Science & Industry

Just before I was headed across the world for a wedding, i cued up long resesrch and manufacturing jobs on my three toons. I just started industry, so it is only T1 production, but i loaded up my mineral industrial with what i needed for these month long jobs and found, just as i undocked from jita, i was carrying 130 million in base minerals.

No one seemed to notice, but i wonder if i am toying with a danger zone doing such hauling in my T1. Is there a general value amount to worry about witth T1s or are large hauls of generally low value items less attractive to ganks?

Depends on the mood of the gankers. I have seen them explode catalyst on pods and shuttles.
The general rule of thumb is 1x or 1.5x the cost of the hull.

Also invest in Blockade Runners or DST. Gankers dont like to play with those as they are usually too much effort. T1 haulers are just free target practice and killmails

You can haul a billion worth of minerals in a T1 Hauler if you follow 3 rules:

1. Instant Undock Bookmarks! Learn how to create them and then create one on every station you have to visit.
2. Instant Dock Bookmarks! Much more easy than the one above, although there can happen bad things if they´re too close to a station.
3. MWD + Cloak Trick! Learn it! Practice it! Even if there is just a lonely frigate on the gate or even nobody.

or you can use Red Frog or some other hauling service if you would like to use them as insurance.

There use to be a soft rule of '100' mil in a T1 Indi - that sort of covered the 50% drop to make blowing them up worth while. Now there is less focus on that.... as so many guys just carry way too much!

If you insta-dock and insta-undock you will be alot safer - let me know if you are unsure about these. You next most vulnerable piece to consider is alpha ganks and smart bombs at gates. If you try and keep the value low, the alpha gank shouldn't be an issue if you MWD/cloak (lots of other people carrying way more). The smart bombs, sadly may just get you no matter what you do.

T2 haulers are excellent and if you are going to be doing this hauling for yourself in the long run, train into them (or an alt). at max skills you can carry 60,000m3.

I would advise against blockade runners unless you're going to be paying full attention all the time. People will gank those just on the chance you're carrying something good.
DST's on the other hand, are a wise investment. They have good cargo holds independent of fittings which leaves you free to properly fit the low slot mods. Also, they are notoriously difficult to gank if you are actually flying them. They have great tanks, can align fairly fast, can fit a damage control and can do the MWD+ cloak trick.
Anything you can't fit in a DST, use Red Frog or courier contracts. Let them bear the risk.

Blockade runners are extremely difficult to catch only if flown correctly. They are pretty easy to catch and kill if flown carelessly. Whenever I see a blockade runner sitting at a gate I have to wonder why in the hell the owner chose that ship. I should only see him for a second as he starts warp and immediately cloaks. Undocking from a station, I should not see him aligning in some direction other than the undock vector. Use insta-undock bookmarks so you can get cloaked quickly! If you aren't willing to get in the habit of always hauling safely, it's just a matter of time before you get popped. And even an empty BR is not something I want to lose.

I'm not saying it's wrong to fly casually, or even to use autopilot if that's what you really want to do. But the blockade runner is not the right ship for it.

Disclaimer: I have lost two blockade runners so far. They were unfortunately not empty. I make mistakes, and then I try not to repeat them.