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Look at the builder's plate. Carefully. You will see several things which are important. GVWR we're already pounding to death here. Recommended tire sizes and pressure in those tires. Front axle weight rating. Rear axle weight rating. I note that in my old Sprinter, the front axle weight rating...

LDB--- I hadn't thought of that. Howsomever, 25-30 lbs over because you bought a gift for your daughter is unlikely to cause trouble in any event. Przewinski---- that builder's plate is there for a reason. You might want to pay attention. Going to Mercedes, or even going to your knees and asking...

Depending on how the load is placed in the van, and whether it's properly secured (come on--- 2,500 lbs and you didn't secure it?) the overload can actually cause the accident. Placed wrong--- easy to do in a vehicle with an overhang like the long Sprinters--- it can cause unstable handling...

I never did try weighing extra water--- everything else you mention though-- yep. I made sure my carrier knew my capacity, too--- and I'm not inclined to overload. Not worth it, if something breaks I'm the one stuck with the bill.

4X4 may give you confidence so you try to drive when you shouldn't. Everybody who gets one of these 4X4s gets it into their heads that nothing can stop them--- and then find out that this is so when they try to stop in slippery conditions. Or they find out that once you DO get stuck-- it happens...

That 4X4 is gonna cost you--- I guarantee it. My old Sprinter--2500 series, longest, tallest made in 2005-- was good for just over 2850 payload--- with a full tank of fuel and me in the drivers seat, with my personal effects on board. That is, in addition to me, the fuel, the personal...

In any case--- it's been a week, the tires are settled in and running as they should. The only time I get unexpected sway/wander is when either passing or being passed by large trucks--- and that has more to do with the airflow around fast-moving large objects than it does with tires.

One other thing: On a brand-new vehicle all the tires are identical. On older vehicles--- there may be some mixing and matching. I'm running new Goodyears on the rear-- identical tires on that axle. On the front--- some Chinese crap-fest Sentinels that haven't had the usual belt failures yet...

Brand-new vehicles come with 4 brand-new tires for one thing. As the vehicle ages, you do sometimes have cause to replace the tires on one axle but not the other--- in my case, I replaced the rear tires this time. For a real nightmare-- I looked up this stuff on Google, there are of course...

Seems to me you don't get a lot of choices. Sprinters have enough trouble with the emissions stuff-- now you're adding 4WD to the picture. That adds weight-- as already mentioned-- and mechanical complexity. Overloading won't help matters much either. You may get away with it a couple of times...

The tires DO settle in. If you could have ridden with me Sunday evening as I headed out to Waterloo, and then rode with me today on the Battle-Creek trip--- you wouldn't even have to ask. Partly because, after getting off of I-90 Sunday evening and being able to get out at the first...

The good news--- both from my personal experience and from what I've been reading on the subject-- is that new-tire wandering is a temporary thing. It may take a few hundred, up to maybe 2,000 miles for the tires to "wear in" so the wandering completely ceases, but it does cease. Already my van...

My last purchase was Goodyear--- the tires on the rear now. I made a point of making sure they're "the real McCoys"--- even to the point of going to a different shop than the one I usually used for tires. I've run Michelins before, they're good tires. The only problem is trying to get a tire...

I might want to argue a bit about that last sentence. I live up North--- I'm a suburbanite near Chicago-- and more than once I bought "winterized" diesel fuel that gelled so the Sprinter wouldn't start next morning. Better put some anti-gel in there unless you have a way to keep the fuel-tank...

I'm having to pull this from memory-- it's been awhile since I replaced all four. I do seem to remember some wandering--- not as bad as the other day, but still there. Problem I remember most from then was that the tire shop put on Chinese tires, and within a few thousand miles I was replacing...

There's one thing I really hate to have to do and that is getting new tires. This past Friday I had to get new rear tires--- the old ones were worn. The front tires are reasonably new, so they stayed on. Now, the problem is that every time I get new tires the vehicle handling gets squirrelly...

Ragman-- I used to have a ton of those maps. The trucker's atlas could get you to the town-- maybe-- but then you needed a local map. I must have had twenty or thirty local maps before I was done doing it that way. That, and calling the police when I needed to find a place not on the map.

I don't have the Qualcomm-- most companies seem to have them but it's not universal. The outfit I drive for does take out for cargo insurance, so there is that charge every week. If not Qualcomm--- you still have to have a cell phone at least. Many companies favor Android phones, these ain't...

This is a basic thing, just something I need to say. Recently we had a newbie-- who is probably still around and may read this-- who wanted a job as an expedited driver and wanted to know who was hiring. Setting her straight that this is NOT a regular job is a work in progress as it appears, and...

Thinking about this a little while coming back from Wisconsin: Seems to me that FedEx CC would be a team thing anyway. Problem is, a single has to stop when his hours run out. A team switches drivers and can keep on--- at least for awhile. That doesn't matter much on short hops--- but what about...