Towing and GVM

A first step might be to take boat and tow vehicle to a weighbridge and find out what weight you are dealing with.

GVM should be the maximum legal so if below this figure, you may not have a problem.

Alan

Are you sure the papers say GVM and not GCM?

Trailer papers should express the all up weight as ATM.

Congratulations - Nice boat. The car is an expensive & not easy option to upgrade after it has been registered. Getting the trailer downgraded to 3500 should be easier as it is all new. Be interesting to get it all weighed to see if the trailer needs to be rated at 3700KG.

Otherwise from what I understand you can not tow it legally as it has the potential to go over your allowable towing capacity.

But would I tow it - well if I had that boat and the weather was down, I would be going fishing :-). Let us know how you go. Cheers Tony

Hi,
Is it the compliance plate on the trailer.Most manufacturers of boats have a trailer supplier and it is what these manufacturers recommend as the maximum all up weight even if your boat weighs less.Check what is weighs for peace of mind.
Cheers Guy

My boat trailer compliance plate says GTM of 1680kg and tare weight of 430kg. When I bought it I asked the question as we were buying a new car. The dealer told me the boat does actually weigh around 1250 kg (with 80L of juice in it). So I opted for the 2100kg tow pack.

Pays to check. I'd chuck it on a weighbridge for starters.

Louie

Something is wrong here ..
I have been looking at that boat some time back before I decided that I want something else.

The boat is max 1200kg dry and lets say you have twin 135s at 450kg both with some petrol and payload you get to 2t at best.
The tare of a steel trailer should not be more then lets say 550kg
and that should include an electric winch so the max weight of your combo should be around 2.6t..

I guess that you have a heavier trailer than required and it should be no problem to downgrade it to 3.5. I have done this a couple of times with some US trailers. They usually allow 2.6t with single axle brakes but not here. so you downgrade them to 2t when the weight of the boat allows that (which it did in my case - just).

It is a new compliance plate ($2 in any trailer parts shop) and a trip to the pits. done ..

My guess is that something is not right here ..

The 28' Whittley CR2800 sits on an allu trailer and weighs in at just 3500kg when required to be towed by an ordinary 4WD.
On a steel trailer its around 3700kg and surely it is a much heavier boat than yours. So you should have no trouble adjusting the specs to suit.

good luck
gmd

I agree with the idea of taking the whole thing to a weigh bridge and seeing what the various components (ie: truck and trailer/boat, both as a combined rig and also separately).

I reckon that you'll find the trailer might be rated @ 3700kg GVM, but you'll only be illegal if you are checked and the total trailer/boat weight is over 3500kg.

So, assuming the boat+trailer comes in @ 3500kg or less, then it doesn't matter that your Patrol is only rated @ 3500kg.

On the other hand, if you were to buy a Ford F350/250 at some stage in the future, then you could still tow the same trailer, but could afford to load the boat up with heaps of fuel/bait etc, so that it could weigh up to 3700kg (I think the big effy's are rated @ 4 tonne.)

Roachie

One small point You say you have overide brakes.

As far as I nderstand these are only legal on trailers and caravans which have an ATM or GVM of 2000kg or less

From 2001kg you must have electric or some other form like air or Hydraulic brakes.

Just a thought.