I finally did it - stressful day!

[Cuppa]

What are the differences in weight and strength between an aluminum and steel tray?

If an ally tray could cope with the load on its back then I'd bet there are a few kgs to be saved there.

Hi TimE,
No tray, just the all aluminium canopy bolted directly on to the chassis.

Cuppa

[macca]

Pre our long winter trip this year I put mine over the scales today, put 80kg of cement instead of food and beer type drinks plus another engel has to go in as well, but all liquids full, all camping gear in and me in the drivers seat it came to 1540KG front (load capacity 1530) and 2420KG rear ( load capacity 2240) total 3960KG ( total load capacity 3770) over loaded by 190KG, pretty happy with that.
The back sits 35mm lower and the front 15mm lower from wher I started on Saturday, ther was a fiar bit of wieght allready there as its attached all the time.
Some spares have to be added so does the passenger but all up it will be OK without doing any more spring work.

Cuppa I got those weights from the placard in the glove box, you are starting to look a lot better if you use those figures.

Those figures are for the stock suspension, mine is not engineered for a GVM Upgrade, but with the better King springs and Tough Dog Big bore shocks fitted I am not concerened about the actual GVM being over.

[Cuppa]

Macca,
Probably explains why my 2" lift sat a fair bit lower than your 2" lift as you were half empty at the time.
I guess the glovebox figures are what Nissan reckons are the safe, rather than legal weights?
Bloke at the spring works reckoned it was easy enough to make the vehicle capable of carrying extra weight safely, regardless of GVM upgrade or not.

Cuppa

[macca]

Forgot to add the GVM on the Australian compliance plate riveted to the fire wall does say 3400KG as you have been refering to.
My ute was basically "empty" compared to yours at Xmas so the rear clearances would have looked different, I remember measuring the front and they were very similar just the back was lower on yours but is was packed with your camping gear.

[macca]

Eptied the pod of all the stuff not bolted in and went over the scales again, with the fuel tanks full it was bang on 3400kg.

Well that has just knackered the trip I can go but nothing else.

[threedogs]

Now it becomes abit of a safety issue, eg brakes need to pull you up.
hope you dont need to go to Mine spec rear coils, I take it both Macca and Cuppa are coil rear.
For load carrying you cant beat leaf, but sacrifice comfort big time, so how to solve this problem?
What does an empty pod weigh, 200kg?? I dont know. Straight off theres 200kg and you added nothing
and being conservitive at 200kg. Add a decent tool box some water theres another 100kg, still havn't left yet.
personally cant see how you can do it without a GVM up grade.

DX 3lt ute can carry 1300kg what about the DX 4.2

Old wals weighs in at 5100kg so dont feel bad.
I thought it would be much heavier.

Oh yeah I told you so
Now we need to take the Cupmobile to "JENNYS"

[macca]

"personally cant see how you can do it without a GVM up grade."

Prsonally cant see me doing it with an Upgrade, just going to load it up and go enjoy myself.

Both our utes are leaf rear

[threedogs]

Bump, Re the red dot
Great idea that everything I pack I make sure has dual uses if not three.
eg a plastic tub for storage can also be used as a basin to wash dishes.
As Kallen said write up whats on it now , and together we may be able to get you down to legal.
Plus a rough idea of where you intend going, some here may have done these trips before.
lets go,,,,,,,,,,,,fingers poised waiting

Haven't you just done a dummy run ???plus you dont want to spend 2hrs every day packing up to get going

[Cuppa]

Eptied the pod of all the stuff not bolted in and went over the scales again, with the fuel tanks full it was bang on 3400kg.

Strewth Macca, that surprises me. I looked at yours & thought to myself what a top job you had done in terms of keeping the weight down. It just *looked* lightweight. Your pod is smaller, your rooftop tent is smaller, your 'kitchen' is pretty lightweight. I take it your water tank was empty when you weighed it again? You must have heavy air inside your Pod!
It doesn't help either of us, but it kinda makes me feel better knowing that as a 'first timer' I'm not *that* much heavier than your good self.

TD, re 'safety issue'. Don't think this is really an issue. The legal GVM upgrade is suspension 'upgrade' (actually probably very little difference to what Macca or I already have other than using products from an 'approved' company). No mention of brakes needing to be upgraded (I asked & was told no), but tyres do have to have a minimum load & speed rating (mine are ok). The bloke at the Springworks was quite confident that it was 'easy' to set up the patrols to safely carry more weight, harder though to get the GVM upgraded. It is this process using the lovells kit & a local engineer familiar with these kits on the 3 litre models that hopefully makes the upgrade possible. The 5 year warranty, & the fact that I'll have a spare set of OME shocks helps a bit. Might even be able to sell the OME front coils & rear leaves.


Cuppa

[threedogs]

At least its not a 200s yota , you fart in them and you exceed GVM lol

Still a lot of weight to pull up in a hurry.
How did Telstra get around it????

@ Macca think I'd do the same, just go eh