GU GVM upgrade

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Originally Posted by mudski

Yup. I have rung so many engineers lately its not funny. And pretty much every engineer has told me something different. I suppose its the way they interpret the rules to how they do their work. One even told me a 2inch lift needed to be engineered, and he then said, I guarantee it will fail. Lol. When I get some time I want to scour the ADR VSB14 again to find out more info.

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I have found exactly the same with people I have asked.

The only person I have spoken to that makes any sense, is consistant and when I look up what he has told me (among the confusing mess of rules and regulations) actually makes sense is Paul at Statewide 4X4. That is why I am trusting him to do my GVM upgrade. I'll let you know the results next week.

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Originally Posted by BillsGU

In "theory" your towball weight is a bit low. For proper stabillity you usually should have around 10% of the towed weight on the towball.

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In " theory " but only being 19ft , on tandem simplicity offroad suspension, it sits and tracks very solid behind the car , and has no need for sway or load leveling bars, it actually tows better then my old jayco swan , and jayco 16ft single axle poptop, the previous owner spent a lot of time and money on getting it right , and conviently he towed with the same set up gu 4.2tdi that i do

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This here is a very good read.
http://www.unsealed4x4.com.au/payload-gvm-need-know/

And also if you read the full issue, there is trailer download reductions explained. Not a bad read.

http://www.unsealed4x4.com.au/issue023/#21

Yep - it's good that a van "tows well" and you "don't even know it's there" and such, but it's when things go wrong that you need to ensure that your vehicle and van / trailer are well prepared. For instance under emergency braking or on wet slippery roads. That's when weights, brake set up, etc becomes critical.

As far as load levelers or sway bars are concerned, they are really named incorrectly and most people don't understand exactly what they do and how they do it. Yes they do level the load and they do help in keeping the towed vehicle from swaying - but they do this by transfering the load off the towball to in front of the rear axle.

If - for instance - you weiged your vehicle and trailer and calculated the ball weight with and without bars attached - you would find your ball weight is actually less with the bars. It is because this transfer of weight to in front of the rear axle that you get the advantage of stability and the fact that you are transfering weight closer to the front axle that you are getting a levelling effect.

IMHO bars are like an insurance policy, you may never actually need the advantage they produce - but it's certainly nice to have them when the processed food hits the fan.