is when it will be most critical. Secondly when off-roading the single most important time for front back weight distribution is climbing, when climbing it's better to be front heavy. Third it's hard to be front heavy at times, sure empty and stock most rigs are front heavy but that changes fast, soon there's no practical way to transfer anything to the front. So any planning that can be done to put permanent weight up front tends to be a good thing.

Good points Korben.
Do you think that these mentioned ponts are still valid, considering I have a vw TD engine in the TT. It weighs roughly 300 lb dry, heavier for sure than the stock 1.3, but I'm not sure tho, by how much.

Root Moose.......interesting name.
Sounds like you had your zuk well dialed in to fit your needs. I do like the long wheel base models, but I don't think they came in TT version. Too bad. What a combo that would have been.

 

[Root Moose]

TT LWB was available in Thailand, India, etc. as a four door.

 

[Korben]

Good points Korben.
Do you think that these mentioned ponts are still valid, considering I have a vw TD engine in the TT. It weighs roughly 300 lb dry, heavier for sure than the stock 1.3, but I'm not sure tho, by how much.

Only you can know that, keep in mind though it's not about just weight but location. If your engine is say 100lbs heavier that's offset buy say 60lbs on the rear bumper.