Your personal overloading record
Discussion
I drove a number of people, X, which I won't give yet lest someone just say X+1, greater than 12.5 but less than 25 in a D-Max the other day (this was in Africa, I wouldn't dream of doing such a thing in the UK for many obvious reasons such as legality, enforceability of legality, cultural acceptability, availability of alternatives, etc etc). This is my current overloading record, what's yours?
There are some very well travelled pistonheaders so I am imagining it'll be 50+ at least, especially if they've driven tipper trucks and so on. So we may need categories.
There are some very well travelled pistonheaders so I am imagining it'll be 50+ at least, especially if they've driven tipper trucks and so on. So we may need categories.
I managed to get 3.3 tonnes of scrap in a Vivaro, which would be about 2.4 tonnes overweight. I then drove from Southampton to Huddersfield, stopping only to blow the tyres up as hard as the service station compressor could manage. It was on its arse, on the bump stops. This would be in 2009, and scrap was £220 a tonne. I did stop at Oxford, and contemplated ditching some of the scrap, but greed and an unwillingness to fly tip put me off.
3 people in an MG TF... Well, one person in (me), and the other two lying on top of the engine, holding onto the headrests.
It was genuinely off road, which made it all the more hilarious as Mrs D and her friend giggled like buffoons as we bumped across a field.
So, 50% more passengers than MG Rover intended.
It was genuinely off road, which made it all the more hilarious as Mrs D and her friend giggled like buffoons as we bumped across a field.
So, 50% more passengers than MG Rover intended.
As a kid, I have vivid memories of eight (7 of which aged 10 or under) into an original Austin mini. That was a squeeze.
As a responsible adult, also been party to 6 in a A4 cabriolet - 3 squeezed into the 2 seater bench and another horizontally across laps. That was way more of a challenge!
As a responsible adult, also been party to 6 in a A4 cabriolet - 3 squeezed into the 2 seater bench and another horizontally across laps. That was way more of a challenge!
9 in a Fiesta, on a rare private road near our student houses.
Driver, two in the front pax seat, five in the back, and the standard one in the boot too.
I wasn't there of course, but if I would have been, I'd be one of the guys in the back with a girl on my lap (just a friend). We had done the studenty overloading of cars before so knew that kneeling in the rear footwell wouldn't do her any respect, for obvious reasons.
Driver, two in the front pax seat, five in the back, and the standard one in the boot too.
I wasn't there of course, but if I would have been, I'd be one of the guys in the back with a girl on my lap (just a friend). We had done the studenty overloading of cars before so knew that kneeling in the rear footwell wouldn't do her any respect, for obvious reasons.
Most people in a car probably when i picked up the passengers of a factory minibus which couldn't get through on a country road after a blizzard and was turning back leaving them to walk the rest of the way, this would be around '84/5, still snowing like hell with a biting wind and those fellers and girls still had to get home as well as myself, main roads all hilly already blocked so this seldom used route was the only route possible.
Volvo 245 estate i had at the time, 4 or 5 of them in the passenger section with me and probably another 4 piled into the boot, with the extra weight in the back we ploughed through the drifts with a run up.
Volvo 245 estate i had at the time, 4 or 5 of them in the passenger section with me and probably another 4 piled into the boot, with the extra weight in the back we ploughed through the drifts with a run up.
Slow should be along in a minute to show you his 6T of turf on a trailer on the back of an L322 rangie.
My personal effort is in my off-roading spec old defender 90. In the really bad winter we had in what I think was 2013? I went out to help a mate who was stuck and came across a minibus of 17 Eastern Europeans who had drifted off the road into a ditch. They had all been at work in a factory somewhere and were on their way back to the local town to their digs.
Dropped my mate off round the corner and arranged to come back for the car the next day then went back for these lot. They were not prepared at all for the weather and I didn’t want to use the authorities resources when I could help.
So, 18 of us in a 2 seater. 3 in the front (one sat on the cubby). 3 on each bench with 3 on their laps and the final 3 sat among the 12 pairs of feet on the floor.
It was mega tight but under 10 minutes.
My personal effort is in my off-roading spec old defender 90. In the really bad winter we had in what I think was 2013? I went out to help a mate who was stuck and came across a minibus of 17 Eastern Europeans who had drifted off the road into a ditch. They had all been at work in a factory somewhere and were on their way back to the local town to their digs.
Dropped my mate off round the corner and arranged to come back for the car the next day then went back for these lot. They were not prepared at all for the weather and I didn’t want to use the authorities resources when I could help.
So, 18 of us in a 2 seater. 3 in the front (one sat on the cubby). 3 on each bench with 3 on their laps and the final 3 sat among the 12 pairs of feet on the floor.
It was mega tight but under 10 minutes.

