who is Vagabond

There are a few stories/reports on this forum relating to vehicles,mainly dualcabs, bending chassis behind the cab/in front of tray.

If you use Bent/bending chassis in the search facility here you should bring them up.

Cheers

Disco.

My old man was part of a 3 month trip last year which transversed many of the deserts of Australia.

Toward the end of the trip they were doing the Simpson crossing west to east and one of the vehicles did bend their chassis. It was a late model dual cab Colarado/Dmax with and aluminium canopy if I recall correctly.

General consensus from all involved was too much weight being carried. I'm not sure if airbag helpers were involved. The vehicle had survived the Anne Beadell and CSR crossing but it all proved too much in the end.

I did ask how they recovered/repaired the vehicle to make it home and he replied "called the RACQ of course".

When you have a lightweight dual cab 4WD (I'm talking about the ones that are in the cheaper price categories here) - with a tray where 60% or more of its length is hanging out behind the rear axle - and it's loaded to the max, and does substantial "unmade road" work - then the result is all too obvious to anyone who has studied the chassis construction and the leverage factor in these vehicles and designs.

The only other vehicle I've seen with chassis problems is the older Landrovers where chassis corrosion protection has been neglected, and they've suffered the corresponding rust perforation problems, and chassis fracture problems.
Great rust-free alumimium body, shame about the steel chassis with its poor drainage design.

Cheers, Ron.