Field guide
The questions, answered.
Each page answers one question and points at a real build where someone made the call. Written for people who are new to this.
Where should the weight go on an adventure motorcycle?
Carry less, then put what is left low and close to the middle of the bike. Fuel is the heaviest thing most riders add, so where the tank sits is the biggest decision. Three long-distance builds show the rule followed, broken, and bent on purpose, and the rack ratings most riders never look up.
Seen on Too high and top-heavy: Chris Scott's Desert Riders XR650L, and what he would change, Basil: KTM put the fuel low, Poskitt hung the luggage on it, Higher, further back, and strapped loose: The Rolling Hobo's KTM 690 Enduro R
AWD vs 4WD: what is the difference, and which do you need?
Four-wheel drive is built to be switched on for hard ground; all-wheel drive is built to decide for itself on the road. Both are now as much software as gearing, neither helps you stop, and for most people the tires under them matter more. Six van owners who chose differently show where the drivetrain actually decides it.
Seen on Three 4x4 Sprinters: the drivetrain was the easy part, Buying 500 pounds and losing 30
Cybertruck vs Rivian off-road: what happens when a computer controls the power?
Neither truck has a driveshaft between its axles. The Cybertruck gives each axle a motor and makes lockers a software setting, one of them a locker that exists only in code. The quad-motor Rivian gives each wheel a motor and says it does not need lockers at all. Between them they show where off-road drivetrains are going, and what you are trusting when you buy one.
What are ditch lights for, and how should you aim them?
Ditch lights are cornering lights, not extra headlights, and the position everyone mounts them in is the one the lamp makers warn about. What they are for, why the hood is the problem, and the aim that fixes it.
Seen on The lights that stayed low
Should you put your truck camper on a flatbed?
A flatbed tray is a payload decision before it is a storage decision: a full-size tray plus Four Wheel Campers' lightest flatbed camper is about 1,960 lb dry, over a Tundra's best-case rating before water or people. What it buys, what it costs, and where the limit is written.
Seen on The cab they made smaller
Spot beam or flood beam: which off-road light do you need?
The difference is beam shape, not brightness: one KC pod runs 7,912 lumens on both of its lenses, and only the pattern changes. What each pattern is for, why the reach figures printed on the box do not survive arithmetic, and why a build that does both jobs wires them separately.
Seen on The truck built around the worst day
What is GVWR, and how do you know if you are over it?
GVWR is the most your vehicle is allowed to weigh with everything in it, and it is a number the manufacturer declares rather than one your truck earns. What you can actually carry is a subtraction nobody publishes, and the only way to learn it is a scale.
Seen on Buying 500 pounds and losing 30
How much weight can your roof carry?
Less than the rack bolted to it, and much less than you think. Your roof has two different limits, the smaller one applies while you are driving, and a national laboratory measured what putting the load up there costs: nine percent of an SUV's fuel economy against almost nothing on a hitch.
Seen on The truck that got weighed, twice