3 in a MK1 MR2 - My wife sat in the passenger seat with her mum on her lap.
2 adults, 3 kids a dog in an MG Midget was normal for a Sunday dog walk when I was a kid. My mum had an estate but dad's car was more fun.
7 in a range of cars was normal for the school run. We had a head on collision once when my brother and I were in the boot of a Renault 5. We'd dropped the front passenger +1 other off and I ended up unconscious under the front seat that had flopped forwards.
I got a 9' length, 1' square length of wood beam home from a reclamation yard in the back of a MK2 Fiesta. The passenger seat was as far forward as it would go and my wife sat in the back beside it. I don't think it had split fold rear seats.
It crushed the boot sill and the boot never shut properly again despite my efforts with a lump hammer.
2 adults, 3 kids a dog in an MG Midget was normal for a Sunday dog walk when I was a kid. My mum had an estate but dad's car was more fun.

7 in a range of cars was normal for the school run. We had a head on collision once when my brother and I were in the boot of a Renault 5. We'd dropped the front passenger +1 other off and I ended up unconscious under the front seat that had flopped forwards.

I got a 9' length, 1' square length of wood beam home from a reclamation yard in the back of a MK2 Fiesta. The passenger seat was as far forward as it would go and my wife sat in the back beside it. I don't think it had split fold rear seats.
It crushed the boot sill and the boot never shut properly again despite my efforts with a lump hammer.A looooong time ago: 7 of us in my Austin Mini.
Our MX5 did regular duty as well. One year involved me driving, Mrs OMITN in the passenger seat and a 9ft Christmas tree laid on top of her in the footwell….
Oh and the time I went to B&Q to get some weird cut down to make a workbench. Drove it home around the M60….

Our MX5 did regular duty as well. One year involved me driving, Mrs OMITN in the passenger seat and a 9ft Christmas tree laid on top of her in the footwell….
Oh and the time I went to B&Q to get some weird cut down to make a workbench. Drove it home around the M60….
7/8 of us in a fiesta from a pub in one town to the club in the next (London suburbs) and passing a couple of police cars on the way. I was actually sober but not old enough to realise how bad an idea it was when buses did the same route.
About 40 concrete slabs into a 3 series. They filled the boot with the seats down to a reasonable height. It clunked a lot on the slightest bump on the way home but seems to have fully recovered. I only took a picture once I'd started to unload which I had to do on the pavement as it had dropped too low to get over the hump into my drive.
About 40 concrete slabs into a 3 series. They filled the boot with the seats down to a reasonable height. It clunked a lot on the slightest bump on the way home but seems to have fully recovered. I only took a picture once I'd started to unload which I had to do on the pavement as it had dropped too low to get over the hump into my drive.
Quite a few...
Renault Master fully fully laden with house move stuff,but also including several engines and gearboxes. Got pulled on the M5 but the police got a more urgent call and left. I sweated for the remainder of the 400 mile trip.
8 of us in an old Mazda 6 going from Bodmin town centre up to the local night club, which was about 2 miles out the town... which in itself was weird.
7 in a Saxo VTR coming back from the pub to the campsite one evening.
Towing a double axle plant trailer with about 3 tons of gravel in it using a Volvo V70R.
So many slabs in a V50 that the tow bar dug in on a speed bump and stopped progress.
7 bags of shopping from Tesco from the car into the house...
Ahh, the good old days.
Renault Master fully fully laden with house move stuff,but also including several engines and gearboxes. Got pulled on the M5 but the police got a more urgent call and left. I sweated for the remainder of the 400 mile trip.
8 of us in an old Mazda 6 going from Bodmin town centre up to the local night club, which was about 2 miles out the town... which in itself was weird.
7 in a Saxo VTR coming back from the pub to the campsite one evening.
Towing a double axle plant trailer with about 3 tons of gravel in it using a Volvo V70R.
So many slabs in a V50 that the tow bar dug in on a speed bump and stopped progress.
7 bags of shopping from Tesco from the car into the house...
Ahh, the good old days.
OMITN said:
A looooong time ago: 7 of us in my Austin Mini.
Our MX5 did regular duty as well. One year involved me driving, Mrs OMITN in the passenger seat and a 9ft Christmas tree laid on top of her in the footwell….
Oh and the time I went to B&Q to get some weird cut down to make a workbench. Drove it home around the M60….

Exactly the same, in 1977. The car gave up in Piccalilly Circus. Our MX5 did regular duty as well. One year involved me driving, Mrs OMITN in the passenger seat and a 9ft Christmas tree laid on top of her in the footwell….
Oh and the time I went to B&Q to get some weird cut down to make a workbench. Drove it home around the M60….
That was fun.

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