Expo equipment/mod weight thoughts

[The_Dude]

Do you guys take in to account the weights of your modifications? I never really thought about it until recently.

I stumbled into a lighter weight build due to budget constraints than I would have if I had bought the things I really want.

I have an FZJ80 and due to my budget I have the following mods. I dont have the exact weights of my mods vs other mods but I thought this was interesting and posted.

My front bumper is a tube bumper from Bump It Off Road. It weighs roughly 90lbs vs an ARB at 120+lbs.I have a 12k winch mounted in it right now.

I made a roof rack out of an Atv ramp and its mounted on Thule cross bars. I would have gone with a steel ARB. Dont know how much is saved there but maybe a bit.

Not being able to afford a full on rear bumper led me to buying a fold down bolt on unit that weighs 25lbs. A rear bumper with swing out is 150+lbs I am guessing?

All in all my unintended weight savings help my mileage (which already sucks big time in my 80) a bit I would imagine.

I am eager to hear your thoughts and see your lightweight builds!! :safari-rig:

My 80 last year on the Alpine Loop.


The rear tire carrier I am buying from Detours USA. It utilizes the 4 bolts in the back bumper. Right now my tire is inside and takes up a whole ton of room.

 

[matthewp]

I did on my FJ. SInce I had no intention to lift the vehicle, I tried to stay as light as possible on my winch mount. I went with synthetic cable and a lighter mount. I was amazed at the extra weight the wire cable costs when compared to the synthetic. I never understood until I physically got my hands on a 100ft of synthetic rope!

 

[JamesW]

I like to think I kept the weight of the bare vehicle pretty close to stock. Replaced the factory front bumper and A bar with a big thick alloy one, saved about 10kg. Rear seats are removed, which saved a heap of weight, though I have a storage system built into the boot, which is roughly the same weight. It has 2 batteries from the factory, and the other mods I've done such as lights and gauges don't really add up to much.
I've 35s on it, which are heavy, they are on alloy wheels which are much lighter than the Mitsubishi ones it came with, while it is heavy, it isnt as heavy as it could be, the unsprung weight is a fair amount compared to stock, so it does crash over bumps a bit.

When it is loaded with gear and fueled up, it seems to ride a bit better due to the extra weight in the back.

I while I think total weight is important, I think it is more important to keep it in the right places, down low, and balanced front to back is my idea of the best weight management.

 

[GR8ADV]

I like being a minimum if 10-15% under GVW fully wet and max people.

 

[hidesertwheelin]

I have a very heavy truck (old school suburban). I decided to bite the bullet and go with the Dana 60 front axle even though I am only running 35"-37" tires. The truck is really heavy in stock form, so adding so just built more heavy duty and said to hell with the weight.

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

My FZJ80 build was based on weight saving from the start.
Ready to go Im at 6220# with me, gear, food, 40 gals of fuel and 13.5 gals of water.

 

[The_Dude]

Interesting! I could lose weight by ditching my sliders but they are handy when getting stuff off the rack.


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[4x4junkie]

Weight was something I kept in mind building my BII also.

The bumpers I built from a combination of 1x2", 2x2", 2x3" and 2x4" rectangle tubing, all .120-wall (they are lighter than the OEM ones, not including the tire gate part of the rear). Same for my sliders (to which I added a 1" strip along the bottom edge to protect against denting). Gussets in key spots provide rigidity. My storage/sleep platform is about 80lbs. So far I've always been able to utilize the factory roof rack for whatever items I've needed to put up there, so no weight penalty of a large rack (I always try to put as much inside the vehicle as possible, usually it's bulky lightweight items (sleeping gear, tents) that wind up up top).

The 35" tires and an interior rollcage are probably my biggest weight hits. Both the suspension and axles have been upgraded though so even if it's a bit over the original GVWR when packed, it hasn't affected reliability to any degree that I've seen (built the rig almost 11 years ago, close to 50K miles, probably 20K of which have been hard offroad miles, from washboard roads to rock crawling). Typical outing for me is 4-14 days, so plenty of food, water, & drinks is always among the packed items.

 

[4x4tripping]

For Weekend-Buildup's the mods and the weight are an issue.. For extended travelling is too much weight a problem...

I recently wrote about, try to show how fast you can add an serious ammount of weight.. Any traveller on extended time see instantly how incomplete this list is ;-)

http://english.4x4tripping.com/2014/05/the-buildup-of-verhicle-winch-frontbar.html

If you start to search for 4x4 overlanders with broken frames, expensive repairs on suspension and related parts - you will find many examples...

 

[Honu]

YUP and going to be doing more with the new rig and going a dif route
we just picked up a 4runner to replace our FJ that was quite armored up and set up

a huge part of our weight reduction is our camping gear itself things like the helinox chairs going from 4 10-12 lb chairs to 2lbs per chair many other things to save weight but not give up comfort
kitchen kit is a aluminum box and have ditched the multiple pelican cases we used for general stuff
not sure how much we saved but quite a bit

onto the rig
this time around not going to go nuts
still want good armor but might think about the weight more as much as I can
same thing with lift and larger tires etc... not going that route would rather be very very mild and get the suspension setup for dependability and our gear weight loaded
since this is a new route I could change my mind and go back to my old ways ahahahaha

but I do think many of us get to into the gear to much and being a pro photographer a good portion of my life its not the gear just like great pans dont make the chef
its about being a good driver and choosing a path etc...

if I want to go the heavy route in the future maybe its time to get a mog or some other rig that is made for it

 

[kojackJKU]

I have been keeping weight in check, staying with stock bumpers, just modifying them a bit with VDP corners and a winch mount inside the back of the bumper. The rear will remain stock. I was going to do a full tire carrier but just bought Morryde hinges to take the weight of the tire and accessories. Using a removable roof rack only used when needed etc. My jeep is sitting on 33's and no need for more. I try to keep my rigs light as possible for better milage and driveability.

 

[gmwelder86]

After a 2500 mile round trip to moab and back, steel front and rear bumper, rear with swing out tire carrier hi lift and tent packed into my trash a roo along with 5 gallons of fuel added a lot of weight on the rear end of the jeep. Add to that I had my 62 qt Coleman cooler and most of my camping gear for a week of wheeling and camping back there I was pretty heavy in the rear to say the least. After two repack I got as much weight as I could into the back seat which helped. But in the end I will probably add 1" spacers to the rear to help with the extra weight I tend to carry. The rock Kramer springs took the weight fairly well but after 5 days of trail riding the rear end seemed to hit the bumpstops a lot, and pretty hard at that.

 

[kojackJKU]

I would go with a set of bags in the rear springs. They work. I had my pop up camper hooked up yesterday and I had about 1-1.5" of sag in the rear of my JKU. Once I finally get my bags installed, I think I will be sitting level with the Jeep loaded and camper attached.

 

[Yuman Desert Rat]

My last rig was a pig and my current rig is a bigger pig but both were properly modified to carry the extra weight and have done so consistently and successfully. If weight were an issue wouldn't we be on a backpacking forum right now? Sure you can overload a stock vehicle and wreck things but isn't that why there are so many vendors here who peddle goods in the billion dollar industry of off road vehicle modification? Different strokes....

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

I like air bags if your load has big changes on the short term like a trailer or such. Otherwise you should spring and shock for your consistent running load.