Geoff.

I'd be looking at your weight limits for towing. Drawabar and carrying in veh first.

IF you look at 95% of towing recommendations. here and elsewhere.
The MAX figure to tow behind ANY modern ute is 2.5ton....
Regardless of MFG's Paper figures..

Specially if it's a tray top. which are even lighter.

The Recommended. (BUT not legal yet) figure in this country for towing
any load. with any vehicle.
Is a Minimum of 10% LESS than your tow veh's weight.
No matter what size\weight scale they are.

Most try to keep it much more.
I bought a smaller lighter van. 1.85t
with a D-Max that goes over the scales at 2.5 to 2.7 ish ton loaded.

A 3 ton trailer Should have basically. (the only ones that weigh that much)
a Patrol or Toyota cruiser.
OR light truck or US Ute,

the above can\will slide a Tray UTE of your size. ALL over the road.
when things go wrong in any way.

IE Just hitting a corner too fast. Braking suddenly, swerving to miss a roo, etc etc.

Suspension.
Fit EFS Shockers all round. They don't blow seals on Corrugations.


Coilover front?.
Fit "progressive rate" coils on them. 1 rating up.

Torsion bar.. Ironman the better upgrade on them I reckon.

Coils rear. Progressive again. They have the soft starter section to negate the savageness of deep corrugations, with full strength for actual load after tat.
Gives a much softer ride on all roads too.

Leaf rears. STD are going to be "nasty". Regardless.

What a lot of serious travallers\Dirt riders do.
is put extended shackles on for lift. And\or, incorporate in leaf pack too.

Get a better quality Leaf pack with softer rating.
(Progressive again)
and fit Either AIR bags with PROPER chassis mountings. LOOONG.
or Ironman Half leaf springs that leave your soft rating at beginning. but take full load when you drop\bounce, that far. (I have them)
---------------

Unfortunately. You are one of those that has bought before asking.

Others on here will come in too.
The ones with that rig measurements will SAY it's ok. (IE Van heavier than tug)

Most others will say otherwise.

the Scalies (Highways) will put you right when they put you over the scales.

Whoops.

Have a gud won hey.

-- Edited by macka17 on Tuesday 7th of November 2017 10:27:19 AM

Aus-Kiwi wrote:

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Leaf springs are far too hard for Aust out back roads .

---

 Not so.

They simply need to be appropriately designed for the application.

 

Cheers,

Peter

Hi Geoff,

I have the sister vehicle to yours, a 2012 Isuzu Dmax, and replaced the suspension completely with Tough Dog components as supplied and fitted by Opposite Lock.

The system has been on four years now and no problems. I was very happy with the result after changing, the car was like chalk and cheese. It feels much safer and composed with the change and there is now clearance between the bump stops and the springs even with the van hitched on.
You will find you have leaf springs on the rear and coil overs shocks on the front. If you intend to keep the car for an extended period then a full swap over is a good idea, I will admit my ute is heavy as it has long range tank, canopy, rear drawers etc. Mine lifted about 70 mm in the back and 50 mm at the front
I would do it again in a heartbeat given how it changed the car.
For what it is worth, in my opinion I do not recommend bandaid part fix solutions....sometimes they don't work too well.....be prepared to spend the money on a decent reputable system.

Cheers AL

Gday...

 Boab, do you have another link to that article ?

edit: I did a search and found it via this link - https://www.4x4australia.com.au/reviews/1504/bent-utes

Although, the article refers to overloading utes rather than complete suspension upgrades.

Cheers - John

-- Edited by rockylizard on Tuesday 7th of November 2017 01:04:53 PM

Aus-Kiwi wrote:

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Yep thatâs why they are being changed . Actually so far just cut the two lower leafs shoterer . To give a supple ride . The air side just keeps ride height . Only 5 Lb .

---

 A good recipe for breaking leaves.

 

Cheers,

Peter

I have a 2013 Colorado dual cab tray, tows about 22ft 2.8t van which in my opinion with a loaded tug is really about max on the GCM but anyway I tossed the OE suspension and fitted a Blue Max set up front and rear and find it does a great job, I only have to medium set up which is more than enough for the front end as I only have a bar, no winch but possibly could have gone HD springs on the rear, the set up is good and provides a good ride empty or loaded and actually gives a better ride on the rougher stuff, done around 50,000K and all good.............Air bages are okay if used properly but aren't really needed with a good spring/shock set up plus the extra cost is lot for little............if you need to add bags you haven't got the right suspension set up or are well and truly overloaded.

