Encumbrance., How do you deal with equipment loads? Options

[Daishi]

This has been on my mind recently since characters in our group have recently been in scenarios where they have been on foot for an extended period of time (days) and still had to remain fully effective and self-contained. So how do you deal with encumbrance if at all?

Okay, so to keep characters from packing a kitchen sink while on runs, our group enforces the encumbrance rules of ShadowRun. We've found difficulty in the way characters move from fine to unconscious within minutes. This normally isn't a problem as our group almost always keeps our loads below the str x 5 ceiling. But sometimes that isn't an option. Say for an extended hike in the bush. To carry everything one might need for a week long mission in the bush, many characters will have to carry more than their lower encumbrance ceiling. And then pass out within a few minutes according to canon rules. That's obvioulsy no good.

To have more useful encumbrance rules (that don't scale 'orribly), I was thinking of going with rather simple rules that up to str x 10 causes an effective light wound (that lasts only while the load is carried), str x 15 causes an effective moderate wound and reduces movement to 75% (akin to vehicle damage) , and str x 20 causes an effective serious wound with movement reduction of 50% and no running. For every hour (or maybe bod x 10 minutes?) this load is carried, the effective wound level becomes actual stun damage (and stacks and builds). A rest period of five minutes interspersing these periods avoids this damage accumulation.

Thoughts?