Most wrong load in a vehicle, what've you done you really shouldn't..

[Back_For_More]

I had the bright idea of hosting a beach party in my loft for New Year..... Triumph shit the bed 2 days before so I was stuck with the gf's Suzuki Alto. 

Lost count of the number of bags I had in there but it was on the floor - no clue how it survived. 

I calculated the total was almost a tonne..... After I'd lugged it up to my 1st floor rear of the complex loft. Almost killed me, never mind the car! 

Great beach party though..... 

Getting rid of the sand afterwards is another story 😁

[wuvvum]

2 hours ago, comfortablynumb said:

MK2 son sold a honda 250 dream engine a while ago, big ungainly lump, heavy too.

Mateyboy turned up on a 50cc trials bike on L plates, hoping to strap it onto the rack and ride home!😱

Fortunately my lad didn't want to see him get squashed on the way home with impossible handling, and delivered it the 10 miles for a clear conscience 🤕

That reminds me of another one.  When I was 16 a mate found an abandoned Mobylette (an MBK Hard Rock to be exact) in some woods.  It had a better engine (reed valve type) than the one on my Mobylette so we decided to try and swap them over.  It was too far to push the abandoned bike up to his place, so I rode into the woods on my Mobylette, we turned the other bike upside down, laid it across my luggage rack and tied it down with a selection of bungee cords, then I rode rather gingerly up the hill with him following on his Jawa 210 to make sure nothing fell off.

We got a few strange looks from passing motorists on the way back (fortunately no coppers were encountered) but we got there in one piece.

[catsinthewelder]

I started doing this shit as a teenager and haven't learnt my lesson yet.

First occasion was a load of scrap wood in the skip at my first job,  various lengths and sheets were attached to my mountain bike vaguely balanced on the pedals and held on with string, a couple of bungees and prayers.  The first couple of miles were pushed but then I reached a downhill (Gilesgate into Durham for any locals).  Now its quite a steep hill and cheap 90s mountain bikes weren't blessed with brilliant brakes at the best of times but mine were frankly shit so even as a spotty 17 year old I really should have considered the affect of adding 40kg to the mass before trying to ride down the hill and the fact that with wood sitting a couple of inchs either side of the front wheel I now had very little steering.  Not sure how I didn't die but probably reduced the lifespan of my trainers by a significant amount!

  Pushing it up the hill on the other side was no fun at all.

The wood was turned into a model railway baseboard for a mate, traveling to his house in the boot of a Citroen XM then dismantled and do I want it back?

Yeah, why not?  Another friend had been using a golf trolley to tow a canoe behind his bike.  He'd given up the canoe so the trolley was now surplus and turned into a trailer with chipboard.  I'll fetch it in that!

Inevitably the trolley collapsed halfway home and my dad wasn't too impressed when he had to rescue more rubbish.

Still not learnt so my boss has upgraded the suspension on the current work van.

 

[High Jetter]

5 minutes ago, catsinthewelder said:

(Gilesgate into Durham for any locals). 

My wife and her sister got banned from a pub there. Dispute over Harveys Bristol Cream, they'd run out.

[UltraWomble]

8 foot spruce Christmas tree inside a Micra K11. 
Visibility everywhere bar straight ahead and out of the drivers window was crap.

96 paving slabs 18"x18" in the rear of a 1.1 Fiesta over 3 trips.
Shocks sprang leaks after that

Couple of weeks ago 6 Ikea shelves in a Polo - visibility also shite everywhere but straight ahead.

[bunglebus]

On 30/06/2025 at 15:51, Volksy said:

This reminded me when I put a mates Kayak in the back of my Volvo 855

I'd totally forgotten, but for reasons lost to time, I put a full length kayak in my T3 panel van, luckily I'd removed the top half of the bulkhead anyway, so it came through and rested on the dash and the tailgate closed.

I did crack the windscreen of my Passat (again) by passing lengths of timber all the way through from the boot a bit too vigorously though.

Talking of the Passat:

 

Granted that was just from one end of my road to the other, scaffold boards that form the base of a shed I got from my brother in law when he moved house. Definitely had to consider the tail swing on that one!

