DVexile
Adventurer
This would be helpful. I wasn't interested in a full size truck, just prefer the narrower track and shorter wheelbase of a Tacoma for some of the trails I go down. I've seen plenty of Tacomas with a FWC and started researching that as an option last year. Just *dry* with just two passengers and no baggage at all puts you over GVWR. Never mind people then throw on plate bumpers, a winch, recovery gear...
The other elephant in the room is a fully optioned truck does not have close to the load capacity advertised. Difference between the "specs" which are for a fully stripped down vehicle compared to the door sticker of the truck you actually buy can be over 200 lbs.
I'm building a Tacoma with a Flip Pac and the Flip Pac weighs less than 300 lbs. On a Tacoma that still means wet weight for a week of camping and basic recovery gear is going to creep past GVWR. With a FWC you'd just blow it away by a mile. And yet I see plenty of folks doing that often with even more additional weight strapped to the truck.
This seems to be the slippery slope on display all over this forum. Each thing you add doesn't seem like it will take you over, or that much more over, and is of course useful in some imagined situation. The problem is as you add more and more stuff you transition from "in case sh!* happens" to actually "making sh!* happen" because the vehicle is overloaded.
The thing I worry about the most to be honest is that we tend to plan for imagined recovery operations or body damage out on the trail to the detriment of safety trying to get to the trail. Winches, tire chains, jacks, shovels, axes, plate bumpers, sliders and so on. But really, if you get stuck so what? You are in an effing expedition vehicle. If you get badly stuck that is just an "unplanned camp site". You'll be fine, no threat to life or body. You are just delayed and inconvenienced.
But what about getting to that trail? You can be the most careful driver in the world, but unfortunately those around you on the highway aren't. Taking a vehicle 1000 lbs over GVWR with a higher CG out onto a highway full of morons seems like it is increasing the likelihood of a close call or a fender bender turning into something much worse. Death and injury on the highway are real statistically significant threats to life and body unlike imagined survival scenarios.
And of course being 100 lbs over GVWR is no big deal. Perhaps 200 lbs isn't either? Improved suspension and brakes gets you to where, 500 lbs or 1000lbs? Can you really interpret handling in an emergency situation from the handling while just driving around normally? I know a lot of people take the front sway bar off of trucks and feel it handles *better* in day to day driving and of course is more off road capable too. Go do a moose test without the sway bar though and you are on your side or roof. Does anyone really try emergency braking from 65 mph downhill on a 6% grade once they've loaded down their truck?
This is the second part - reliability and wear and tear. Probably really hard to evaluate of course. But certainly upgrades help, but upgrading the "weakest link" is the key and do we usually know what the "weakest link" really is? Or how much weaker it is compared to four other things?
Of course once you make the leap from mid-size to full-size you do have a lot of options for high payload handing so it is a problem that can just be solved with money
But for a mid-size guy like me weight has to drive every decision. Surprisingly it seems many people plan their trucks like they are one of those USPS Flat Rate boxes in which as long as you can fit it inside it doesn't matter how much it weighs. And I can completely understand why, until I started totaling up what I thought was "necessary" with a spreadsheet I didn't appreciate how quickly and how much overweight you can get!
