Towing big 4wd's legally

[fatassgq]

Hi all,
Just wondering what the go is with people towing 4wd's mainly the big ones like 75/80 cruisers and gq gu patrols.

Is there any vehicles that can legally tow these kind of big trucks or do people just take the risk?

Must be quite a few that get towed or do people just take the risk with there offroad truck and drive it to comps/parks etc? rather than worry about towing?

Cheers
Brian

[Gwagensteve]

I believe that the maximum towing capacity as per ADR's for "passenger" vehicles is 3550kg. (Some Rover product, and F250s have this figure, even though Rangies used to have 4000kg, and F250's in other markets are rated for massive towing capacity)

Interestingly, I saw a hire car trailer a saw the other day- it had a "maximum payload rating" of 1200kg - not many of the Zuks in our club weigh under that!

[TuffRR]

Having had to tow the Rangie a few times ( ) i too noticed that the tandem trailers available from most servo's are only rated to 1.25t. I'd imagine the Rangie would be more than twice this. Luckily, I haven't had any issues yet. In fact, i reckon the more dangerous part is using the hand winch on the trailer to wind the car up the ramps, your head is directly in the line of the cable should it break and some i've seen have been in pretty bad condition!!!!!

[80UTE]

I towed my 80Ute to OBC last year with my TD 80 cruiser no probs trailer and Ute was up around the 3000kg and the cruiser fully loaded as well. The trailer had elec brakes on both axles and towed fine once the ute was in the right place. Sat on 100km/hr no prob's and averaged 5 km/ltr towing which i concidered excellant. Had some probs with trailer tyres and crap on the road.

Wally

[sierrajim]

www.american.com.au

[Wendle]

the major legal hassle here (NSW/ACT) is that the trailer and load can't weigh more than the tow vehicle, no matter what the manafacturer has rated the vehicle to tow. i don't know if other states are the same, but they probably are?

[Gwagensteve]

Jim, those high figures are with a 5th wheel, yes? with a "conventional" reciever you would be limited to teh rating of teh reciever

Specifications *Please note* The following specifications are a guide only, obtained from Chevrolet factory information. Please contact your local state vehicle registration office for correct towing restrictions.

I assume that this is why the factory F250/350 powerstroke is still limited to 3550kg here even though they rate them over 9000lbs inthe US.

[sierrajim]

Correct. 5th wheel due to the increased rating of the ball does give a higher tow rating. However there are heavier tow bars availabe for "tag-a-long" trailers.

2001 onwards 2500HD Chev can tow 4,500kg.

Didn't NSW change their regs about a year ago to match the other states?

[auto_eng]

It does not matter if you are towing fifth wheel or not, you can not tow over 4500 kg if your trailer is not fitted with air brakes.

It is for this reason that many of the US vehicle can be rated at well over this in the States but are not able to be rated over 4500 kg here. The US allows trailers to be certified to higher levels using electric brakes that we do. They also use a "V5" towbar test which is not as harsh as the Australian test. I have tested towbars that were rated to tow 5443 kg with a load distributing hitch in the US and it failed the Australian test when it got to the load required to certify it at 2500 kg here.

Some of the towing regulations are changing as our reglations make a lean toward the Eurpean regulations soon.

If you have an older vehicle, the max trailer weight is take as your tare mass x 1.5 as a general rule. Your tare mass is the weight of your vehicle with no passengers or load and only 10L of fuel.

Some of the F trucks were rated lower here because their diffs and transmissions were not the same as their US sister. The Australian delivered vehicles had diffs and trannies from Brazil that were to a lowere standard.

[fatassgq]

thanks for that auto_eng,

When you say

If you have an older vehicle, the max trailer weight is take as your tare mass x 1.5 as a general rule. Your tare mass is the weight of your vehicle with no passengers or load and only 10L of fuel.

What do you mean exactly? What years are we talking here?

For me specifically I am wondering what sort of vehicle would be able (legally) to tow a GQ or the like.

Cheers
Brian[/quote]

[turbo gu]

I thought NSW changed its tow rules to allow the manufactures limits be used. with gu patrols they all have different limits on maxium weights. only the 4.8petrol and 4.2td can tow the full 3500kg but you have to drop the gvm of the car. so to tow 3500kg you have to take 350kg off the the gvm of the truck.

[Gwagensteve]

GVM/GCM is an interesting one. Funny how when people are exceeding the GCM they are often over GVM int he first place!

I'm not even sure that many people would know where to find the GCM figure for their vehicle.

[Area54]

Most of the non-buggy event competitors drive their rigs to the event (in QLD anyway), towing their tyres and camper behind. Some do choose to drive to the event on the comp tyres, some of them have a tyre sponsor so it's easier. Beebee drives his Hilux to events and mixes it with the best of them, just changes tyres and doors before the event.

[MQ080]

Towed the MQ a coupe of times with the 79 using a servo trailer. I don't have great faith in them, but when your trucks busted and all you want to do is get home you tend to put up with an awful lot! Each time I’ve had to pump the trailer tyres up with the compressor from the MQ once it was loaded.

Anyway we all take our chances when we tow vehicles of similar or larger weight on the roads (in all states, as the laws are now uniform). In my opinion the only time your ever going to have issues is in the event of an accident and there is an investigation. The servos don't care what you carry, they're about making money. Highway Patrol aren't all that fussed unless it looks dangerous or you are being a Dudelux, because the fact is that people don't drive with car trailers if they can avoid it. And average Joe citizen is going to continue to do this... how else are we going to tow our rigs?

[murcod]

Just out of interest I saw an article on the new revised F250 (?) which was supposedly rated to tow around 7750kg!!

I don't know where that rating was valid for though.

[AussieCJ7]

If you have an older vehicle, the max trailer weight is take as your tare mass x 1.5 as a general rule. Your tare mass is the weight of your vehicle with no passengers or load and only 10L of fuel.

.

Does wheel base also come into the factor ?

My 90" wheelbase CJ7 would be a night mare with 2775KG behind it (1850kg *1.5)

[MQ080]

Just out of interest I saw an article on the new revised F250 (?) which was supposedly rated to tow around 7750kg!!

I don't know where that rating was valid for though.

7750kgs not really the issue (bit on the high side though) rather what it is rated by govenment regulations that count. We all know a Patrol could tow more than 750kgs unbraked but remember at some point someone needs to cover their backside

[hypo]

i was under the impressiont hat the tow vehicle had 2 be heavier than the vehicle being towed + trailer + 500kg...

i cant remember who told me this but yeah just thought id add it anyway

[Big Red Toy]

when i had to get trailered home from marysville i bent the ramps driving onto em, was only rated at 1.2t.
My shortie has a Hayman reece towbar with a plate saying its rated at 4500kg's and thats huge so go figure, the towbar itself has 12 bolts i think

My neighbour has access to a trailer which is an old showerblock with the shower removed and a flat deck and ramps, and they use to tow a 80 series on it, thats kinda funny to see.

When towing a 4B you need good brakes as they are very heavy

[ozy1]

well, this is all good info, but if all goes to plan, il still be trailoring my MQ behind my GQ to the nissan trials..........