My Renault 5 was pretty low anyway, but loading it up with boxes of magazines put it properly in the weeds:

Other sillies I've done without photographic evidence include more magazine shenanigans, I bought a job lot around the other side of the M25 and filled my Passat to the roof, getting out of the seller's housing estate full of speed bumps was somewhat challenging, drive home was a little nerve wracking so I dropped half off at work and did a second run back for them later.

My work often sees me removing shop fittings from closed stores, sometimes we'll get skips on site, sometimes we'll take the metal and weigh it in - one job in Manchester we were really struggling, no space for a skip and  no-one wanted to take the waste. In the end we found somewhere a bit of a drive away, I neatly stacked lots of MDF and wood  in a Luton, didn't look too silly but it felt a bit bouncy and the brakes weren't great. As it happens the site we used weighed the van before unloading - 5000KG! 3500 is the max legally, oops!

First time I ever overloaded a vehicle knowingly was way back in my Halfords days, we had a large plastic container full of dead batteries, and I decided it would boost my meagre wages if I took a few* to the scrap metal dealer (think it was 50p a battery too, hardly worth it looking back). I neatly stacked batteries in my Orion 1600E with  the back seat folded down, filling the boot and rear passenger area to the level of the windows. The drive home was absolutely terrifying, it felt like it wanted to swap ends at any moment. I once again elected to drop half the load off at my lock up and do two trips to the metal yard. The whole exercise was stupid on many levels but I was young and daft

[bunglebus]

15 hours ago, High Jetter said:

It was a free shed if I could remove it. Rude to say no.

I also did this on my T3 van, no roof rack, just some sheets on the roof and rope through the front side windows - and a mate to help hold it on!

[catsinthewelder]

That reminds me of the time I needed some wood and spotted a built in wardrobe for sale on the small ad board in Tescos for £10.

Went for a look and it was 3, 8x4 doors, 2 wooden and one mirror along with a load of random bits.  Gave him the £10 note and loaded a wooden door on the top of my Fiat Tipo using blankets slammed in the doors to secure it.  Worked surprisingly well but was a bit odd driving with curtains over all the side windows.  Went back each evening for another bit then on the 4th day picking up the smaller bits managed to crack the front windscreen when something slid forward.

[comfortablynumb]

Sold a land rover 109 rear tub, the bloke turned up in a Peugeot 405 estate,  and got us to help him put it straight on the roof.

We did, but I refused to have anything further to do with tying it down. The words ' if it comes off, it's your problem!' may have been involved.

So he did it himself, and then discovered that he'd tied his doors shut.. 🤣

[dome]

17 hours ago, Fraz said:

@dome - I feel your trip to collect the Saab engine would be worthy of a mention 

That would be me driving from Glasgow to Aberdeen for around 9am to purchase an engine. The engine was in a Saab 9000 Aero and still running. After hearing it running and agreeing to the purchase by around 12pm it was safely* loaded(along with the gearbox) into the back of my 1.1l Peugeot 106. 

The journey home was interesting, but not too scary. I did have to rethink braking distances a little bit though....

[Pieman]

One of the companies I work for produces motorsport DVDs, and we had a stall at an exhibition at the Gaydon museum a couple of years ago.  I had to load pretty much my entire office into my Mk2 Focus so we could produce DVDs for customers on-demand on the day - including computers, printers, boxes of DVD cases, pre-made stock and various other stuff, it filled the whole car barring the driver's seat.  My boss thankfully took quite a lot of the stuff back to his office with his Civic similarly filled.

I also remember travelling with my uncle from the Midlands to a place in Essex to pick up several large panels and a couple of alloy wheels for a Fiesta ST he was rebuilding after it had been (inevitably) stolen and crashed.  Travelled down in his Mk4 Focus, then spent about an hour trying to fit all the bits inside his Focus, after which I just stood there and said "Looks like I'm going home on the train then".  Luckily, somehow 6ft 2 me managed to fit into the remaining space in his passenger seat, although I was practically sat on the dashboard and could hardly move when I got out.

[chaseracer]

18 hours ago, catsinthewelder said:

I also found out that Malvern is famous for hills...

Currently sitting in the parental garden looking at said Hills... they are plenty steep!

