Total overlanding weight .

[moggy1968]

I haven't been as far flung as Rollence, but on my drive down to the Gambia, which involved about 800-1000 miles of piste work, we carried 20ltrs per person spare in black water jerrycans. That was our emergency backup. we then calculated our daily useage between built up areas or garages (garages all sold water) and bought bottled water. I don't think we ever carried more than 80 litres in addition to the emergency supply. It's worth remembering, some of the emergency supply may end up going into the vehicle!! The empty plastic bottles are much in demand by the locals.

I would avoid alloy wheels, deffo. One of our HJ60s hit a washout so hard it bent the steel wheel into a U shape. we just hammered it back into shape, blew the tyre back up and off we went. An alloy wheel would have probably broken.

I agree with spindrift on tools and spares. The mechanics locally often have a very poor collection of tools. I even took some duplicate spanners which came in handy as trades/currency! I decided to fit an ARB bar on my rebuilt H60 after one of the ones on the last Gambia trip hit a cow crossing the road and we nearly hit a camel!! 'Tis chuffin heavy though!

we had the same problem with tent pegs, had to tie the guys to vehicles, rocks, jerry cans, trees etc!! a free standing tent is the obvious answer if you are using a ground tent.

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

keep meaning to put mine on a weighbridge to see where it's got to, very easy to end up overweight even when being careful about it. The armour on my old 80 did a good job of turning some major bumps into minor events and I could just carry on my way afterwards so is pretty much an essential in my mind but the sliders will be a more lightweight design for this one. My front winch is definitely an ornament so if I needed to shed weight that can go and be replaced with a HiLift winching kit and I'd keep the HiLift.

The BOAB rock 'pegs' worked well for our FoxWing on loose sand in high winds.

 

[stumog]

In moz this year and SA they use the triangular pegs for sand pegging. i have never seen them over here though they were good we only had one storm though. was pretty strong winds.
cant seem to find any pictures to show you

 

[Dave_S]

Just to add to the general fun and games, anyone keeping an eye on tyres ratings?!? With an axles weight approaching 2.25t you'll be looking at 112 load rating tyres or better - interesting for me as I'm struggling to find 15" AT or MT tyres with an appropriate load rating in the size I'm looking for...

 

[Graham]

My BFG AT are 112 rating.

They are LT rating.

Gra.

 

[Olazz]

Just to add to the general fun and games, anyone keeping an eye on tyres ratings?!? With an axles weight approaching 2.25t you'll be looking at 112 load rating tyres or better - interesting for me as I'm struggling to find 15" AT or MT tyres with an appropriate load rating in the size I'm looking for...

One of the other reasons I went for Mickey Thompson tyres. Notwithstanding their excellent off-road ability, puncture resistance and on-road manners, they have a load rating 121.

 

[vrecha]

Really enjoyed reading this thread, a lot of good advice and reasoning.

Just to add something about oversized tires, I found it useful if you have a bit of height advantage over the locals, the standard tires they use are 31'', so if you for example have 33'', that gives you an extra inch of height. On some sandy pistes there are hardly visible rocks ready to kiss your diff, but extra height gives you some peace of mind as locals clear the piste for their riding height.

Regarding tools and parts and knowledge, it's best to have all three ingredients for bush repairs, but if you lack some of them, it's parts and then tools and then knowledge. Totally agree with Chris' reasoning.