Is a lot more cost effective than ARB etc as you aren't paying for a badge, after sales service is good as well.....bluemax.com.au

G'day Geoff. I have a 2012 Collie that now has 96K km on it. 11K km ago I replaced all the suspension with Dobinsons brand at my local TJM dealer. 50 mm lift and a constant 300 kg load.

The price was way better than all the others that I got from the main players.

I have towed a 1900 kg caravan and loaded ute - all up 5985 kg -  from Bundy to Perth. We are not tar babies, so did the dirty hard bits across NT and WA. This upgrade gave us a really good ride and the ute and van are level when hitched.  I have had airbags previously on another vehicle and I cannot recommend them.

I hope this helps with your decision.

Carrols springs know what they are doing . They fixed mine . As said mine was too firm to start with . The fix was much easier .

I reckon all caravans should be towed by old b61 macks, plenty of sticks to play with, tow a good load and look good with a pic on the old cooling vanes for the grill. couple of smiles here and a laugh my arse off
cheers
blaze
ps
scotch is good for the soul

geoff wood wrote:

---

i have a 2015 colorado dual cab with steel tray only done 30000 klms from new, i need to remove all suspension and replace with ?????????

i will be towing a 22ft caravan around Australia , the tray of the tug will have a constant load of 500kg 

the van weighs 3000kg fully loaded 

looking for suspension that will give 50 mm lift and be capable of handling   dirt corrugations 

can any one give me advice ??  i have been told to go old man emu coil springs with air bags  ??

i would appreciate any suggestions

regards geoff

---

 G'day Geoff,

hope all is well with you.

if you are considering an upgrade of the suspension in your Colorado you may want to consider talking to Lovells as you may be able to upgrade the GVM of your ute.

i see on their website that they do upgrade the Izuzu DMax so they may do a kit for the Colorado.

Most of the other suspension specialists cannot supply a GVM upgrade which will make you legal if you are close to the limits.

The Lovells upgrades are not cheap compared to other companies but they do all the necessary approvals and compliance plate to ensure a legal upgrade.

Hope this helps

Blaze . Yes your right . The chassis in my motorhome is the GM Workhorse truck . The original suspension is designed to carry double the weight it is now ., Where as Light Jap designed trucks made in Asia came from the other end of suspension loads where its set up to be perfect to drive around the block on pre purchase drive . Lol Well it seems that way ..

The old dayz wee usssed to buy F series, Land Cruiser or Patrols . Much much stronger chassis . Even though power levels are great in Tritons , Rodeo etc .

macka17 wrote:

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Hylife.

Don't forget the fuel. Tools. fridge. and everything else you carry in back when touring.
2 people and a tank of juice. ....

 

---

 I assumed that that had already been taken into account when the OP stated 500kg payload on the tray.

The law for many years now has required the car manufacturers stated kerb weight to be as it leaves the factory, wet not dry (ie, includes a full tank of fuel), and the permissible payload must be over and above the WET kerb weight.

Of course any post factory additions such as long range tanks, tow bars, bull bars, auxiliary batteries, a driver behind the wheel and SWIMBO in the passengers seat, van weight on the tow ball, etc, are all to be counted as part of the payload.

I always recommend you empty the vehicle of 'stuff', fill up the tank with go juice and head to the nearest council rubbish tip for a free weighbridge.

The free self service one on the Hume Hwy at Broadford https://goo.gl/maps/PSqisRnwMfy is so easy to use.

You just drive on and position your car so that it is on one platform and your van on another. The small gap between the two platforms should be rearward of the cars rear wheels but ahead of the tow ball. Now write down the weights you see on the large LED screens. Next, you wind down the jockey wheel so the caravan hitch detaches from the tow ball and write down the weights again.
Simple addition and subtraction gives you your tow ball weight and your combination weight.

You'd be surprised how much your rig really weighs.