Towing advice

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Blommy

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Hi Everyone,
New member tonight and have 2010 D40 ST. Am planning a 4 month road trip down east coast to Tassie and back through inland SA and NSW (mainly black top but some dirt) and have purchased 14 ft Expanda Outback which weighs 1600kg. My question is will I need to increase suspension through extra leaf springs? Have been towing Jayco Hawk outback at 1200kgs and all pretty flat. The local TJM guy says to avoid air bags. I don't really want to go down the WDH road. Any thoughts are much apreciated.
 
Welcome to the forum.

1600Kg should have a ball weight of around 160Kg. You can put an extra leaf in, or dual rate springs in, which is what I've done - unloaded it's not too bumpy, and when loaded, the extra leaves engage and carry the weight. It's quite good.

I'd stay away from airbags as well. Not because they're bad - for some circumstances they're good - but you lose flex and if you overload it or drive it poorly (example: hitting a causeway at high speed) you can you can end your trip really fast.

WDHs are good but limit the kind of terrain (even driveways) that you can go on. I've towed our 1.8T van with and without - it had cruisemaster suspension and seemed to prefer the WDH. Our new van (2.5T) behaves better without a WDH but when we're doing long distance highway hauls we generally keep the WDH employed. Not so much to "redistribute" the weight, but to take advantage of the additional stability it offers.

I think your biggest issue isn't going to be towball downforce, it's going to be sway. The Outback is a single-axle unit and it could get up a wiggle on you. That's where the manual control of the electric brakes helps - keep your foot on the gas and just gently apply a little braking force with the brake controller and the trailer will settle down.

If you're going to heavily load the tub, get the springs upgraded (either version, both will work but an extra leaf will cause the rear to be harsh on bumps - and dance around - when lightly loaded) and enjoy the trip.
 
Wow, What a great response Old Tony. Thankyou for your input. Probably won't load the tub too much. What are dual rate springs? Sorry but I am a newbie to this stuff.
 
Dual rate springs can be done in two ways. In leaf springs, only have some of the leaves engaged when lightly loaded, and when there's extra weight, the remaining leaves take up the load. In coil springs, the coils are wound at different (dual) or varying (progressive) pitches. Both types allow the spring to react differently to different loads.

Only two suppliers that I know of for the rear leaf springs: ARB with the Old Man Emu "Dakar" springs and Sax Suspension's triple action springs. I went the ARB path because at the time, Sax were having some major upheavals as a business and there were some concerns about their manufacturing and warranty. I believe those issues are over now, but personally I would still consider ARB because there's more support nationally for their product.
 
Thanks again Old Tony. I forgot to mention that the Expanda we purchased is brand new (hasn't been built yet - pick up Late August) and has independent suspension and AL-KO electronic stability control. I am presuming that will control the sway? If we don't load up the tub we might be OK without extra springs since the towball weight is only 160kg?? Thoughts??
 
I did 30k with a bit more weight than your van and the tub loaded with EFS comfort springs, with no problems at all. You should be fine with what you have it's not a heavy van. Long term it would be a good investment along with a good quality brake controller. Enjoy your travels.
 
A built-in ESC will do wonders for sway reduction.

Your tub is supposed to be able to carry 150Kg from factory. In practice, the factory springs are complete shite and will happily invert causing the tail end to sag badly. You'll one day upgrade to aftermarket suspension and wonder why you hadn't done it earlier (no matter which spring rate you choose).
 
That last comment just summed it up. I will look to get some sooner rather than later. Dual springs from old Man emu. What should i be looking at for price? Thanks again Old Tony for the advice.
 
I paid somewhere over $2K for mine, but that was with OME Nitrocharger Sports shocks as well, replacing front and back springs & shocks.

If I was to replace my shocks again, I'd take a serious look at Seldom Seen's range. They have some awesoe shocks with super-sized bores and external reservoirs. The advantage in larger bores and external reservoirs - they don't heat up as fast (they dissipate heat faster) so they become near unkillable.
 
I have been looking through the forum regarding towing and fuel economy. The eternal search for better fuel economy.
Like to thank "Old Tony" for his advice on the Liqui Moly Fuel System Cleaner/Conditioner advice. Put some through the Navara D40 and looks like I have gone down from 16LPHK to about 14LPHK not towing.
Old Tony - you mentioned that you tow in Overdrive some where in the forum. I have a 2008 D40 Auto. I have been towing approx 2 Ton in Drive with the Overdrive Button set to Off. I have always believed (rightly or wrongly) that towing in Overdrive would wreck the transmission. I would appreciate if you could find the time to expand on this as my fuel usage is probably around 20LPHK Plus
Also I found this article from a magazine extremely interesting. It covers max towing weight:
https://practicalmotoring.com.au/ca...rating-may-not-really-be-a-3500kg-tow-rating/
Thanks in advance
 
The article you've linked to discusses things more along the lines of the vehicle's legal capacities rather than its ability. A 2012 D22 (96kW) can pull 3T - just like a 2012 D40-550 (170kW). So while the vehicles might be ABLE to tow 3.5T, doing so might exceed the vehicle's gross combination mass (GCM) which makes it illegal.

As for towing in overdrive - your car won't engage the torque converter clutch unless it's in overdrive, so you'll be revving the engine higher AND losing revs to the fluid drive. That will result in higher fuel consumption.

Overdrive isn't anything really special except for being a slightly taller gear ratio. The automatic gearbox won't allow the strain to be too great - as personal experience has shown me, if your car starts to labour even a little in overdrive, it'll kick down a gear and save itself.

Where you CAN save the strain is in the really, really steep hill climbs. We went up Cunningham's Gap with a busted fluid couple on our radiator fan without overheating - because I'd pull the gearbox back to first and just let the car crawl up.
 

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