Never a truer word spoken. This is especially true in the world of the Toyota Tacoma. These broverlanders add like 2000 lbs to a vehicle with a payload of like 1200 lbs. Anytime I add weight I look for somewhere to subtract it if possible.
Equipment storage while overlanding or on rough vehicle trails
- Thread starter JimFromAZ
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Never a truer word spoken. This is especially true in the world of the Toyota Tacoma. These broverlanders add like 2000 lbs to a vehicle with a payload of like 1200 lbs. Anytime I add weight I look for somewhere to subtract it if possible.
90% of my winch usage is getting these trucks out of mud. We don't have Tacomas here and the Hilux is far more capable, but still they overload it.
I use a soft-padded Peli and I never had any issues with this so far. What is important that you find the right density of packing. If things are able to move they will jump aroung in their compartment and even if it is soft-pad, this is not rellay nice for the moving parts in cameras, and lenses. If packaed too tight, bumps are transmittes between pieces of equipment, because the damping effect of the pads is not there anymore.
The latest modular Peli padding system IMHO is not ideal for this kind of use. Something I also cannot recommend ist using the lid organizers. Despite loosing a bit of space I always use the foam layer for the lid.
If it is getting really rough and/or you have extra sensitive equipment, you might want to buy case and padding system separately, where you take the padding system one or two sizes smaller than the actual case and then have it inserted in combination with a foam layer surrounding the soft-pad system. This way you keep your stuff organized, have damping between the bits and pieces inside the paddind system and have extra damping for the case getting hit, dropped, bumped or whatever from the outside. I tried the foam only solution some years ago, but went away from it, because it needs too much space and is not very durable if it comes to inserting and taking out equipment regularly.
The latest modular Peli padding system IMHO is not ideal for this kind of use. Something I also cannot recommend ist using the lid organizers. Despite loosing a bit of space I always use the foam layer for the lid.
If it is getting really rough and/or you have extra sensitive equipment, you might want to buy case and padding system separately, where you take the padding system one or two sizes smaller than the actual case and then have it inserted in combination with a foam layer surrounding the soft-pad system. This way you keep your stuff organized, have damping between the bits and pieces inside the paddind system and have extra damping for the case getting hit, dropped, bumped or whatever from the outside. I tried the foam only solution some years ago, but went away from it, because it needs too much space and is not very durable if it comes to inserting and taking out equipment regularly.
I smiled when I read your plans because I have seen what that leads to. I met a fella two years ago, up high on a moderate 4x4 road in an unusual looking vehicle. When I asked him what kind of vehicle he was driving he said it was a hybrid of two or three different cars. It might have been on a Bronco II frame. His wife added that after he got it built they had put $40,000 into it for the off road equipment. They thought that at least half of that was in comms/nav gear. He belonged to a club or group that does mountain vehicle rescue and they all need the best in the comms etc. They do it at no charge, just donations, so maybe he can write some of it off for charity---but it is comforting to know there are folks like this out there helping people.
So be careful, like boats or horses (or photo) you will always be throwing money at it and love every penny of it.
Modifying a truck is like drinking cheap tequila; you got to know when to stop.
Those rabbit holes can go pretty deep, gKhan! I have another thread running on here called Location, Location, Location for Diverse and Abundant Wildlife. It goes hand-in-hand with my idea of having an offroad vehicle. But to your point, I totally get the risk of pouring more and more money into a rig that ends up needing lots of maintenance, never-ending upgrades of equipment and the newest gadgets. After reading some of the destinations listed in that thread, I should be able to get to most places with a base level 4x4, reasonably equipped, not a jacked-up, rock-crawling, high-maintenance machine that is able to rescue other mere mortal machines.
Johan P Strumpfer
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HiI have traveled several hundred thousand kilometres on African roads, including several hundred thousand off-road tracks and gravel (unpaved) roads. This was in South Africa, Botswana, Angola, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania and Namibia. The most persistent problem on these roads are corrugations (washboard). The really rough tracks do not allow a high enough speed to develop significant impact during driving. The exception is deep sand tracks that have severe bends in them (continuous S curves) due to avoiding vegetation (bushes, trees), mainly in the Kalahari region, Northern Botswana and some parts of Namibia and Angola. These can cause violent sideways swings and sharp returns. The sand tracks seldom have severe corrugations but can have violent larger holes and bumps causing rolling motions in the vehicle. Overall, corrugations are the most severe vibrations one would encounter. Lowering tire pressures to about 75 % pressure of full load paved road tire pressures helps tremendously on corrugations (sandy gravel: 50%) - with reduced speed. Lower pressures are much more important than any other item in reducing vibrations and shocks from track and (unpaved) road surface conditions. Good shock absorbers, with significant excess heat dissipation capacity, would be a second priority in reducing vibrations and shocks. Uprated springs will increase the transmitted shocks. Introducing soft poly-rubber packing in the mounting points of springs will reduce vibrations. Lifting and other vehicle modifications to improve its rock crawling or proper off-road-capability is not required unless you are interested in challenge driving over rough terrain. My interest has been to get to remote locations via minimal roads or two-spoor tracks, not challenge driving.
