Post Mortem after towing.

NTVRX
Despite lots of earlier comments the fact still remains the stated towing rating is for ideal conditions and not much load in the vehicle. There are various towbars available for these vehicles and generally the towbar itself is engineered in a way that far exceeds the vehicle chassis it is bolted to, hence the problems.
I have seen Navaras which had the whole towbar rip out of the chassis and also an Xtrail towing a covered tandem trailer. That tow bar, in it's entirety, was still attached to the trailer ball coupling with the trailer.

Many have 8mm or 10MM plate steel of the towbar bolting to the 2.5 of the chassis and the load is concentrated in the bolted region and not spread as half smart engineer would like to see. Stress fractures occur and generally relieve the stress by the towbar breaking away.
My pet item is also the shockers of the vehicle, which when towing aren't at all suited to the new mass they have to handle, particularly in an emergency situation.

My thoughts are, anyone who believes the towing rating on the modern crop of vehicles are deluding themselves if they think that stated figure covers all situations the vehicle may be asked to encounter. Derate it by half and then you may be nearer the realistic amount, eg, Landrover company and Army vehicles are rated around 50% of stated when anything resembling off road or arduous conditions are to be encountered.

The laws of physics reveal many shortcoming with many vehicles.

Your signature line is appropriate, The designs are genius but the uses the vehicles are expected to fulfill is where the endless stupidity starts galloping away.

Ross M

It can happen to any vehicle I guess, friend had a 4.5 Diesel LC ute and the chassis broke off where the tow bar was attached.

I've towed with the Triton for 6 years now and the van weighs over 2 tonne, so far no issues, but that is nowhere near the 3 tonne you are talking about.

I have a 2008 model Troopy.
The chassis is RHS, 4mm plate 100mm deep and the top and bottom of the chassis is double layer (assume 8mm)
The Toyota 3.5 tonne tow bar is connected with 8mm plate – 3.5 tonne has to be a dynamic rating ie subject to 3 or 4 times the static load (only a guess but I assume that Toyota would engineer it correctly).
The bar is nothing special – its a Toyota standard item and when purchased new had the same 3 year warranty as vehicle.
I can’t speak for other vehicles but I tow a van that is 3.2 tonne loaded and don’t believe that there is a chance of it giving away when it’s being thrown around over bumps off the highway.

If you consider the dimensions of the tow vehicle and consider that the tug is probably over 3 ton, you have 6 ton being driven by that rear end. Then go and have a look at the rear end of a 6 ton truck. You will soon realize why the mature travellers use a vehicle based on a truck chassis or a better still a Sprinter. Eric.

NTVRX
I think the biggest problem with these towing capacities is the lack of information coming from the car manufacturers.Ross M is right, the maximum capacity is for good conditions only but I have yet to see that written in the specifications or the owner's handbook. If you take the trouble though to contact the manufacturer, you get a different story entirely.

I was looking at a new Land Rover Defender ute a couple of years ago. I emailed Land Rover Australia with a few questions on its 3500 kg towing capacity. The reply said that was for sealed roads only. The maximum off road capacity was 1500kg! That is a two ton reduction. It was even less if whatever you are towing had overriding brakes. If that is not explained by a dealer, someone could be towing a 2500 kg off road van thinking they were 1000 kg under maximum with plenty in reserve when they were really 1000 kg over. I don't know if that could lead to insurance problems in the event of an accident.

I contacted Toyota about the capacity of my 10 year old Hilux. It is rated at 1800kg maximum which looks a lot more realistic when compared to the much higher capacities of its competitors back then. They said it can tow that weight off road but then added " do not tow at all" in soft dry sand. There is nothing about that in the handbook.

Regarding tow ball weights: There is a photo somewhere on the net showing the Leyland brothers crossing a sand hill in the desert. They had two Land Rovers coupled together with a length of steel tube instead of a rope. The second one was towing a large dog trailer. I have no idea how heavy it was but its pivoting draw bar looked like it might have been no more than about about 50 kg. This means they would have had only 25 kg on the tow ball.

That is one way a car could meet it advertised maximum capacity with very little on the ball.

