How heavy is your vehicle?

This should be interesting.



Now where's the Popcorn.

Well, SURprise Surprise SURprise.

I recon a hell of a lot of people would find themselves well over weight if they ran over the scales loaded to travel.
More than a few have found themselves nearly maxed out with nothing but 4 people aboard, after they have fitted some accessories.

Its very easy to start welding and adding seemingly small bits of fairly light steel.

I have seen plenty of trailers that are close to beeing over weight empty....and thus pretty pointless.

A few years ago I used to build equipment cases.....quite often I had to work to weight limitations.

Before I even told the client it could be done I would account for the weight of every square inch of plywood, every inch of extrusion and every catch, latch corner and handle.

It taught me a lesson.

The thing you thinks will cost you weight often dont and there are things that will catch you unaware...because they seem so light when you are handling.

If you want to keep you winch and reduce its weight...go for syntheitic winch rope.......that can nearly halve the weight of your winch.


The BIG advantage of hiluxes is that they are light.......as soon as you have lost that, they realy suffer in so many ways.

Remember the first law of storage.

Orderly storage ALWAYS adds weight and volume.

Some of the draw systems people have in their vehicles are redicilous and as you have found can weigh heaps.

If you are building in ply...look for the light weight grades used in boating & avaitaion...buy well and they are not that expensive.

Some of the reasonably priced grades can be half the weight of others...slash pine can be very heavy.....Powlonia is so light you will not believe it.....if you can source it, a composite of polowina and gibboon, is very light and very strong.

Think in terms of 6mm and 10mm ply instead of 12 and 15 or even 20...but your constructn method will need to be clever and from the boating book rather then the builder boy methods.

Use methods from wooden boating and you can make rediculoulsy light and strong boxes......plywod, epoxy and glass fibre....kills both steel and aluminium in weight for strength.

An alloy tray is an easy weight saving...you can build a light and strong steel tray...but you need to be thinking a different way and you need to calculate weight before you even buy the steel.

Start you mission by buyimg a good set of bathroom scales..and weigh every damn thing.

I'm running an 03 conventional diesel hilux.
I have an aluminium tray and an australian work and leasure canopy...I can be under2 tonnes ready to roll two of us aboard.

I run a box system in conjunction with a tie down system.
I considered aircraft tracking but the price was unreasonable.
So I baught some 50 x50 x10mm angle and got drilling.
I have 3 tie down rails the full length of the tray with tie points about 100mm appart.

everything gets ratcheted down on a rubber over plywwod deck.

My boxes I made from light plywwod, epoxy and fiberglass using methods I learned from the case business and wooden boating methods.

I tyried plastic crates...they simply are not rigid enough to be tied down effectivly and stay in one piece.

AND if you build your boxes you can make then whatever size is advantageous....my pasenger side run of boxes are the same dimensions as my fridges.


The big advantage is that I can have the whole rig out and stacked up in the shed in an hour...it takes me about 2 hours to put it all back in and tie it down to trasport spec.

I hope this give you some ideas.

cheers

My 2008 Prado D4D with all the gear and full tanks but no passengers and personal gear weighs 2.6 tonne.

I've just bought landcruiser 200 series
Net weight 2730 kgs
GVM 3300 kgs

Add fuel138kg,
Add bull bar 70kg
Add winch 50kg
Add storage and contents
Add roof racks and roof top tent
Add a few people
Getting close or overweight

What most people don't realise that if you tow, the ball weight is part of GVM that could be 350kg

Hence a GVM upgrade- takes me up to 3800 kg
If overweight, no insurance
There is a court case at the moment about a landcruiser towing a van- rolled, people almost killed- insurance wouldn't pay as overweight. People got their dealer to set car up for towing - no GVM upgrade- open and shut case in my view

Seriously guys, anyone with serious 4wd and towing needs GVM upgrade
Don't risk being overweight

bob

Is your GVM listed on your insurance papers? I have a 03 s/c diesel which should be the same as yours and the NRMA has it listed as 2500kg. My owner's handbook says do not exceed two thousand seven hundred and something kgs. I noticed that is the sum of the two axle loads but I can't find that figure listed anywhere as the GVM.

The car weighs 1610 kgs stock standard with a full tank and a Toyota aluminium tray and no accessories. Without the tray and fuel, it would be well under 1500kg. It is supposed to be a one ton ute so when you add a ton, 2500 kg fully loaded sounds correct. This could be worth checking because you could be way over weight at 2780kg.

Mine has carried, for the last eight years, a home made plywood on a steel base 220 kg lift top camper that bolts directly to the chassis. I could not see the point in carrying a tray when it was only going along for the ride. The rest of the car is standard except for an auto front locker. In that form it has taken my wife and I everywhere from all over the High Country in Victoria to Big Red to four of the Beadell Roads and the maximum weight it has ever reached is 2360 kgs fully loaded.

If I had to overload it to get to those places, I would have bought a bigger car. Are you sure you are not carrying too much gear?

just because something is strapped down ...it does not mean you cant get to stuff.

My fridge is strapped down, lid still opens & shuts, multi draw tool box aint going anywhere...but all the draws open & shut.

My tucker box has one strap over the top... likewise my kitchen box..that is two tier.
Undoo the strap and the top tier slides off complete with two stoves and fuel...impliments of distruction in the bottom tier.

I've got designs on a new improved fold out or roll out Kitchen box...cant decide.

There is a big parts case up front on the drivers side, that realy has to be emptied before it comes out....it takes the oils, water spares and heavy recovery gear.
the base is strapped in and one strap over the top hold the lid in place.

I could have gone with all sorts of equipment case hardware...but I stopped with just road case handles which on some boxes double as tie down points.


Recessed tie down points can be fitted to the boxes and some sort of catch to hold the lids on.

The problem with draw systems is they make twice the weight of a box...because you have a draw AND the outer case...a lot of the weight in draw systems is making the frame strong enough to be held down by its base.

If you build a box with draws in it and tie it down from high in the structure it does not need to be as heavy in the base.

The big advantage with a box system is that it can be rearanged as needs change.

I can fit 6 fridge sized modules along the passenger side with room for the fridges to breathe.

Don't sweat the winch...fitted with synthetic rope it will weigh under 35Kg

cheers

To all those still following this thread,

I have gutted my canopy including removing the rubber matting which I have replaced with marine carpet. It is a lot lighter than rubber. I have kept my two fridges. It might be a bit of overkill, but I travel most of the year and months of that in remoter areas with shops few and far between and it is really convenient to have a fridge and a freezer instead of only one fridge.

I am using my existing black plastic tubs which are still in good nick after 6 or 7 years and I have used notched angle iron to tie them down to with occy straps. I have also removed my second spare wheel but I am taking a couple of tubes and my tyre changing kit and my compressor. Hopefully I won't live to regret it.

I am also leaving my hand winch behind but I am carrying all the straps, extensions etc. Hopefully this is not something else I will regret.

Anyway I am soon heading off on a short camping trip to test it out to see if it all works.

I would like to thank you all for your contribution to the discussion. It has been helpful getting an idea of how different people approach what they carry and I have got a lot of great ideas from you.

Thanks,
Bob