What We Wish We’d Known Before Overlanding Full-time (Part 3)

Welcome back, as I blog my in-progress ebook. This is Part 3. I’m Brittany Highland, and I’ve been traveling full-time by vehicle with my husband Eric since February 2014. We’re now driving around the world with our five-year-old son, Caspian. We originally spoke about what we wish we’d known before overlanding full-time at several events in 2021, including two Overland Expos.

There’s so much to share on this topic that I decided to turn our presentation into my first ebook. Once the ebook is complete, I’ll email it to all our subscribers for free. That way, you can download the PDF file and refer to it whenever you want to.

If you need to go back and catch up, you can do so here:

• Part 1: Stuff is a sad substitute for experience
• Part 2: Stuff is a sad substitute for hands-on training

Now let’s continue to the next lesson!

3/Payload capacity doesn’t go away if you ignore it

Oh, man. This is a big one. The payload capacity of your vehicle doesn’t go away if you ignore it, or actually don’t know what it is.

What is payload capacity?

Let’s start here. What IS the payload capacity of your vehicle?

A vehicle’s payload capacity is the maximum amount of weight it can safely carry. In a car or SUV, that includes all of the weight in the cabin and trunk. In a truck, it consists of all of the weight in the cabin and bed.

Kelley Blue Book

Payload capacity is set by the manufacturer of your vehicle. If you dare to look, you can find it on that sticker inside the driver’s side door jamb.

While you’re at it, make sure you know the roof weight capacity of your vehicle (if you want to add a roof rack or roof top tent) and towing capacity of your vehicle (if you want to tow a trailer). Vehicles are not created equal when it comes to payload capacity.

How to know if you’re within your payload capacity

Now that we’ve defined payload capacity, how do you know whether you’re in the black or not?

You need to add the weight of everything you’re carrying and also calculate extra weight from modifications. Add up:

• Your weight
• The weight of your passengers
• Extra fuel weight (one gallon of gasoline weighs about 6 pounds)
• Extra water weight (one gallon of water weighs 8.34 pounds)
• All of your gear, including those heavy tools and recovery items
• Weight from modifications, like larger tires

Before we even purchased our Jeep Gladiator, not to mention all of the things we wanted to put inside it, we created a spreadsheet in Google Drive. Our spreadsheet accounted for the modifications we had planned and the items we wanted to pack inside. With our simple spreadsheet, we could see whether we were over payload capacity or not.

Once you actually pack your vehicle, you can find a CAT scale at a gas station or truck stop and weigh your vehicle. This is the best way to know whether you’re under payload capacity. The cost is usually around $12.

When you weigh your vehicle, make sure you and your passengers are inside. Make sure your fuel tank is full, and you have the extra fuel and water onboard that you would normally take on an overlanding trip. No cheating!

Both your axles have individual payload capacities. If you center your vehicle over the line on the CAT scale, then your paper read-out will include the weight on your steering and drive axles. Armed with that data, you can redistribute weight as needed and beef up your suspension appropriately.

Why does payload capacity matter?

For some people, playing by the rules is enough. For others, they need to know WHY the rules are in place! So for all you rule-breakers out there, here are four reasons why payload capacity should be respected:

1. Running your vehicle overweight causes unnecessary wear and tear on your vehicle’s components and you will have to pay the cost of repairs
2. Running your vehicle overweight affects the vehicle’s recreational performance on the trail
3. Running your vehicle overweight is dangerous because your vehicle will not handle as well or stop as quickly
4. Running your vehicle overweight jeopardizes your ability to be paid by insurance in case of an accident (insurance may deny your claim if they find your vehicle is grossly over payload capacity)

Convinced yet? It is time for overlanders to get serious about payload capacity.

We learned the hard way

I have to be honest with you. Our first overlanding vehicle was well over its payload capacity. We felt so guilty about it that we didn’t even have the guts to weigh our Jeep Wrangler until AFTER we had overlanded 2,000 miles through mainland Mexico AND 2,000 miles over the length of the Baja Peninsula.

Sometimes when you start with what you have (refer to lesson #1), going over payload is inevitable. Most of us can’t up and buy a new vehicle just because we want to start overlanding. And in our case, our Wrangler was originally outfitted for rock crawling with steel bumpers, oversize tires, and other heavy components. After tacking on the roof top tent and fridge, no wonder we were overweight!

But when we had the opportunity to start from scratch with a new vehicle (the Jeep Gladiator we’re currently driving around the world), we acknowledged the importance of payload capacity and took it very seriously. We hope you do the same, in every way you can.

COMING UP: Overlanding involves intentional self-deprivation

Stay tuned for the fourth lesson I share, as I blog my in-progress ebook. If you haven’t already, don’t forget to sign up for a copy of my complete ebook, which I’ll email you for free as soon as it’s finished.

Thanks for participating in my blogging experiment. We’ll see you soon for the next lesson we’ve learned–the hard way!

-B