Which twincab ute?

justcruisin01 · Guru

Which twincab ute?

keithintassie · Veteran Member

G'day folks,

We are coming to the end of our 4 month road trip and due to heading South it's now getting a tad cooler (bugger).

When we return we are having a look at a smaller fifth wheeler with a view to purchase which brings me to the reason for my question.

If we wanted to purchase a new (or near new) twincab diesel powered ute with auto transmission . . . . . which one is the best for the job? During our travels we've seen plenty of all of the brands (Toyota, Nissan, Misubishi, Isuzu and Great Wall) leaving us confused.

Your help and comments are appreciated.

Sol · Senior Member

If I was buying one I would buy an Isuzu Dmax.

Cheers
Sol

copper1 · Guru

Isuzu Dmax or Holden Colorado, I just traded our 2010, 3.0ltr turbo diesel Colorado, with the Isuzu motor, and our Coromal in for a Land Cruiser and Royal Flair Van, after we got back in June, as we had a great time and decided the time was right to do so now, I'm not sure about the new Colorado, 2.8ltr and they reckon they will pull 3.500kg?? I am sceptical, I would probably go with the Dmax and the trusted Isuzu name or the 2010/11 Colorado with the Isuzu motor good luck in your research and search smile

ozjohn · Guru

copper1 wrote:
Isuzu Dmax or Holden Colorado, I just traded our 2010, 3.0ltr turbo diesel Colorado, with the Isuzu motor, and our Coromal in for a Land Cruiser and Royal Flair Van, after we got back in June, as we had a great time and decided the time was right to do so now, I'm not sure about the new Colorado, 2.8ltr and they reckon they will pull 3.500kg?? I am sceptical, I would probably go with the Dmax and the trusted Isuzu name or the 2010/11 Colorado with the Isuzu motor good luck in your research and search

Mate,
While on the surface they may look similar and share some components including the D-max chassis the Colorado's 2.8 Duramax motor with 470Nm of torque far surpasses that offered my the Dmax and makes the Colorado a real winner for towing.
But I agree with your sentiment about towing 3.5T. Many manufacturers state what weight their vehicles tow, and most will do as claimed, but should they?
OJ

GaryKelly · Guru

What's the bet you end up more confused than you are now, Keith?

freehazzas · Senior Member

We looked at all those for our new fifth wheeler and went for the new Iveco. Will never be over weight and heaps of room in the back for bikes ect that you dont have with the utes. Very easy to drive around town too. Some auto utes are not recomended to tow fifth wheelers, and that comes from a fifth wheeler imp. The most common we have seen out of those with fifths on them is the nissen.
A short bed ute will also cost you more to set up to tow with as you will need a slider hitch which is more exp than a standard hitch, otherwise you dont have enough room to turn the rig and can take out your cab.

freehazzas · Senior Member

Here is a good site to help you calculate what you can tow with what. Fifth wheelers are diff than normal vans, you can tow more weight if its a fifth wheel.

www.5thwheelers.com.au/towing.html

freehazzas · Senior Member

Heres another.

www.cutlooserv.com.au/tow-vehicles-tow-mass-guide.php

justcruisin01 · Guru

freehazzas wrote:
We looked at all those for our new fifth wheeler and went for the new Iveco. Will never be over weight and heaps of room in the back for bikes ect that you dont have with the utes. Very easy to drive around town too. Some auto utes are not recomended to tow fifth wheelers, and that comes from a fifth wheeler imp. The most common we have seen out of those with fifths on them is the nissen.
A short bed ute will also cost you more to set up to tow with as you will need a slider hitch which is more exp than a standard hitch, otherwise you dont have enough room to turn the rig and can take out your cab.

We dont have the fifth wheeler but did but the Iveco as not to be overloaded, & yes they do drive like a car.

freehazzas · Senior Member

We love ours, esp the air ride seats and electric seat warmers. Great for icy mornings. We just love the space. We got the dual cab extended wheel base. Its so big inside i can stand up and walk from the front seat into the back seats. Carries two bikes, boat and fold up boat trailer as well as rig. We also had a 100 lt water tank fitted to the underneath for camping. Cant do that with a smaller ute. Room for another on the other side under tray if needed. Only had our a month.

rosco532 · Senior Member

We have just been through this exercise as well and decided that the Ford won hands down (close to the Isuzu)........Weirdest thing though......We drove a Toyota Land Cruiser home..

I think it really came down to what you could get for your $$$$ and what was going to last the distance pulling a 3 ton van...

Cheers

Andrea · Senior Member

freehazzas wrote:
<snip>
A short bed ute will also cost you more to set up to tow with as you will need a slider hitch which is more exp than a standard hitch, otherwise you dont have enough room to turn the rig and can take out your cab.

