SVO ....Small Vehicle Overlanding

Loving this thread. I'm a new member and I have a Suzuki Grand Vitara which is about to be modded for overlanding. Mainly regular weekends away with my wife, but we have one or two longer trips planned.

Found a small campsite I will try out next summer
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That campsite looks awesome. My wife and myself are planning a three week overland roadtrip to Norway, hopefully next year.
 
Went to check out a stretch of beach near Bay Town I had heard from some old timers still had good fishing without being overrun by tourists like the rest of the coast. A forgotten island sounded tempting so I the everything into the jeep and set the alarm for 4:30 am. I wanted to take the the trailer to test out a smaller generator and a few other mods but after the last trip to Matagorda where the trailer bogged the jeep to a stop I decided to pack the essentials.

Didn't sleep well so I hit the road around 4 am to reach the final stretches of pavement around sunrise.

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After checking out the southern portion of the beach, I set up a temporary camp to catch bait.

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Caught some hard head catfish (nuisance fish) and a spotted trout that was just below keeper size.
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Once the sun was high enough to no longer be in my eyes, I packed everything up and headed North. After almost an hour of driving the beach and only seeing about a dozen fishing groups, I hit the old San Bernard river delta that has since dried due to the construction of the intercoastal canal.
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On my way in I was also watching for campsites that night. With the new moon comes a spring tide so I wanted to make sure I didn't have a Matagorda flooding incident repeat. High ground was good, high ground with access to an above high tide path was better.

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As I was setting up camp I heard thunder so I threw it in high gear.

Sunday morning

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And highlight of the trip was a pair of sharks this morning that were tagged and released.

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And while the full sized rigs can carry 3x the water and gear...I got 20 mpg driving home at 70ish mph. [emoji14]
 
What fuel economy do you guys get on your vehicles? It's probably one of our biggest advantages being small, but being body on frame, solid axle and shaped like a brick mine isn't fantastic.

I just did 85 miles of (mostly) highway driving and got:

25mpg (US gallons)
30mpg (UK gallons)
9.3L/100km
 
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I have to get into the habit of monitoring the consumption...but the spec sheet says 6lt / 100kms....but the roofrack, larger tyres and camping weight would impact on the figure...let you know !
 
Not so hot here. Being smaller my rig only has a 4-cyl so not a lot of power there. With the lift, tires and rack mine is pretty horrid for a smaller vehicle. If I am very careful on the highway I can pull 28mpg (US), but my foot is typically heavier than that.



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My Nissan Rogue was rated at 33 mpg highway, and it would get that driving at 65-70 mph without traffic. Now with the RTT and other add ons I average about 28 to 30 mpg highway depending on speed and traffic. I am really happy with that. So much of my driving is on road. Even loaded up for camping and off road I am doing 25 mpg with the right conditions. IMG_1597.JPG
 
It seems like I get 22-24mpg no matter how I'm loaded. I can have me Patriot loaded down and pulling the trailer or have nothing in it at all and it's always right around that mark. I was hoping for better when I bought it but it's still way better than the 14mpg my lifted 97 Wrangler I used to get.

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