PATROL Y62 GVM UPGRADE

So Brendan...was this a certified GVM upgrade with a engineers approval?

No Bigfish it was not. I wasn't after an upgrade to carry any heavier weight than the vehicle was rated for.

Hi Lachlan,
If I am reading this correctly you did not get an engineer's certificate and up grade plate to confirm the upgrade. is this correct. Also what you had done did you have any problems with the rear tyres scrubbing out because of the independent suspension. That was a serious problem of mine on the pathfinder Ti 550, the rear tyre would scrub out within10,000 klm's because of the independent suspension, and we did spend a lot of money to prevent it but nothing worked.
we sold the pathfinder and brought a ranger solved the problem.

I have talked to a couple of engineers here in Vic the 180kg axle group GVM upgrade is not able to be done here in Vic all states are different .
I have changed my rear springs to Lovells HD springs it has lifted the rear to about 30mm above std height
these Patrol sag very easily with only light tow ball weights , I have had no problems with tyres scrubbing front or rear .

Hi Lachlan,
If I am reading your post correctly the rear springs are not the real issue with the patrol it appears to be the axle load on the rear of the patrol. I sent my figure to a friend of mine for eg: fuel=130 kg, recovery gear 120kg, tools 40kg, car fridge= 55kg spare wheel= 70kg approx, caravan on the tow ball 280kg, Kayak= 35kg, two e bikes =75kg. this is all on the back springs and axles.
correct me if I am wrong but it would seem if my wife and I got into the vehicle, at 200 kg for the two of us we would be over the axle weight for that vehicle, and that is my problem, and it would appear that all vehicles are in the same boat, or have I missed something.
thank you for your help .

Hi Brodie,
Sorry for slackness. Bit busy!

Ref your first post, correct - I did not get the Engineers certificate, but have details in QLD and NSW that have it done. If you can stand the Y62 facebook page, do a search and it'll come up.

Regarding your weights... Couple of things;
1. Fuel at 130kg? Have you a long range tank? 1L of fuel does not equal 1kg - that's water. 140L of fuel is around the 105kg mark... so there's a saving for you right up.
2. 120Kg of recovery tools! I'd seriously weight that. I have two snatch straps, two blocks, tree protector, bridle, 40m of abseiling rope, 4 x soft-shackles, gloves and a Tirfor with 25m of rope and it's not close to that.

And are all these extra items (2 x e-Bikes, a Kayak, spare wheel and tools) all on the car, not on the caravan? Perhaps the bikes and or tools could be shifted? Put them in a place your 280kg tow ball down weight is maintained.

Buuuuuttt. At the end of the day - I can save you 25kg with the fuel at least. But yes, it's close to GVM when you load them up. They're actually one of the better ones - the new Defender appears to be the best at around 950kg payload. I did the following weight saving;

1. Camp chairs, stretchers etc from Helinox.com.au - not cheap, but there are plenty of knock-offs. EG, my camp chairs (x4) went from being a 25kg load to 5kg.
2. Get soft-shackles rather than steel D-shackles. They've come down a lot in price. If you want to keep the D-shackles, put them on the trailer. For four, there's another saving of around 5kg

Then there's other stuff (cutlery, plates, de-hyd packs etc)... it all adds up. I ended up being pretty well right on the weight (I didn't tow when heading off) of 3500kg... which is why the added 180kg or so would have been just perfect.