All of us have heard the old adage about the 182, "it'll flay with any load you cram in it just as long as you can shut the door". Well believe it or not the same applies to the coupe, except you don't have to worry about shutting the door. I am familiar with a coupe modified with the enlarged baggage compartment, which flew from Texas to Oshkosh and back roughly 150+ lbs over gross. Flew damn well, or so I'm told :-) , only problem was an inability to climb above 8,000, the 90+ degrees were a bigger factor than the weight. I also have photos of another coupe on the same trip which carried it's pilot, his suitcase, 2 tool boxes, 2 full sized bikes (knocked down of course) a fold up picnic table, tent, sleeping bag, and miscellaneous junk including some munchies and his ever present relief jug, and oh yeah, the ugliest hat I've seen in a while.
The trick is to watch where you load stuff. Naturally you place the heavy stuff as close behind the seat as possible of if you have no passenger put some of on the passenger's side of the floorboard strapped down of course. You would also be surprised how much you can fit under your legs to shift the CG back forward if need be. The coupe is an incredible aircraft and is far more capable than most of it's pilots are even aware.
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