I currently have a 4-door '98 ford escort, and was thinking about how much stuff i could really pack into it (bug-out situation also) without the weight of the items affecting handling and safe driving and gas milage. Does anyone know of a weight range i should try to stay within for a car of this type? I am currently carrying in the trunk the following items equaling to maybe 40-50 lbs:

1. paper towels
2. 16 gauge jumper cables
3. 1 gallon antifreeze / coolant
4. 1 quart oil
5. armour all window cleaner
6. armour all dash/interior cleaner
7. flashlight
8. manufacturers jack/spare tire/ lug wrench
9. 2 orange rain ponchos for weather or emergency signalling(no real weight there)
10. tire pressure gauge (again no real weight)

does anyone have any suggestions as to items i may be missing, or any advice on the main question?

thanx in advance

Well even though its a small car remember it was designed to haul 4 adults at say 150lbs each so if its just you you could carry 450lbs there. Also it was intended to haul something like 50-100lbs in the trunk. Do cars have a sticker in the door like trucks, even small trucks like my s-10 have a sticker listing the vehicle weight and payload. They are disguised as GWVR and such, just search for the terms you read there. To help insure safety you can do a few things. First of all is drive safely. Second buy decent tires, they have weight, speed, temperature (as you drive tires make heat), traction and wear ratings, make sure to exceed the OEM tires (not hard to do) when buying. Keep your vehicle maintained, check your brakes, rotate your tires which is very important on a front wheel drive like yours as they are harder on tires. Keep the windows clean so you can see, washer fluid is cheap, buy in bulk if you must. When you replace things like your brakes, go for good quality instead of whatever is cheapest at the store (I recommend raybestos, first time I ever tried them I would have ate steering wheel if not for the seat belt the difference was that much). Make sure the stuff you carry is fastened down well. Some cars have seats that fold down and even in the ones that don't have fold down seats its just a bit of fabric and foam that separates the trunk from you and tools and supplied could easily tear through in a wreck or panic stop.

If I had to guess, I would say your vehicle was designed to haul around 800 pounds, including passengers. The best way to tell is to get the GVWR (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating), which is probably on the door pillar. GVWR is the total allowable weight of your vehicle loaded. Then get your car weighed (with a full fuel tank) at a truck stop for about $5.00 and subtract that from the GVWR. Whatever is left is what you can haul safely (assuming it is loaded correctly). Good luck.

Semper Fi, George

hey thanks for the tips...i've been driving for quite awhile and am pretty safe (very hard to do in florida, dagone crazy drivers here!) and funny you should mention tires, 'cause i got a flat just last weekend!! <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

i didn't think about the car being designed to hold (4 people at approx 150lbs each) so thats a good start...and it is late here so i haven't checked for any stickers or ratings present on the car...but i do have a wife and baby, so there is added weight also...all total the "human weight" would equal out to about 400 for the three of us...(im the "fat" one <img src="images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />)

granted, weight can be distributed throughout the car...but i guess my question was really, How much could the rear shocks take without dragging the gas tank on the ground? <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> all in all i guess about 150lbs total in the trunk...not nearly enough IMO...i need a truck...

thanks for the reply

I used to drive a Ford Fiesta which is smaller than your car and I could haul 3 adults, a dog and camping gear for these and drive on country roads. For daily carry I had more than 25 kgs on the car.

Your gas tank will not hit the ground.

Also if you intend to carry heavy load in your trunk everyday just change your rear shocks with suitable ones. Should not cost much. If you know basic DIY on cars you can even do it yourself.

Burak

It is not the shocks that keep the car from "tail dragging", it is the springs and suspension systems.

Several things that are more important to consider than springs are brakes, rear axle (transaxle in front engine front wheel drive cars.), and transmission.

The swept brake area of your braking system determines the weight your car can stop within a given distance. Even with the best brake shoes, if you overload the brakes, they can heat up, glaze the pads, or distort the disk or drum.

Rear axles that are designed for a certain weight occasionally can strip gears if run at maximum weight continuosly as can transaxles. Universal joints on the drive shaft can snap from the above stated type of usage.

Transmissions can overheat from constant high weight use, boil the tranny fluid and gum up an automatic or glaze the friction pad on a manual tranny.

Your best bet is to modify your car with larger brake swept area if possible, and use it at 1/2 or less GVWR to cut down on potential problems in the back country, or buy a larger vehicle with a small engine.

If you are really worried about a "Bug Out" situation, I would recommend a Rokon or similar bike with trailer hauling capabilities (with the trailer having enclosed, safety belt, & roll bar equipped seating.). With such a unit, you could carry a spare motor and drive assembly right in the trailer, with your biggest limitation being speed, and your greatest assets being fuel economy and versatility.

Good luck.

Bountyhunter

Just remember when (Murphy was an optimist, right) your car (pick one: runs out of gas, accident, blows more than one tire, mechanically breaks down, head gasket, oil pan, etc...) you are going to hump whatever you don't want or care to leave. I have plenty of stuff in the back of the Jeep for good reason, but if I needed to abandon that particular mode of transportation, most of it would be left behind or cached nearby. Problem is you cannot plan on where this will happen and you are already in a bug-out situation.

The lowest common denominator is foot travel for most of us. That leaves us with backpacks and hand drawn trailers. Test out your BOB for ease of carry in foot mode since that may be what it ends up being.

Regards
Bill

Ooops pardon me it was meant to be springs not shocks. Sorry, english not being the mother tongue, mistakes like this are easy to be made I guess <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Burak

Shocks:. usually not a good idea to try to upgrade weight capacity by shocks, you end up with a stiff ride when not loaded and have the potential to break shock mounts as they are only intended to dampen the spring rate not hold weight.

Brakes: I recommended the raybestos because one of their selling points was xx% more surface area. There may be other brands that are similar, they seem to be much less prone to heat fade as well.

Although the original poster has a fwd car, for us RWD and 4x4 buy heavy duty U joints and make sure they are greasable and grease them each oil change. Non greasable are fine until they get a biot of dust past the seal and then they go bad fast. greasable ones tend to last longer as long as you grease them.

Transmission temp gauge and heavy duty cooler are my next addition, I have smelled cooking tranny a couple times while off road, the stock inside the radiator just couldn't keep up.

I did the bit larger vehilce with small engine. My S-10 is a bit bigger than most cars, but has a 4cly engine. I get 20mpg combined city/hwy driving to work and back. It also has a factory "hauling package" which consisted of the beefier axle of the 6cly trucks as well as beefier suspension in the rear and bed liner. Additions I have added are full size spare, better tires and brakes, locking rear differnetial and soon a better transmission cooler.

I try to plan for Murphy as much as possible. Once of every spare bulb and fuse as well as spare fan belt. Long trips I take box with a change of oil, transmsiion fluid and premixed, aintfreeze as well as a tube of form a gasket. Should be enough to reseal something such as an oil pan temporarily, refill the oil and get to a store for a real gasket. Swapped compact spare for full size and do 5 tires rotation pattern to keep spare in use so I don't end up with a flat spare when needed. Small 12v compressor and tire plug kit in case of multiple failure.
I've started trying to keep all my gear/tools/supplies in their own bags now. Have wrench rool stuffed in the jack storage and another tool kit behind a rear seat. Another "surival kit" is behind the other rear seat, small first aid kit is under the drivers seat. Try to keep the same habit at home, computer, cd burner, backup cd's, tools, kits, etc each have their own storage bag. Depending on the situation and what I have to carry with, be a truck or sneaker, I can grab the appropriate bag with the gear/kit I need and go. Helps to keep things organized as well since everything has a place.