On all my trips over the last 40+ years I have carried cameras. My preferred method of carrying cameras is in a padded bag, with items packed tightly and with the bag secured (strapped down) on a back seat of a sedan car (softest suspension). My preference is to put the camera bag inside a soft or hard cooler bag or case for camouflage, additional padding and heat protection. This leaves it vulnerable to theft, and the sedan car can't get to where I want to go.
For the last 20+ years I have traveled in a specially fitted Land Rover 110 (Defender). The vehicle has been set up to allow for 10 days of unsupported remote areas travel (fuel, water & food). The pictures below are of the primary locations for carrying my camera equipment in this vehicle. The pictures are of the last two weeks, a trip to the Richtersveld rocky & mountain desert in the North West of South Africa/South West of Namibia. On this trip I carried more photographic equipment than ever before as I had to photograph a wedding there, as well as hoping to do bird and landscape photography. I have never carried this much photographic equipment on a trip before. I also knew in advance that I would encounter very bad roads on parts of this trip (corrugations/washboards).
The first picture is of the cupboard located in what would have been in the middle of the second row of seats - these seats are removed in this vehicle. This location is approximately in the middle of the vehicle front to back, a deliberate design choice as this location has the fewest vibrations, shocks and bumps, it is the most stable location. There are three rows of doors, as well as a top location. Each door allows access to the shelve with storage for a Pelican 1450/Storm iM2200 case (the shelves were designed around that size case); each door can lock but a solid knife can force the lock open - cases can be locked separately inside the storage bins. Bins are lined with carpeting on all sides making the cases sit inside the bin with minimal movement possible. The carpeting on all sides also has a shock and vibration absorbing function. The whole stack of bins is bolted down on a frame that is ultimately fixed to the vehicle body (no separate movement inside the vehicle possible). The whole idea is that equipment cannot move inside their cases, the cases cannot move inside their bins and the bin stack cannot move inside the vehicle.
The second picture shows the bins with their respective cases inside from this last trip. The bottom bin contained non-photographic equipment on this trip.
The topmost case (outside of the bins) can only be a Storm iM2200 case. These cases have a slot inside the rear hinge that fit over the upright "tongues" visible in the third picture (shown whit the top grey case removed). In the second picture there is a magazine under the case visible as the tongues do not allow the case to fit tightly onto the top carpet - a manufacturing issue. On most past trips I only carried the top case. It is accessible from inside the vehicle. (The brown bag to the right of the grey case is a tripod bag), locked down from sliding around.). Cases inside the bins can be accessed from either the driver or passenger seat but the design is really for access when the vehicle is stationary.
On this last trip, as would be the case on future trips, I carried a Sigma Sport 150-600 separately in another bin (not shown) on the side of the vehicle, inside its very sturdy case but surrounded by cushions on all sides. It could easily be carried in the fourth bin in this stack. I also carried two cameras in bags, one a very well padded Manfrotto medium holster bag (D850 plus 70-200 Sigma Sport)
The trick in this whole set-up is to minimize movement of equipment relative to the vehicle body, dampen all movement possible, from inside the cases, the cases them selves and the bins (no movement of the bins at all), but withe bins in a stable, "quiet" part of the vehicle. I do keep lenses mounted on some cameras and never had a problem with lens mounts detaching. However, there is virtually mo movement of lenses relative to the camera possible inside the cases. I have plucked foam inside the cases.
My set-up is overkill but has worked well. My experience tells me to pack your bag or case tightly with a lot of padding inside the bag/case, put the bag or case on top of additional shock absorbing material (pillow, foam, sleeping bags), tie it down to prevent it being flipped into the air, and lower your tire pressures substantially (with a concomitant speed reduction).
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Johan, I really appreciate the time taken to put together such a detailed reply! I'll have to spend some time parsing your information, but your summary makes sense: secure the gear so neither it nor the containers move with respect to the vehicle body. Place the gear at the midpoint between the front and rear axles to minimize vertical displacement. And airing down the tires helps (now I know I need that portable air compressor!). Sounds like your storage bins are custom made? Do you maintain a website? Thanks! Jim.
Johan P Strumpfer
New member
Hi Jim, if you buy a compressor, get one of the high capacity,/ high flow ones (double cylinder heads). Smaller & cheaper ones mean airing up will take an hour plus. This makes one reluctant to air down in the first place, defeating the whole purpose. A compressor properly wired, mounted with its switch and hose attachment point accessible from outside is a great time saver over one that needs to be unpacked and hooked up to the vehicle battery.
Yes the bins were custom made.
Happy travels
Adding to what Johan said, get the high capacity in-line compressor e.g. ARB. Comes to think of it, you can completely outfit the Jeep with ARB.
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