Anyhoo, remember the Nescafé Hairy Cortina?

Somewhere I have a pic of the Dyane looking very similar, carrying to the tip the results of a serious conifer trimming.

[castros_bro]

Bambooing along M25 then A3.

[chaseracer]

1 minute ago, castros_bro said:

Bambooing along M25 then A3.

Was there a hi-vis/orange rag/random hankie tied to the end? 😉

[Brigsy]

Few sketchy ones in the Extra van over the years when young and stupid'er . Not much evidence as used to just send it, few memorable ones. 

15 yr ago had 10x people in it for a toilet run at Santa Pod. 

Note m&h drag radials on the front almost flat and roof passenger. I had to stand on back bumper with doors open. My mate driving was not hanging about and i nearly fell off the back😅

I used to do loads of mobile mechanic work on R5gtt's back in that era. One day i had my engine crane in the back, r5gtt engine and limited tools to fit said engine, Also 18stone passenger. Sat on bumpstops on rear tinging the side exit exhaust occasionally on the deck.

Loads of short duration scrapyard runs in it on the bumpstops. Local scrap place used to laugh like fuck when i was trying to get it on the weighbridge without removing said side exit exhaust.

My orange clio has been to the roof loads of times for short journey to local tip. 

Nothing too exciting though as the local Evri driver usually has more parcels in!

 

[castros_bro]

2 hours ago, chaseracer said:

Was there a hi-vis/orange rag/random hankie tied to the end? 😉

No, I didn't want to draw attention to it.

[Dan the van]

On 30/06/2025 at 12:41, Shite Ron said:

I have loaded several of my Cortina estates with more car parts and building materials than you would think possible on many occasions, I also went to Le Mans with three friends where we packed our tents, cooking equipment, two mountain bikes, two petrol engined scooters, clothes etc. into the mk5 2.3 Ghia estate, the people in the next tent couldn’t believe we got everything inside the car! It was sitting low to the ground when fully loaded. More recently my brother wanted to get rid of a load of concrete blocks, slabs and bags of sand and cement before his new patio was laid, I kept loading the Mercedes E320 estate thinking just one more until everything was in. The rear wheels were inside the arches! I started it and the hydraulic suspension raised to level, I could feel that it was overloaded when driving home!

The worst was probably just after passing my test and starting work. I had just turned 17 and did day release in technical college as part of my apprenticeship. I was the only one in the class who could drive and all the boys wanted a lift to the bus stop about half a mile away. I had a mk4 Cortina 1.6GL saloon, I remember there were 2 in the front passenger seat, at least 6 on the back seat and 2 sat in the boot with the boot lid open. I didn’t do it a second time! 

Ah,the joys of Mercedes self levelling suspension.I did similar in an old E320 wagon but boxes of tiles.I was still up country at the time but in the process of moving west.My local tile shop was clearing out it's store room and I grabbed loads of good stuff,some really expensive.Loaded up almost to the roof,back seats down.TBH,once pumped up it looked perfectly normal and still handled ok.Drove from Surrey to Cornwall no prob.😃

[Macscrooge]

1984. Seven people in a 1977 Mk1 Renault 5.  Car was mostly rust coloured with occasional patches of metallic brown and powered by a mighty 956cc. It belonged to a young lady of my acquaintance and on this particular evening we had to push start it (the car you pervs). As it gathered pace we all piled in and I ended up in the pilot’s seat. I managed to coax it up to 40mph on a long straight. Happy days!

[GrumpiusMaximus]

On 01/07/2025 at 08:17, AnnoyingPentium said:

I can beat* that. Bought a brand new bed frame on marketplace and honestly I should have borrowed a van... but I didn't. 

Safety first... it was wedged between the boot lip, the roof, and the inner wheel arch where it needs the floor of the boot. It held in remarkably well.

Then there was the time I gave a Yamaha electric organ to @reb...

I was meant to go up with my mate in his V70, but he'd taken not well. Instead I phoned someone else to give me a hand loading it into the Vectra. Due to the size of it and the relative size of the boot, the only way it would fit is if the organ was lifted up to the height of where the glass would be, and lowered in. Much smashing of interior trim when I dropped it, but it fit, just. Of course, you noticed the weight - especially as I nearly put the car on its door handles at a roundabout near Stirling. 

