Enjoy your travels. We went through a similar exercise. We had a 200 series Landcruiser which was always on the edge of its permitted weights towing our caravan even with a GVM upgrade (3850kgs). I have always a great believer of not having the tail wagging the dog (tow vehicle being heavier than towed unit). We ended up changing over to a American 3/4 tonne HD truck which for us was a great decision. We no longer have to worry about weighs so much!
Great choice of tow tug. We have the v6 and we had the smallest Lovells GVM GCM upgrade and it tows beautifully. The upgrade is very beneficial our van has an ATM of 3400Kg and our wildtrak has a GVM 3505Kg the GCM is now7005Kg we use about 16L/100k in tow haul mode. All the best for your touring/towing.
Weights can be a real problem. We returned from the uk 5 years ago now. We landed in Perth and we bought a lovely car a 2016 Pajero. We went to a large dealer in Perth and asked for a caravan that it could tow legally. We were sold a Kokoda tribute 1 a nice caravan and we were assured our was legal to tow. However at no point was it legal to tow that van. Something we were unaware of until we got to Queensland! It actually towed amazingly well but it was not legal. It's the 180kg allowed ball weight over 2500kg that gets you on the Pajero 😢
Yes, understand - the Pajero NX tows very well, the issue is the rear axle limit. I think if one can buy a lighter van - say 2.5t ATM and maybe a Tare under 2t with a 130kg Tare ball weight the Pajero tows really well and legally. The engine is powerful enough and if a throttle controller is added then the power is available on demand - no lag. I hope you managed to settle the issue and now either have a larger tow vehicle or smaller van.
He is really easy to deal with and the advice is good. He spent over 2 hours with us and we were still only charged the standard fee - highly recommended.
Hi Media1788au - the 59 Kg are what we needed to remove to get close to legal. This is now history with a new vehicle which we will re re-weighing shortly :-)
@@TravellingLP good on you for going the heavier tow vehicle... 40yrs in the heavy vehicle industry and I cringe at the thought of border line weights and tow vehicles being tampered with with upgrades and sometimes lighter than the van. Just saying, if you get the same person to weigh your vehicles, get someone else in the know to check the chart afterwards. I have been getting trucks and caravans weighs done for years and sometimes they're in error. Safety first, rules second is my philosophy.
I would be getting a lift or heavier rear suspension as looks like it’s down a bit and we did same and GVM upgrade with suspension and shocks etc and has made an incredible difference 😎
The rear axl was over by 35kgs and everything else under. In total under by 389 kgs, according to your chart. So has me confused as to why you are saying its a massive problem? Was it just the water? Saving 40 kgs off the tow ball? Or was it the pile of goods that you didn't want to leave behind?
:-) Good question - basically we could have got under the rear axle limit by removing the second row seats and the roof rack, but still leaving behind stuff we want to take with us. Originally the car was destined to be a 4WD camping vehicle, and it MIGHT tow a camper trailer.... things worked out differently!
A bit concerned about the advice to compensate the heavier ball weight by adding weight to the rear. This is never a good idea as it creates a dumbbell effect where the van in a sway situation rotates around the van's axles and so spears the whole rig off the road. Weight on the back of a long van effectively triples in inertia and so should be kept to a minimum. Perhaps you have changed this now you have the Ranger.
Yes, the Ranger is totally different setup and the TBM can go to 350kg. Basically though, there is a formula for weight distribution, if you add 10kg to the back bar it takes of about 5kg from the ball. I'm not an expert on this but would think it's all about balance - I would not add 100kg to the back bar to take 50kg of the ball.... hence in our case with the Pajero we drained the front water tank to mainly remove weight. New weighing planned on 8 November ! (with the Ranger!)
Enjoy your travels. We went through a similar exercise. We had a 200 series Landcruiser which was always on the edge of its permitted weights towing our caravan even with a GVM upgrade (3850kgs). I have always a great believer of not having the tail wagging the dog (tow vehicle being heavier than towed unit). We ended up changing over to a American 3/4 tonne HD truck which for us was a great decision. We no longer have to worry about weighs so much!
Thanks for your insights - it's really a minefield, weights....
Top choice will serve you well ❤
Thanks mate - hope so, we are off shortly again!
