Burnsie's Prado 150

[burnsie]

Those fuel figures sound excellent for a petrol. Cant wait to sign on the dotted line for a new VX or GXL . They now come with a 6spd auto

Sorry @Doug might not have explained myself properly, mine is a diesel hence the better fuel economy than a petrol would get

Cheers

 

[burnsie]

GVM Update: Complete

Went to the local inspection centre today to go over the pits and get my GVM upgrade certified and approved.

ALL GOOD.................

As in a previous post I was wanting to upgrade the GVM as the current 2990kg will probably not be enough for our trip with the 5 of us and all the fruit so, got the upgrade to the shocks and springs completed late last week, booked it in for today and signed off and approved

My 2014 GXL Prado now has a revised GVM of 3500kg, a lot more than I will use but thats what the engineers certificate and plate validate it against so a bit of room to move where required. Please note as I mentioned before this is only a GVM upgrade and not a GCM upgrade so Prado towing limits still apply

The guys locally were really helpful and able to provide suitable background information about how they do it and get the certification through.

Happy Days..................

New Additional Compliance Plate


GVM Upgrade



Will give it more of a test on the WA catchup down in Margaret River in a few days........

 

[dagree]

HMMMMMMMM Might be talking to you about this on the weekend!!!!!!

 

[burnsie]

no worries @dagree I already have a full page of questions for you

 

[bigcol]

as long as you have also written down
who you saw
who you bribed
how much
how long
lots of hassels

etc.......

sound good mate

 

[Alan]

Any chance you have towed with the Prado yet? Any fuel figures on it tow and no tow and is there a difference in acceleration when expanda is attached? I ask because I just drove the new 2.8L diesel and it didn't really seem to have much pickup. Acted like my prado does when I'm going up a hill pulling the expanda. I currently have the V6 but considering changing to the diesel.

Thanks
Doug

I just bought a 2011 Prado from a mate who was updating to the 2015, a car tragic so it is in top nick and only done 76000 and never towed anything. Just towed a small boat to Lakes Entrance, got 10.2. He went to buy the new model but was not impressed with the performance of the 2.8 so bought a run out with the old engine. His finance guy said he had two other people who towed horse floats do the same.

 

[willobee]

Hi @burnsie do you know if they do 120 series gvm upgrades and approx costs?.
Rig looks great by the way very jealous!

 

[burnsie]

hi @willobee yeah it's not cheap :eek-53:

The setup of the 120 and 150 series were similar so I would assume that the guys can do a upgrade on the 120 series for you, depends on what engineer approvals they have and which models they can modify.

I would give them a call (Malaga Suspensions) and talk to Tom about it and see what your requirements are and if what he can do would be suitable and possible.

As a ball park most GVM upgrades will set you back around $3K this would include the parts, compliance plate and engineer verification, then there is a few hundred dollars to get you through the local Transport authority in our case DoT, over the pits and your rego will be changed and costs will increase as your GVM is now more so they will charge you more to register it

Remembering the GVM upgrade won't change your overall GCM so towing limits etc won't change, we did ours to give us that few extra 100kg's for the big trip but also for other trips we do that don't involve pulling the panda so we can really load it up, no where near the 3500kg but more than what we could have previously.

 

[Smergen]

Rig is looking great.

Remembering the GVM upgrade won't change your overall GCM so towing limits etc won't change

In fact, it could go the other way. If GCM doesn't change, if your GVM goes up, then the ATM limits of your van have to go down. But if you were already well within your limits you should be fine.

 

[Bluey]

Any chance you have towed with the Prado yet? Any fuel figures on it tow and no tow and is there a difference in acceleration when expanda is attached? I ask because I just drove the new 2.8L diesel and it didn't really seem to have much pickup. Acted like my prado does when I'm going up a hill pulling the expanda. I currently have the V6 but considering changing to the diesel.

Thanks
Doug

any chance I can chime in I have a vx 07 3 litre diesel love it to bits I will never sell it 1200 to 1400 is my best not towing my misses drives it but two 90 litre tanks and that's from both came back from Adelaide towing didn't stop for fuel 800 ks half of last tank left over took heaps of slower vans and trucks had to get a cruiser as prados are under weighted for towing but towed my van fine heaps of power and get up and go if it was 3 t towing I would have never got a cruiser but my vans a bit over 2.5 t and heavy on the ball prado 5 stars

 

[burnsie]

So been a while but been saving up for the latest mods, in preparation for the Lap.

