I am looking at increasing my commute from 3 miles till around 11 miles. It will be on a mix of bridleways, road and singletrack and ranges from good ground to muddy in winter.

With the added distance I don’t want a backpack so was looking at panniers and rack on my MTB.

Does anyone do something similar and will my panniers stay on over rough tracks? Also will the Panniers get covered in crap/mud and fall to pieces? Any other issues?

If I go for this option I will be using a Tubus rack and ortlieb panniers to keep my stuff dry.

Ortlieb will be fine

You’ll be fine. Folk actually go touring off-road with racks and stuff….

…and in Scotland too !

As druidh says. Done hundreds of off-road miles with camping kit – tubus ortleib combo will be fine.

ortlieb roller classics clean up really easily.

I’ve just fitted an Aldi rack to avoid carrying a backpack (sweaty back got too much). Had to bodge it on though due to the frame not having fixing lugs at the dropouts. It’s solid so far (only two commutes to date though) on a mixed bag of surfaces. I haven’t got panniers due to not having that much to carry – just bungeed the backpack to the rack.

Get a protective sleeve for your laptop and you’ll be fine

check out spa cycles for a great deal on back roller plus, much lighter constriction than the classic

I use a tortec ultralight rack (I think) and its been great

I have destroyed a series of cheaper racks carrying heavy panniers offroad – the tubus is significantly better made and more robust.