You can be sure of one thing: there will be a way for all cars to meet their maximum advertised towing capacity. They will be capable of safely towing something somewhere that will be right on the maximum limits but they will not be able to tow anything of maximum weight regardless of shape, size or design over any surface and still maintain maximum safety and reliability.

It is a pity all of this is not explained by manufacturers, dealers, magazines etc.

As a Tow-Ed instructor, I cannot add much to the comments above except to reinforce them, also check into speed limitations at max towing capacity, many vehicles are limited to 80kph at full towing weight. Also don't forget the tow ball downforce limitation. Some vehicles may have a maximum towing capacity say of 2.3 tonnes but be limited to just 90 kg downforce. Most vans require between 8 and 12 percent (average 10%) of the aggregate trailer mass to be on the tow ball - e.g.. a 2.3 tonne van will require something close to 230 kg on the tow ball for stability at speed. A 90k tow ball limit thus limits the actual towing capacity to something around 900 kg.

Buyer beware!

I think you are worry too much about something you don't understand.

When engineering a component there are many factors that come into play including rigidity, flex, strength, fatigue and resonance...... and not forgetting weight plus knowing what you want to achieve.

You can have something thats rigid, doesn't flex, has good strength but poor fatigue..... you can have something thats not rigid, does flex, have good strength and good fatigue.

With the onset of HSLA (high strengh low alloy) steels being used by them selves or with other structured materials; something that may look weak can in fact be very strong for it's given dimensions and weight.

Carbonising plays as bigger factor in flex, fatigue and strength as does design.

For an engineer to come to a conclusion that something is not strong enough just by looking at it and not knowing it's design criteria or material structure..... you should ask him if he knows the winning Xlotto numbers for next week....... I would not trust an engineer who has this ability without data to back his claim.

As consumers we need to take some responsibility in our actions and decisions. As stated many a time the advertised towing mass of a car is its maximum in controlled conditions. Throw in hills, weather, tyre conditions, weight distribution driving skill etc. and this all changes. The modern v8 4wd is more than capable of twice the legal speed limit but we all know this is not legal or safe on most of Australia’s roads as . We are also capped at 110. BUT when off road we use our skill and knowledge to drive to the conditions.
The same must be said for a van. If you want to buy and use one it is YOUR responsibility to research the tug that you will use and the capacities of said vehicle.

Yes, nissans crack, and yes the hilux/prado front axle ratings were such that if you put a bullbar and winch on them the vehicle was beyond manufacturer's specs prior to adding a passenger in the front seat. Toyota revised this with a new axle rating and no physical change. That was a big headache for fleets once it was found out.

With regards your max towing in utes, that is a big can of worms, especially when touring and you'd like to carry gear in and on the car, in the fuel tank and carry the odd passenger.

Tow ratings on their own are not comparable across the board. You need to do some maths with GVM, GCM, Payloads and rear axle ratings. Then you will start to get a meaningful picture.

Vehicles like the ranger/colorado/triton etc arrive at their 'massive' tow ratings with zero payload at max towball rating. That means a driver and 10 litres of fuel in the tank - NOTHING ELSE. Only then can you hit max tow.

Hilux maintains a usable 600 odd K.G. of payload at max tow, which in effect makes them a much more viable towing proposition in the real world than the higher rated headline grabbers. Wagons are abysmal for carrying load and towing it at the same time.
Land rovers were mentioned - they are rated for towing at max payload, and derated offroad. I'm not a fan of LR reliability, but I think the whole world should move to the LR payload/tow rating system. Put it all in a spreadsheet, and the LR's come out on top by a long shot. The one's with the amazing towing advertisements (BT50/Colorado come to mind) have, in the real world, only modest towing ability once payload and ball weight are taken into consideration.
All vehicles are stamped, and all manuals must carry this information, so buyer/user beware - if you don't know this stuff (which apparently most don't??) then it would be in your best interests to find out how your tare weights are arrived at, and what your current weight is. There are going to be a lot of extremely embarrassed van draggers out there - I see them every day. Ubiquitous Cruiser wagon, tinny on roof, loaded to gunwales, towing big van = goooorne.