Ranger queries; load capacity, fuel tanks, canopies

A bit OT but..

I have a d4d 120 Prado and I am about to pick up a 2.3t van. Have air bags and will be adding HD springs.
Feel that the tug can do the job but if you are changing, would you tell me exactly why.
Petrol engine? Lots of kms?

thanks

bill

I've done almost exactly what you propose to do - a D4D 120 Prado towing 2.2t to a BT50 (almost same as a Ranger) towing the same 2.2t.

The BT is an excellent tow vehicle for that weight. No hunting trying to find a gear, either in sports mode or normal. Better than the Prado in that respect.

Point 1:
I've done some calcs and posted them on another thread here, but can't find it now. With the BT5/Ranger overhang between rear axle and hitch, my hitch weight of 160 kilos adds 230 kg to the rear axle and reduces front axle weight by 70 kg. So depending on how you load your Ranger, you may run up against axle weight limitation before you hit other weight limits. A weight distributing hitch will help address that.

Again, depending on how you load your Ranger, you may or may not need a suspension upgrade. Personally, I think you will need upgraded rear springs.

Point 2
My BT uses about 16l/100k towing BUT I have a tradie canopy and a roofrack, neither of which is aerodynamic. I like long distance outback/remote touring and installed a Brown-Davis 145 litre replacement tank. They are steel. If I was doing it again I would choose one of the poly alternatives to reduce weight.

The Distance to Empty will be wrong and cannot be corrected, but the tank sender can be bent by the tank installer to properly indicate when the tank is actually empty. There is some doubt about how the software in the engine management system in the Ranger/BT50 handles this. With a properly modified sender arm, the car's software thinks it is empty before it actually is - there's no getting around that. Reports indicate that some vehicles are unable to continue when the DTE says 0 and others allow 30km or more after DTE says 0. Whatever, when it thinks it should stop it does.

I also added a secondary fuel tank under the tradie canopy with a gravity feed to the main tank because I am unable to accommodate jerry cans for supplemental fuel.

Point 3
My BT is a dual-cab. I could not buy the model I wanted as a cab-chassis - I had to buy a ute with a tub. I sold the tub on eBay and bought a CSM ccanopy. It's the bee's knees, the duck's guts. Expensive, but totally dust and water proof. It's integrated with the vehicle's central locking and has a door unlatched alarm, which has proved itself numerous times, saving dust entry on outback roads. CSM are in Bris and Warwick, SEQ and are brilliant to deal with. Can talk more about that if you wish.

If you add a canopy you will put stuff in it, adding to weight. It is not hard to run up against GVM and GCM issues. Think and plan carefully. You cannot have a Ranger/BT50 at GVM and still tow high trailer weights.

Cheers

This has been debated endlessly on the Caravaners forum I suggest you join the Discussion?? on there.
As said loading it up to max will inhibit your towing ability but with a van of under 2400kg ATM you should still be alright.
GCM is actually the sum of GVM of the tug (including ballweight ) and the GTM (weight on axles only) of the van.
If you install a large fuel tank you will need to be careful of not exceeding the rear axle weigh limit. A WDH for on road touring will restore a bit of weight to the front axle whereas heavier springs or airbags wont do that.
It is far better to know when your tank is near empty than full. I put a 145L tank in a Patrol and adjusted the float. It never moved till the tank was under half and then it read true down to empty.

My camper is up over 200kg on the ball. The ranger has a 'comfort' lift and ome shocks. I highly recommend it over the standard setup. I have the ARB canopy and again recommend it.
Be wary of anybody advocating the use of a wdh on these cars as the manual specifically prohibits it - it buggers up the stability control programme.
I don't have a long distance tank. We average about 14.5 l/100 so a Jerry or two in the ute goes a long way. I just drain them through the side window with a jiggler siphon.
They are an excellent tow vehicle. I put my auto in sport mode and the car does the rest.

" 1. With about 180-200 kg van ball weight, will the Ranger need heavier springs or other suspension support? "


No car should need any additional support that is not recommended by the car manufacturer. If the rear end is sagging then it is the owner who has done something wrong, not the manufacturer.

There are a couple of points to keep in mind before you start changing the rear suspension design.