Great choice of tow tug. We have the v6 and we had the smallest Lovells GVM GCM upgrade and it tows beautifully. The upgrade is very beneficial our van has an ATM of 3400Kg and our wildtrak has a GVM 3505Kg the GCM is now7005Kg we use about 16L/100k in tow haul mode.
All the best for your touring/towing.
Sounds great! our fuel consumption look around 20lt/100 for the moment, hoping that will go down
@@TravellingLP We sit on 93KPH by the speedo if we sit on 100 we also use about 20 per hundred. ours has done just over 5000km.
Great suggestion thanks!
Weights can be a real problem. We returned from the uk 5 years ago now. We landed in Perth and we bought a lovely car a 2016 Pajero. We went to a large dealer in Perth and asked for a caravan that it could tow legally. We were sold a Kokoda tribute 1 a nice caravan and we were assured our was legal to tow. However at no point was it legal to tow that van. Something we were unaware of until we got to Queensland! It actually towed amazingly well but it was not legal. It's the 180kg allowed ball weight over 2500kg that gets you on the Pajero 😢
Yes, understand - the Pajero NX tows very well, the issue is the rear axle limit. I think if one can buy a lighter van - say 2.5t ATM and maybe a Tare under 2t with a 130kg Tare ball weight the Pajero tows really well and legally. The engine is powerful enough and if a throttle controller is added then the power is available on demand - no lag. I hope you managed to settle the issue and now either have a larger tow vehicle or smaller van.
@@TravellingLP the dealer was useless we now have a Discovery 4 great car but not without it's issues 😉
@@plasmaDave Should of bought an Isuzu MUX.
Thanks Paul and Lizi, will have to reach out to Graham if I ever need to get my weights done!
He is really easy to deal with and the advice is good. He spent over 2 hours with us and we were still only charged the standard fee - highly recommended.
ATM minus GTM equals ball weight. Those chart figures after rearranging are out by 59kgs.
Hi Media1788au - the 59 Kg are what we needed to remove to get close to legal. This is now history with a new vehicle which we will re re-weighing shortly :-)
@@TravellingLP good on you for going the heavier tow vehicle... 40yrs in the heavy vehicle industry and I cringe at the thought of border line weights and tow vehicles being tampered with with upgrades and sometimes lighter than the van. Just saying, if you get the same person to weigh your vehicles, get someone else in the know to check the chart afterwards. I have been getting trucks and caravans weighs done for years and sometimes they're in error.
Safety first, rules second is my philosophy.
I would be getting a lift or heavier rear suspension as looks like it’s down a bit and we did same and GVM upgrade with suspension and shocks etc and has made an incredible difference 😎
Great video
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it
The rear axl was over by 35kgs and everything else under. In total under by 389 kgs, according to your chart. So has me confused as to why you are saying its a massive problem? Was it just the water? Saving 40 kgs off the tow ball? Or was it the pile of goods that you didn't want to leave behind?
:-) Good question - basically we could have got under the rear axle limit by removing the second row seats and the roof rack, but still leaving behind stuff we want to take with us. Originally the car was destined to be a 4WD camping vehicle, and it MIGHT tow a camper trailer.... things worked out differently!
A bit concerned about the advice to compensate the heavier ball weight by adding weight to the rear. This is never a good idea as it creates a dumbbell effect where the van in a sway situation rotates around the van's axles and so spears the whole rig off the road. Weight on the back of a long van effectively triples in inertia and so should be kept to a minimum. Perhaps you have changed this now you have the Ranger.
Yes, the Ranger is totally different setup and the TBM can go to 350kg. Basically though, there is a formula for weight distribution, if you add 10kg to the back bar it takes of about 5kg from the ball. I'm not an expert on this but would think it's all about balance - I would not add 100kg to the back bar to take 50kg of the ball.... hence in our case with the Pajero we drained the front water tank to mainly remove weight. New weighing planned on 8 November ! (with the Ranger!)
well done for being smart and getting a better tow rigg--- many more should do it, you see clowns towing 3500kg vans in a mux
@@thelonewolf666 thanks mate. It was a difficult decision but in the long term it makes a lot of sense
The Ranger and an MUX have the same towing capacity.
They have the same towing capacity.