While you could be right about the Iveco, freehazzas, we use a Mazda BT-50 flat-bed (Freestyle 2008) to pull our 7.7 m Southern Cross 5th-wheeler for the last 4-and-a-half years (94,000 km, about half of that with the van). The Mazda was simple to set up with a three-inch ball. It's very easy to hitch and unhitch - I've done it on my own now several times.

But we would love to upgrade to the newer BT-50, which has a bit more 'grunt'......(sigh - dream on!)

Good luck, Keithintassie!

Andrea

-- Edited by Andrea on Wednesday 7th of August 2013 01:33:09 PM

freehazzas · Senior Member

Sounds like its doing the job Andrea. Unfortunatley not many fifth wheelers use the ball hitch. Pitty as it would be a lot cheaper to set up and easier to fit and have in the tray. Maybe its a weight or stabalizer thing? Not sure. The BTs do look nice, but so do the rangers, they just couldnt pull the weight we have to tow.

We have met many fifth wheeler people towing over weight with the utes as they have no idea how to calculate how much they are alowed to tow when it comes to fifth wheelers. Its all fine untill you have an insurence claim, then you find out your not covered with a nissen pulling 4 tonne fifth wheeler. Oopppsss.

-- Edited by freehazzas on Wednesday 7th of August 2013 11:55:09 AM

justcruisin01 · Guru

this posted twice for some reason

JC

-- Edited by justcruisin01 on Wednesday 7th of August 2013 08:27:18 PM

Andrea · Senior Member

You're right there, freehazzas; we checked ours a couple of years ago when in WA, found we were a couple of hundred kg over. It's not easy to offload enough, either, when it's your only home. hmm

I think the Ranger is about the same as the BT-50; ours has a GCM of 5.5 tonne, the van weighting 2.7 tonne, so not a lot of leeway, and the van was built FOR the Mazda. We never travel with full water tanks, and are continually dispensing with 'stuff'; we recently bought a beaut portable scanner, a hand-held bar, which means I can scan any info from magazines, etc. that we want to keep - camping sites, recipes, etc. - and pass on the magazines; they'er actually quite heavy, too!

The newer BT-50 does have a greater GCM - I think it's about 6.5 tonne but would have to check.

Cheers -

Andrea

freehazzas · Senior Member

Yep i hear you on weights. We decided on a tray with low sides, about 12 inches high so we can carry more in the truck and less in the rig. The truck can take 2 tonne on the back which means the more we can put on there the less weight in the fifth wheeler. So we now have boat, boat motor, trailer and two bikes on the truck. The boat was always on the patrol roof, but we had bikes and trailer in the van, as well as motor, so its works well now. We can put 500kgs of stuff in the rig, but its amazing how that creaps up on you, so any doubt and we throw more in the back of the truck and put it under the rig floor when we arrive. Lol always a way around things.

justcruisin01 · Guru

freehazzas wrote:
We love ours, esp the air ride seats and electric seat warmers. Great for icy mornings. We just love the space. We got the dual cab extended wheel base. Its so big inside i can stand up and walk from the front seat into the back Only had our a month.

Same deal, had it three weeks & still setting it all up, will have a canopy with boat on top, enough tray left to house the outboard & trailer, caravan behind.I had the tray buit with a 150mm deep x3.3mtrs long storage section under tray between the chassis rails to store long objects.

JC

freehazzas · Senior Member

Hey JC we will be able to pick each other out in a crowd. Lol new ivecos with boats on top.
We had to get a special rack made for the roof to holdnthe boat as no room in the tray. Its 3 m but have to allow room for fifth wheeler, so over cab it goes and extends over the tray. Still working on it. Ours is white with all crome or polished tray, bullbar and boat rack.
Did you go for standard wheel base or extended? We got the extended dual cab one and shortened the tray which is normally over 4 m. Make it a bit easier to park in town.

freehazzas · Senior Member

We used the section under neath to fit extra 100 lt water tanks. No running out of water for a while camping. The long fishing rods ect are in tubes either side of the roof rack.

justcruisin01 · Guru

This is the standard wheel base, dual cab, polished alloy b/bar, 3,3mtr alloy tray.

The canopy is being built at the moment, 2.4long & cab height, doors either side. the remaining tray will house standard boat trailer, ( rear half ) & the pole will go in the under storage area. I cut the trailer in half & made it joinable with a couple of pins, done this many years back & used to carry it on my camper trailer.

I will be building the boat loader for top of canopy, & mounting points for the trailer & outboard on the remaining tray.

Currently in the middle of building the lifting systen for the trailer & outboard, 20hp 4stroke. Boat is a 3.99mtr.

Lots of work so very busy.

JC.

freehazzas · Senior Member

Neat. Cant be without those boats now can we. I would be lost without the fishing when we are at the coast.