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MDS69

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Jul 6, 2014
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Hi Folks,
I am trying to find a thread but not 100% sure it is on this forum or another. The thread is along the lines of an article posted that listed a bunch of the most common touring vehicles listing vehicle weights, towing weights, the effect of ball weight and possibly accessories. Does anyone recall this and know where it is. Many thanks.
 

Boots in Action

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Mar 13, 2017
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Ferny Grove, Queensland
Hi Folks,
I am trying to find a thread but not 100% sure it is on this forum or another. The thread is along the lines of an article posted that listed a bunch of the most common touring vehicles listing vehicle weights, towing weights, the effect of ball weight and possibly accessories. Does anyone recall this and know where it is. Many thanks.

@MDS69 , could this be the thread you are looking for??

Recently I attended the monster Caravan/camping Show in Brisbane and just happened to enter into the ARB display where I found the attached table of current vehicles' load and towing capacities compared. I was rather shocked to read some of the stats and even called over the expert there to explain a few things to me.

The ranking for Vehicle Only is pretty straight forward to follow - Gross combined mass (total of everything together) minus gross vehicle mass (weight of your tug loaded) minus the kerb weight of your tug (empty but with all standard fittings included) leaves you with the payload that you can legally place in tug. The 79 Series wins this with an available payload of 1125 kgs just ahead of the BT-50 with 1096 kgs.

The ranking for vehicles At Max Tow Capacity is also easy to follow : Gross combined mass as per top comparison minus Tow capacity if reached ( the max weight that your tug is rated to tow) minus Gross vehicle mass remaining (reduced from comparison in top column) , minus the Kerb Mass (the same as top column same figures) leaves you with the reduced payload you can place in your tug. Once again, the 79 Series comes out on top with 1125 kgs still available whilst the Defender is a close second with 1078 kgs avaliable. The BT-50 is way behind now at only 396 kgs and the Colorado a long way last with only 57 kgs available!

The last comparison had me beat for a while until I was advised that the weight of passenger/s is calculated at 47 kgs each , but each passenger has an luggage allowance of 15 kgs (total of 62 kgs per passenger!!). I guess this makes allowances for children (or small adults?) So, to NOT use up your payload, get rid of the kids and their luggage!

In reading the comparisons in the last columns, they work on the max passengers plus the STANDARD fuel tank capacity/weight plus average ball weight of your loaded van (300 kgs seems heavy, but they do say it does not alter the rankings). The Defender tops the class with 412 kgs still available and the 79 Series a close second with still room for 403 kgs. 13 out of the 17 would be OVERLOADED by anything from 11 kgs (200 GXL) to 602 kgs (Colorado) and that is with only 5 passengers included.
So every time you add that extra bit of weight - bull bar, long ranView attachment 63511ge fuel tank, roof racks, light bars and winches, it will affect something. If you have only two persons and are not carrying passengers, you gain 186 kgs of extra capacity to cover some of your extras fitted. But when you add your OWN weight plus that of an adult passenger, most of us are going to eat up more load capacity by being over the 62 kgs EACH allowed for in the calculations.

This should make interesting reading for a lot of forum members with heavily loaded vans and tugs. But as the comparison sheet states:

DON'T KILL THE MESSENGER!!!..........Please

Hope this is useful to you. Cheers
 
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