How to bend a ute

[Cuppa]

http://www.4x4australia.com.au/drive/1504/bent-utes/

[Rock Trol]

On our Simpson trip in 2013 we saw a Navara D40 at Dalhousie springs with a bent chassis. It had been towing a hard floor camper with the longest draw bar I had ever seen. Not sure of the make.
This camper had 2 large boxes on the front (Tool + fridge) and then gas bottles. The wheels where near the back of this contraption so depending on what he had stored in there (generator? chainsaw? etc) the weight would have been on the rear of the ute. Not sure what he had in the tray either.

I think its good advice even though I have not followed it. By the time I had put all the bar work and drawers in the wagon my tare was up over 2.8 tons. :( Still don't know what I weighed when I left Adelaide fully loaded.

[Getaboutabit]

That's a good read No real surprises in it
Common sense is always best (although rare)
Best advise would be take what you need Load vehicle
properly with quality suspension and you should be fine

[macca]

Was thinking about air bags, might get the springs reset instead.

Liked the idea of adjustment in relation to the load. But not now LOL.

A mates patrol has the leaves assisted by air bags with no problems, we did talk about the load being put at the wrong part of the chassis which he is not worried about. Might send him the link so he is aware of the problems and why.

Thanks Cuppa

[Cuppa]

As I mentioned elsewhere the Patrol leafy cabs used as mine support vehicles in the Latrobe Valley initially used air bags as a means of carrying the constant heavy loads they are subjected to, but the local spring works won’t fit them any more because of the number of cracked chassis’ which resulted. When I was looking at what to do with mine I was strongly advised not to use airbags, in fact they told me they wouldn’t fit them & that if I insisted on having them I would have to get them fitted elsewhere - this from a place who could have supplied them.

[AB]

On our Simpson trip in 2013 we saw a Navara D40 at Dalhousie springs with a bent chassis. It had been towing a hard floor camper with the longest draw bar I had ever seen. Not sure of the make. This camper had 2 large boxes on the front (Tool + fridge) and then gas bottles. The wheels where near the back of this contraption so depending on what he had stored in there (generator? chainsaw? etc) the weight would have been on the rear of the ute. Not sure what he had in the tray either. I think its good advice even though I have not followed it. By the time I had put all the bar work and drawers in the wagon my tare was up over 2.8 tons. :( Still don't know what I weighed when I left Adelaide fully loaded. interesting you said that, we saw a gq with extended tray that broke the chassis playing around hard on big red heading to dalhousie...lol

[Winnie]

interesting you said that, we saw a gq with extended tray that broke the chassis playing around hard on big red heading to dalhousie...lol

That guy is from Warragul and it was a repair job that wasn't repaired so well... So it had happened before. Apparently he kept playing on big red even though he knew the chassis had split

[Stropp]

I remember that one :)

[macca]

There was a patrol in the workshop at Birdsville in 2008, the full length roof rack was covered in Gerry's and swags, the back was chockers and had 5 blokes in it.
The chassis had cracked and couldn't get it repaired in the Alice, so did the Simpson Crossing anyway.
The towbar was nearly on the ground, we spoke to one of the passengers and said it's a write off but the owner wanted to truck it home to Brisbane to salvage the mods.
From what we gathered the 5 of them were not talking to each other and were having trouble getting home from there.
Couldn't believe the whole thing, a sad story.

[Winnie]

Couldn't believe the whole thing, a sad story.

It gets less sad when you realise it could have been easily avoided though.

[macca]

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh94/maccas01/Hilux/SimpsonTrip757.jpg (http://s254.photobucket.com/user/maccas01/media/Hilux/SimpsonTrip757.jpg.html)[/IMG]
This is what we did on the same trip to our Hilux, why I sold it and bought a live axel vehicle!

