16' Series Rear bumper mods - Jerry can holders

[MarkAW]

Hi

Has anyone mounted Jerry can holders on the back of an Outback Expander?

Did you need to reinforce the rear bar? Thinking of welding the below on.

I know i can mount on the front but getting a tool box made, moving the gas bottles forward and may mount the bikes ontop of the tool box. As such the towball weight will be too much.

Jerry cans on the back should help reduce the tool ball weight....as long as the rear bumper is strong enough?

Cheers

 

[Duncanblake36]

http://expandasdownunder.com/media/2016-10-05-16-54-50-jpg.187/

Found this photo from off this site.

I'm thinking of doing the same for when we go on our big trip.

I mounted two bazooka tubes on the underside of mine and the guy who had it before me extended the bar right out. I think if you keep in as close to the back as possible you should be fine but if your worried then weld some brackets but it may be overkill. I've jumped up and down on mine and hasn't budged.

Post some photos. I would be keen to see how you go.

 

[Marv_mart]

Is there still a question of legality re mounting fuel containers esp petrol JCs on the rear?
We put ours on the front and put the spare tyre from the front (was under the A frame) to the rear to balance the weight.

 

[Crusty181]

Hi

Has anyone mounted Jerry can holders on the back of an Outback Expander?

Did you need to reinforce the rear bar? Thinking of welding the below on.

I know i can mount on the front but getting a tool box made, moving the gas bottles forward and may mount the bikes ontop of the tool box. As such the towball weight will be too much.

Jerry cans on the back should help reduce the tool ball weight....as long as the rear bumper is strong enough?

Cheers
View attachment 56254

Take a pic of your rear bar, because they arent all he same. We have the spare (35kg) factory mounted on the standard rear bar without issue; I even managed to drop the rear of our 3 ton van onto the spare wheel which upset the wheel mount, but didnt bother the rear bar.


I have 2 of those holders mounted. They're welded sitting directly on top a flat surface around 50mm, and they have survived some prolonged beatings from corrugations etc. Being at the rear, yours will take more stress than mine on the front tho. I intentional mounted them on extended arms with some flex to help protect the welds by absorbing some of the vibration stress

 

[Tricky]

It's much better to mount them on the draw bar if at all possible. Risky to mount so much weight on the rear.

 

[Lap Dog]

There are also trailer brake light and number plate rules (in VS 1 I think) whereby they have to be visible from certain angles. I think it is 45 degrees. I looked at it and would have to mount the jerry cans (if upright) lower than than the departure angle afforded by the rear bumper. Would have had to reposition the number plate and light which seemed to much effort. Having said that I seen loads of vans that don't meet this spec.

Regarding weight positioning. Nb please don't rely upon the following as I am a novice and don't know what I am talking about ... but ... I didn't know my van well enough to make the call at that time but now find I suffer from excessive draw bar weight after mounting 2x bikes on the front with the spare wheel and gas bottles. I travel with the front water tank empty for this reason. 2x jerry cans weigh 40kgs a spare (mag) weighs just about that ( which many mount there) and there is no sloshing as with a water tank mounted right at the back). I understand that it shouldn't be necessarily be kg for kg front and back because there is a limit to that. So far I have mounted the jerry cans on the roof rack of the tug. I had a caravan repairer/fabricator tell me (after giving me a lecture on how important weight distribution was) to mount 4x bikes off the back of my van. ... I ran a mile!

I too would like to move the jerry cans to the rear bumper for accessibly. This would depend upon a low impact solution that I could test and if I wasn't happy with the feel of the van detach and go back to square one.

I have seen vans with nothing on the back swaying all over the road and ones with a generator, spare tyre and jerry cans tracking rock steady. Nobody on a forum will/should tell you that it's ok to mount weight off the back of your van .. the only person that can make that decision is you based on your set-up. Every kg on the back increases your risk. Is a relatively low mounted 40kg too much? It's better than a 100kgs.

 

[Lap Dog]

I had a copy of VSB1 and the angle visibility of number plates is not in there. It appears they are in state regulations . Here is a link to the NSW one. (nb this is so they can catch you with speed cameras so I assume this is typical for all states)

http://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/documents/roads/safety-rules/standards/vsi-58-number-plate-visibility.pdf

Relevant excerpt:

Requirements Clause 61(2)(b) of Schedule 2 of the Regulation requires that a number-plate is not obscured, defaced or otherwise not legible. Clause 61(2)(c) of Schedule 2 of the Regulation requires that a number-plate must be visible at a distance of 20 metres from it and within all the areas described by an arc extending at an angle 45° above the top of the number-plate and 45° forward of its edges. This is depicted on following pages 2 and 3 in Figure 1 for light vehicles, Figure 2 for trailers, Figure 3 for motorcycles and Figure 4 for heavy vehicles.