I think my car is just about ready

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Kia girl

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Sep 14, 2017
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Location
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I have used just about all the outside space I can on my car.
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I am hoping that this is all legal and I won’t get pulled over for it. I did move my plate and added a light above it to cover that one. The rest of my lights show. The only thing I think am missing is solar panels I think. The problem is the only place for it is my hood. I think I will figure that out when I am on the road. I have a generator until then.
When parked long enough I will have my tent attached.
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If anybody thinks I should change something and has suggestion please feel free to let me know.


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With the load on the back are your headlights shooting up into the air? Don't want to reduce your night view of the road or blind other drivers.

Will the rear tires hit the fenders if you go over a good size bump?

BTW: I really like those Souls. They have a surprising amount of room inside.
 
slow2day said:
With the load on the back are your headlights shooting up into the air? Don't want to reduce your night view of the road or blind other drivers.

Also, how about your backup lights? Need them to be visible.


All the lights are showing and working as they should. Nothing on front of car yet.


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mr_elijah_gardner said:
With all the stuff you are carrying you need a box truck lol jk.. Nice setup


Yeah I am going from a van to the car so most of the stuff is on the outside so I have sleeping room on the inside. If my husband allowed it I would have gotten a box truck or a van. But had to get New but stay under a certain price. So this is the best I could do. Love the gas mileage though.


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Kia girl said:
All the lights are showing and working as they should. Nothing on front of car yet.

My edit was too slow. I didn't at first catch the backup lights mounted up high there by the tail lights.

What I mean about the headlights are they aimed right? If you carry a lot of weight at the rear, that can cause your headlights to shoot up too high so you don't see the road as well and/or blind oncoming drivers.
 
They seem to be fine. The cargo carrier on the back has less than 200 pounds and the bag above it is less than 100 pounds. You can see it is weighed down some but it doesn’t seem to affect the front of the car. I will check it tomorrow though just to make sure. I would have had a small trailer but the ones that are affordable are put on hold and not being sold right now.


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Got any reflective DOT tape? If possible, adding some to the back side of your cargo carrier couldn't hurt.
 
RVtrek said:
Got any reflective DOT tape? If possible, adding some to the back side of your cargo carrier couldn't hurt.

Auto parts stores also sell small reflectors that are pretty easy to add.
 
RVtrek said:
Got any reflective DOT tape? If possible, adding some to the back side of your cargo carrier couldn't hurt.


No but I did add a couple of reflectors to the cargo carrier already. Should I add more.


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Wow!  That is really cool.  Hope it works out for you and your hubby.  I'm sure as you continue forward you will find ways of improving and figuring out what works and what doesn't.
 
BikeBoomer said:
Wow!  That is really cool.  Hope it works out for you and your hubby.  I'm sure as you continue forward you will find ways of improving and figuring out what works and what doesn't.


Just me going


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It's really impressive girl, when is take off time for you again?
 
JustACarSoFar said:
It's really impressive girl, when is take off time for you again?


Either Saturday or Sunday for sure. Hopefully Saturday because it may snow here Sunday.


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Kia girl said:
The only thing I think am missing is solar panels I think.  The problem is the only place for it is my hood.

With a little creativity you could probably get somewhere in the vicinity of 100 watts worth of panels on top of your rooftop cargo carrier. Then it's just a matter of figuring out where to put your charge controller and battery. Alternately, you could go with portable panels and set them up when you setup your camp.
 
Have you checked to make sure your load is not over the GVW of the vehicle. Here is a link I found. Not sure if it is same year but will help you find and figure yours
http://www.kiamanuals.org/kia-691.html
If you are close to max you want to make sure you keep your tires close to max inflation nothing ruins your day like a blowout in the middle of nowhere.
Also you might want to check your spare and see if you have room where it is stored to put a real tire and rim in that location because with that load I would not want to depend on a temporary spare
 
Kia girl said:
No but I did add a couple of reflectors to the cargo carrier already. Should I add more.

Might put a couple on the end of the carrier facing left and right, so other drivers can see that you extend past your tail lights.

How weatherproof is that bag? Might want to put whatever is in there into plastic bags.
 
slow2day said:
Might put a couple on the end of the carrier facing left and right, so other drivers can see that you extend past your tail lights.

How weatherproof is that bag? Might want to put whatever is in there into plastic bags.

The bag is full waterproof. I will pick up a couple of reflectors for the bag. They are cheap enough.


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4x4sporty said:
Have you checked to make sure your load is not over the GVW of the vehicle. Here is a link I found. Not sure if it is same year but will help you find and figure yours
http://www.kiamanuals.org/kia-691.html
If you are close to max you want to make sure you keep your tires close to max inflation nothing ruins your day like a blowout in the middle of nowhere.
Also you might want to check your spare and see if you have room where it is stored to put a real tire and rim in that location because with that load I would not want to depend on a temporary spare


I will see what it says on my car but I am definitely under what they say there. 200 for cargo, as of now about 60 in bag and about 200 on top. So well under 600 with that including me. I know I don’t have 200 in weight in the inside storage. I actually don’t have a spare tire though. The 2017 Kia souls only come with a repair kit. Thank you though because I forgot about the weight of the car.


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Kia girl said:
I will pick up a couple of reflectors for the bag. They are cheap enough.

On the very end of the cargo carrier would be better.

No spare and just a flat repair kit? If you hit debris on the highway at 65-70 mph you can easily destroy a tire so that it can't be repaired. This has happened to me twice and also to other people I've known. Do yourself a favor and get a real spare if you will be driving 1000's of miles!

PS: The weight at the rear is leveraged, so it will have more of an effect on your rear suspension & tires. If you have something in the box that's pretty heavy, placing it in the front passenger area would help. Do you plan to carry the water jugs full?
 
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