[threedogs]

On our Simpson trip in 2013 we saw a Navara D40 at Dalhousie springs with a bent chassis. It had been towing a hard floor camper with the longest draw bar I had ever seen. Not sure of the make.
This camper had 2 large boxes on the front (Tool + fridge) and then gas bottles. The wheels where near the back of this contraption so depending on what he had stored in there (generator? chainsaw? etc) the weight would have been on the rear of the ute. Not sure what he had in the tray either.

I think its good advice even though I have not followed it. By the time I had put all the bar work and drawers in the wagon my tare was up over 2.8 tons. :( Still don't know what I weighed when I left Adelaide fully loaded.

A member here has one of those extra long draw bar campers, looks very weird
but in regards to the tow bar it was the long towing tongue they were referring to.
Makes you wonder how Jase and Simon from All for Adventure went with the dual cab 70s and Hilux.
They were well over weight

[Winnie]

A member here has one of those extra long draw bar campers, looks very weird
but in regards to the tow bar it was the long towing tongue they were referring to.
Makes you wonder how Jase and Simon from All for Adventure went with the dual cab 70s and Hilux.
They were well over weight

Is that the flip forward camper trailer, where it folds over the draw bar?

[threedogs]

Yeah thats what Im thinking , it just looks wrong not sure who had it mj350 maybe

[Winnie]

Huskyinauz has one, great camper though.

[threedogs]

Yeah thats right he only just brought it

[liftlid]

[/IMG] This is what we did on the same trip to our Hilux, why I sold it and bought a live axel vehicle!
We had to repair one of those on the Madigan line, also saw 2 others at my dare

[megatexture]

Air bellows are fine when used as a "helper" at like 40 psi to the ton but when idiots see a 100 psi max they put in 99psi,changing the bulk of the load location.
They need to explain the proper use and consequence of them better when purchased. I've had them in 3 cars over 6 years and have had them over loaded up to 400kg and never had an with issue with them though I did strip a ring and pinion going up a hill but that's another story!

[macca]

http://atecoequipment.com.au/atecoproduct/supersprings/

Has any one had experience or an opinion on these SuperSprings

[megatexture]

Looks like the rancho add a leaf kit but I can't help sorry

[threedogs]

http://atecoequipment.com.au/atecoproduct/supersprings/

Has any one had experience or an opinion on these SuperSprings

They are just helper springs , if you search a bit harder you'll find some that are adjustable

[threedogs]

Was at TJM this morning and asked what the guys from All 4 Adventure broke
apparently the chassis's were fully gussetted before they took off , preperation at its best
That was on both 4x4s

[TPC]

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh94/maccas01/Hilux/SimpsonTrip757.jpg (http://s254.photobucket.com/user/maccas01/media/Hilux/SimpsonTrip757.jpg.html)[/IMG]
This is what we did on the same trip to our Hilux, why I sold it and bought a live axel vehicle!

Very common, this was my mates hilux from Simpson 2012.
He drove back to Leigh creek like this, was not a comfortable drive.

57047

[threedogs]

Very common, this was my mates hilux from Simpson 2012.
He drove back to Leigh creek like this, was not a comfortable drive.

57047

Wow exactely the same except the colour

[macca]

We drove from west of Wanaaring to Dubbo with ours collapsed, frightening drive of about 600k. The other one let go at Dunedoo on the level crossing on the way home.
Surprised in the 4 years from our mishap that a solution had not been found, the Amorok has a much better design.
Was told the workshop at Birdsville kept a supply of Hilux struts as it was such a common breakage.

[threedogs]

Yeah Barnsey know his stuff thats for sure , most common 4x4 to break down
in the Simmo was the Disco, dust getting into the computer, I used to see Brad Newham a bit ,,,,
years ago after he sold to Barnsey

[TPC]

We drove from west of Wanaaring to Dubbo with ours collapsed, frightening drive of about 600k. The other one let go at Dunedoo on the level crossing on the way home.
Surprised in the 4 years from our mishap that a solution had not been found, the Amorok has a much better design.
Was told the workshop at Birdsville kept a supply of Hilux struts as it was such a common breakage.

We checked at Birdsville and they had run out, they had a big run on them.