Hi All,
I have had a few people ask how I went about upgrading the GVM on our Cruiser, and the issues we faced.
First thing to remember is that when you upgrade a vehicles GVM, it has to remain in an upgraded state until the GVM is lowered - that is tyres, rims and
suspension must stay rated for the higher GVM - you can't put standard road tyres on the vehicle that can not support the full GVM even when the vehicle in unloaded.
My story.
Bought a 2003 LC100 Sahara from QLD. First hurdle was to get it registered in NSW. Now if this vehicle had been stock standard - no issues at all - but the Cruiser was far from stock with 2 inch lift, bull bar, winch, dual wheel carrier, long range tank, upgraded ECU, etc. But lets get serious - who wants to take a standard 4WD off road for a week - not me again ;)
After ringing a few engineers, we found one that would look at it (one guy said he had never passed a Crusier with air bags - so we skipped this guy) . Before we took it to him we had to get it weighed. This is our first issue. It weighed 2960kg without people, storage _Affordable_Storage_Drawers.aspx, only half the possible fuel and no camping gear. Tare is around 2500kg and GVM for a standard LC100 (inc Sahara) is 3260kg. 400+kg of accessories on the vehicle left a 300kg payload - no where near enough for a family of 5.
We went to this engineer, and he refused to pass the Crusier due to its weight and GVM limit (fair call on safety), so lets upgrade the GVM. This guy stated $10K for the brake
test (even if it fails), $5K for emissions
test (due to upgraded ECU), plus more $$ for other parts for the vehicle including new rear
suspension.
Whilst we are not poor, there was no way I would justify spending $15k+ on a $60K vehicle we had just bought specifically because of its accessories and upgrade
suspension.
My wife was so pi$$ed that she started looking through 4WD threads from every
forum possible to find a solution. I love her sooooo much.
His name is
John Burke from
Specialised Vehicles outside of Camden NSW.
John specialises in GVM upgrades and especially LC100's, and uses Firestone air bag
suspension products. He has a great relationship with the RTA due to the high quality and standards of his work.
Total cost including RTA testing, RTA compliance plate & blue slip - $6094.00 - the only downside was that he had the Crusier for 5 days.
Why so cheap - to upgrade GVM in NSW you need the following modifications
- Heavy Duty front
suspension
- Heavy Duty rear
suspension
- 50mm
suspension lift all round
- Reinforced
suspension components
- 1500kg rated tyres and rims
Because the Crusier already had heavy duty
suspension fitted, with 50mm lift and 1500kg rated tyres and rims, we just needed new rear shocks which
John provided (Edelbrock IAS) as the shocks we had were the wrong type for this vehicle.
Our Crusier came with the following already fitted.
- ARB HD Torsion Bars w/50mm lift + reinforcement kit - Front
- Bilstein Custom value Shocks - Front
- Firestone C4 full air bag system - Rear
- Edelbrock IAS Custom value Shocks - Rear
- Toyota steel rims w/BFG MT 285/75R16 tyres (1500kg rated)
We now have a GVM of 3758kg - 500kg more than standard.
Now for other states, I have no idea on who to contact, but it pays to research and ask lots of questions first. The RTA was less than helpful, and Specialised Vehicles was the fourth engineer we had contacted.
I can not recommend
John highly enough.