For me it is a requirement to have a couple of spare wheels for any big trip, will of course be using a tyre repair plug kit where possible but if a potential sidewall fails I will have a couple of backups

With the drawers and now the dual spare's I am definitely putting the HD Suspension to good use

Ended up with the Kaymar Rear Dual Wheel Carrier, Colour Coded



As we are going to be towing the 17.56-2 OB behind us at nearly GCM (Will be around 2.3T for the van) I knew the engine would be slightly stressed for such a long period of towing so invested in one of these.........



Slots nicely in the engine bay, not really any extra weight but "**** me" does it give some extra performance. Massive differences when towing and when the van is not behind for a day trip and in low range it certainly gives you heaps of extra torque.

The other mod I am just starting is to add some lights to the Prado, I ended up getting some Lightforce ROK20's which are a great light, nice and bright and also a good price. I will be mounting these around the roof rack to give light at night when camped but also on the night 4WD runs.

So far I have fitted up the 12v board I will be using which is the rear cover out of the back section of the Prado



Still have the voltmeter to add, once it arrives "thanks eBay" and then starts the wiring and pulling the car apart

So much to do, with so little time before we go..........

 

[bigcol]

looking the goods mate, looking the goods

 

[dagree]

Love your work @burnsie :encouragement:

 

[Smirke]

Wow! Still waiting for our beast to arrive. Apparently the boat is due in Freo on 26th.
You can always work on our beast if you get bored working on yours.

How much longer til you guys head off? I've got 134 days to go. (It's not me counting, it's my phone)

 

[burnsie]

a bit sooner than I thought @Smirke.......we leave in 90 days

so much to do....so little time....still finalising plans, plus everything else, I bet u guys are the same...

 

[Smirke]

I'm freaking out a bit over the car. So much money! I've had to put the planning on hold as I've got heaps of school stuff to do, plus I'm pushing to get the van's warrantee stuff finalized (hopefully Friday it will be done). Am devestated, as when they had it last year (nearly 6 months) I didn't a chance to clean it or take mats out after the group meet at ledge pt. (It must have been shut up and in full sun.) Took mats out after Margaret river trip and found one mat stuck to the floor (they aren't rubber backed either). The dye had permanently melted in to the vinyl -black- and so the floor is now cactus. Don't know whether to scream or cry. Luckily the other mats didn't leave any permanent marks.
Still, got coral bay these holidays , then things will be getting serious.
Time to pull the finger out. Maybe Google a lot of diy "how to" to help move things along!

 

[burnsie]

thats no good @Smirke hopefully they can do something about the floor.....

The car will be a great addition, bit of money but they are fantastic pieces of machinery

you might be interested in the latest GRR booklet from the Derby tourism centre, just got mine in the mail, heaps of info on the GRR, just another resource to look at for the trip.

I think I need to create a new thread for our trip as I have some blanks spots for QLD and NSW on where to stay, good locations etc.

It is now 89days away and we are starting to get excited bit also nervous/freaking out lots to do.

Have you changed your mind yet about taking the van on the GRR?

 

[Smirke]

Thanks @burnsie . I read about getting the GRR booklet. Must remember to do that tomorrow. It's the kind of study I don't mind doing!

We are staying in the daintree. Looks awesome there. Also staying at Cairns, port Douglas, cook town, mission beach, Townsville, rollingstone, airlie beach, Mackay and then I'm stuck. Haven't progressed further than that. May head further down to brissy to let the kids do theme parks. Trying to plan a dive on the reef, but it is proving difficult as haven't been able to get current pricing


Have made up the mind, the van will not go on the ggr. Spoke to a van park owner in kununurra, and she said she wouldn't do it. We aren't going as early as you, so the road will be cut up a lot more. Plus, being school hols there will be heaps of people, so space may be tight in places. Not something I really want to contend with towing the panda wagon. Then again, when we get there things may be different.

 

[burnsie]

Continued work on the Prado, running some wires for the back fuse box to run the roof lights and provide several outlets in the back. Ended up running 6B&S cable which will give me a 100amps roughly to play with, but will be fused out by the panel in the back.



Also whilst running the power cable I picked up an additional camera from the Perth show which is to be mounted on the rear wheel. The initial unit we picked up for the caravan has a spare outlet for an additional video port so got one for the Prado as we will be shutting out the back windows with some of these for the upcoming trip so need something to see out the back when the van is not hooked up

 

[dagree]

@burnsie those first two pics remind me of my current 120 and previous 100 series

But the best thing is..... A "Big Thank You" for the solar screen link as I have been looking for them for ages and I can tell Mrs Dagree it's your fault