1. Have a look at all leaf spring rear suspensions. The linkage on independents work the same way. You will see the front eye of the spring has been mounted down at around axle height while the rear shackles are up a lot higher. The spring has a single front mounting point so the wheel can only swing up and down in an arc. It can not move up and down vertically.

When the car is fully and correctly loaded, the spring will be sloping up hill to the axle. As it does this both wheels move forward towards the front of the car. When the car leans into a corner, the spring on the outside of the corner will compress a little more taking the wheel up closer to the chassis and further forward. The spring on the other side will have weight taken off it so the wheel will go down a little and further back towards the back of the car. The whole axle has now been turned slightly in the direction the car is going.

In the meantime the side stress on the tyres has distorted them forming an angle between where the wheel is pointing and where the tyre is pointing. That is known as the tyre slip angle. If enough side forces are applied to them they will let go and slide resulting in the car spinning.

By tilting the axle in towards the inside of the corner, you will reduce the tyre slip angle resulting in them hanging on a bit longer and hopefully enabling you to get around the corner. This is known as roll understeer and it is not the same as ordinary understeer.

If you overload the rear end of the car then lift it back up with heavier springs or air bags, you can very easily destroy this vital handling stability feature.

2. Go about two thirds down this pageundersteer/oversteer and look at the drawing of the two cars understeering and oversteering. These two features are controled by the amount of weight that is placed on either the outside front or rear tyre in a corner. It is altered mainly by springs, sway bars and tyre pressures.

Just about all cars have been designed to understeer. By overloading the rear end and fitting heavier springs or air bags, you will quite likely change the car to oversteer.

Do you really want to be driving a ute with a big caravan and a suspension that is now prone to swinging its tail out in oversteer and has lost most if not all of its roll understeer feature?

There are countless cars with modified rear suspensions towing big vans all over the country. Their owners will tell you they feel very stable and no doubt they do. The real test of stability will come though if if you ever have to swerve suddenly at speed to miss a big hole in the road, another car, a cow or whatever or if the van is knocked off its straight ahead course by high wind or change in road surface. That is when your standard suspension can instantly become a life saver or your modified suspension your worst nightmare.

Don't play around with car suspensions unless you know exactly how they work in the first place.

This article bent utes can be very useful when towing heavy loads with a cab/chassis vehicle. The problem is caused by too much weight too far back behind the rear axle resulting in the end of the chassis constantly flexing up and down. It can happen with 2wd utes in cities but is much more prevalent on 4wds on unsealed roads. The car does not have to be over or even up to GVM to do it.

I use a + 300kg ome spring kit and have had no problems with a 2500kg van and back loaded. Springs and shocks also work well with no load on the back, except the shocks can be a little harsh on certain black top bumps but fine on dirt.

I don't use a wdh as the placard says don't and have travelled many K's with the van without any problems. Some owners do use them but I can't comment on that.

With my 132l long range tank when towing, the readout says 80K to empty when I have used 112 litres. I have never gone past this point as I never like to run a diesel fuel system dry and don't even know if the ecu takes over and won't let it go past 0 kilometres to empty. Mine is steel but I would have bought a polly one if they were available at the time.

I have an ARB canopy which has had no problems. I put a dust seal kit in on the tailgate and leave the back window cracked behind the cab and the vent on the roof open.

The vehicle itself has had zero problems and that is with 50000+ K of towing.

I have installed an auto trans cooler, a scangage and an FM 100 fuel filter kit. I change oil at half the 15000k recommendation and am about to change my diff and transfer oils for the second time due to the amount of towing. I will also change the auto box fluid for the second time shortly.

I played Dukes of Hazzard the other day on a back road when I hit a 40k an hour dip travelling at 100k per hour. No damage but I don't think I will try that again as I don't have a pilots licence.

I have a 2012 XLT Ranger, I fitted a poly tank in the tub and gravity fed it to the main tank via the main tank breather. As the main tank is pressurised I fitted a shut off valve in the line. Now when the main tank gets to low IE the light comes on I stop not long after and open the main tank filler to de-pressure it, then open the shut off valve and it all drains in. [make a cuppa while I wait about five minutes].
The poly tank holds 40L, but I have never really had to use it as there are plenty of fuel stops about. I've done 95K over four years towing my 5'th wheeler.

PeterH