Yep.
I had a chat with our local doctor a few months ago...he's into trekking and such and he was testing some new TShirts he'd heard about....some hitech material that allows the wearer to wear it for a week. All that was needed was for it to be aired at night. He was ecstatic as it was saving him weight. I asked about the smell after a week...he said there wasn't any. Fine for walkers but I'll take a few!
So I guess that the weigh it first, put a dot on it if it hasn't been used for some time and remove items rather than add, approach needs to gather momentum. It's pleasing that a few posters on this illustrious forum are doing this now....
From a personal perspective it's also interesting that, as we add the stuff we removed from our previous van, that we find we've been guilty as well. Everything that came out was crated and left in the shed....now emerging.
and being culled....we obviously carried far too much!
I've weighed the van and car twice before anything was added so have the ex-dealer weight for the van...with full water and gas tanks and with all the dealer added add ons. I was happy with that.
Now I'll need to do it again just to check that my careful calculations are, in fact, accurate. I'll be really peeved if they're not! (I know it's amusing to see us weighing cans of tomatoes and bottles of wine with the kitchen scales!)
Then I need to confirm that the vehicle, loaded for the road, is also within my payload limits.
Towball kgs are fine.
I'm getting very anal about this stuff so need to get away and get a life....but I'll know we're safe.
:faint::fencing::hungry: :gossip: :hail:
Hi Dobbie,
when we were backpacking, we had a spreadsheet with the weight of every item we were carrying. It was interesting knowing these weights and comparing the items. When we went wilderness camping, we portion controlled our food and had plenty to eat at 450g per person per day. That was the only way we could stay out for seven days and still carry emergency rations (+one day).
I had always taken t-shirts. Then I discovered that Barbara had tops that were half the weight of my t-shirts. I then found shirts that I could use that weighed less AND dried much quicker. And the list went on. Shave 250g off the clothes and you can carry some chocolate: way better since it was tasty! but is also emergency rations if we got caught in bad weather.
Same with shorts, shorter is lighter, but shorter meant they easily fitted under my weather-proof jacket and didn't get wet from the rain.
Portion control toothpaste, soap, shampoo. One luxury was to take 250ml of port. A sip each night before going to sleep and the bottle lasted over a week!
One goal in backpacking is to have items that serve two (or three) purposes. I met a ultra-light backpacker, whose backpack fame became his tent poles. Heard of something similar with cyclists using there bike as part of the tent. Also, similar idea with walking poles.
I need to make a similar spreadsheet for the van. It shouldn't take much effort now since we haven't put much in yet.
Our limit is 300kg, but 90kg is already taken up with gas and a full water tank.
Maybe, I should make it my task for this week.
cheers
Mike