Can confirm that small electric organs also fit in a MKVI Fiesta.

The scariest I've ever done was in my current MKIV Golf Estate.

Christmas 2020.  Year of Plague.  We were due to go into a 'Tier 4' lockdown just before Christmas and the night before tier 4 we had received our Christmas shopping.  Of course, it was that night our fridge-freezer decided it had had enough.  It's 1800 and IKEA is the only place open.  It's an hour away.  I jump in the car, get to IKEA and manage to acquire the model we had decided upon.  At this time, my Golf had developed a fault with the passenger seat mechanism and couldn't fully go forward, which contributed to - but was not the cause - of the issue.  Tried to get the fridge-freezer in and it didn't fit.

The car originally came from my Grandparents after my Grandmother died and bless my Grandfather, he'd left a 'length o' rope' in the underfloor of the boot, which I had kept.  A stranger (maths teacher!) helped me load the fucking thing.

I use the mounting points to tie the everliving fuck out of the fridge-freezer and then secure the boot 'shut' with a bungee cord I also had.

I mentioned earlier that IKEA was an hour away.  I live in East Kent.  IKEA is in Tilbury.  You can see where I'm going here.

The single scariest drive of my life back over the Dartford Bridge, with the boot half open and a massive fridge-freezer tied in with a thirty-year old length of rope that probably came out of the Volvo 740 my Grandparents had in the mid-1980s.  Pulled over at Burger King at Crossways and checked it.  I've never tried Shibari - but I reckon I'd be good at it.  Drove the remaining forty-five minutes home but my backside was clenched the whole way.

[Pieman]

12 hours ago, castros_bro said:

Bambooing along M25 then A3.

That's the first one in this thread to get a genuine laugh out loud from me.  Looks like a misguided attempt at impersonating a peacock!

[Leyland Worldmaster]

49 minutes ago, Pieman said:

That's the first one in this thread to get a genuine laugh out loud from me.  Looks like a misguided attempt at reducing your carbonfootprint!

Fixt 😇

[bunglebus]

15 hours ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

IKEA is in Tilbury

How very dare you, it's in Grays.

I remembered another one, I went with my 6ft+ mate and girlfriend at the time to buy a MK1 Fiesta XR2 interior, in my MK1 Fiesta, and I mean everything, dash to boot boards. How it and us all fitted inside for the journey home I'm not sure

[Metal Guru]

I hired a car while on a rugby tour in Jersey. Four of my team mates came along for a sightseeing / pub tour. It was a 1.1 Fiesta and we averaged about 18 st each.

[catsinthewelder]

The comments on this YouTube short belong here.

 

 

[MJK 24]

Well, where to begin?

 

[Noel Tidybeard]

there was nothing dodgy about the loads (yes moar than 1)

no , what was dodgy was the fact my dads mate asked to borrow the allegro cos towbar & the 2 idiots (me n step-bro) for help

2 idiots take turns driving allegro & borrowed trailer on journeys which may* have involved the M6 and only 1 of the idiots* had actually passed their test! 🤣

 

*not me

[MrBig]

21 hours ago, MJK 24 said:

Every so often I have to dig that video up from the youtube archives, just to remind myself that we share the roads with people who think this is a good idea.

[Rustybullethole]

10 x 5 ft framed painting sitting on a blanket on top of my dad's Escort estate held in place by nothing other than me (driving) and mate (passenger) arms out window and hands gripping the frame.

Same mate in same car came with me and the mrs to pick up a sofa. It was a large four seater so hung out the back of the Escort by a fair way with the seats down in the back. As did my mate who was laying on it. 

[Three Speed]

I probably shouldn’t have completely filled the boot of my CX GTi turbo with brick pavers for my patio. But I did and it pumped itself up and survived.

[DodgeRover]

3 MX bikes into a mk2 cavalier saloon (not hatch) 250 Bultaco Pursang, KX 420, RM465 all from the same guy, I spent a couple of hours removing bits and packing them in.  I admit to poor life choices selling those on.

Range rover classic gearbox with overdrive and 200l of WVO into an Astra hatchback