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Post by arewelost on Nov 4, 2024 22:37:27 GMT 10
I spotted this one on the road today. I have seen worse, but I discovered that this is all by design from the factory. Sorry for the poor image. It is from my dashcam through a drizzle soaked windscreen coupled with motion blur.
Those 2 spare wheels (mud terrain of course) and 2 spare water containers are not just attached to the back, but with probably over 300mm gap from the back of the van. Two bikes as well.
On the drawbar was a huge toolbox and 2 x 9kg LPG bottles. A child's ride-on toy was on top of the obviously full toolbox. So there is probably 150kg at each of the front and back extremeties to act as lovely pendulums. At least the tow vehicle was a pretty capable Nissan Patrol.
That gap between the back of the van and those wheels etc piqued my interest to look online for this model. The whole assembly at the back is ex factory, including the metal baskets for the 2 x 20L jerrycans, as is the huge toolbox on the front. Putting all that weight at the back is bad enough, but the gap between the back panel and the wheels makes it worse, and encourages owners to put even more stuff there. Van Tare is 2950kg. Check the heavy brackets too.
As an aside, here is a snapshot from their promotional video. I know it's just a setup fail, but look at the nose down attitude.
Surely they could have levelled it for the video. It has non load sharing suspension. And the electrics cable hanging an inch from the ground, no doubt scraping on every bump. Great attention to detail. Occupants of a car running into the back of it would get a mighty close view of those wheels.
Their video talks about the benefits of the cutaway at the back ..... to allow steep creek crossings etc. Errr, did they notice the spare wheels would be in the way?
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Post by yobarr on Nov 5, 2024 8:35:36 GMT 10
Thanks Steve, for posting this information. This bloody monstrosity would be almost a joke for most caravanners, with all that weight fore and aft, and is an accident seriously looking for a place to happen.
This is more a van for posers with no real understanding of weights and dynamics, and no great desire to seriously go off grid, as evidenced by the small solar system and and small battery.
There are few vehicles that could safely tow this van, and I would be reluctant to tow it even with the 79, despite the car's long wheelbase, short TBO, and the car having over 10% more weight on its wheels than the weight on the van wheels.
The suspension system, as you say, is independent but not load sharing so the van must be level when travelling, with lower tyre pressures on the front axle than on the rear axle.
Because of its swing-arms, this suspension promotes axle steer, which a major cause of vans going RSup.
Although I haven't yet watched the full video that I sourced for this van, there is the option of a DO45 tow hitch, so perhaps higher ATMs, up to 4500kg, are available to suit those people with Ram 2500s, Silverado 2500s, F250s and light trucks?
If so, this could be a great van despite the short comings you've pointed out.
However, the subject van has a tare of 2950kg so there are serious doubts that it would weigh less than 3500kg when loaded for travel, and anybody even half considering towing it with an LC200 or any of the popular twin-cab utes, or any of the other "3500kg tow capacity" pretenders would do well to first have a reality check.
"Dreamers" is a polite way of describing such delusional individuals.
Mr Kerrs brother,Wayne, is another.
The more I look at your photos the more I'm hurting my neck from shaking my head, so I'll leave this until I've done more research.
Suffice to say that the purchase price is higher than the price of a comfortable house in a typical WA country town.
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Post by peter57 on Nov 5, 2024 18:28:16 GMT 10
You see quite a few of these exact same vans around Albany and Walpole and, believe or not the dozen or so I've seen have all been towed by small twin cab ute's and two of those had a dinghy on top of the tow vehicle. Nutters.
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