towing with LC200

I have used polyairs on 3 vehicles and they are a good solution if your weight varies. New springs are a good solution if you have constant weight.

OBT

A Outbacktourer said polyairs are excellent. We used them on our 80 Series. We also put them on our Troopy and we will no doubt out them on our new Prado.

Bruce

Hi first thing what is the ATM of your van? with a ball weight of 350 KG you would be on your limit I would say, so the ATM may be well over 3.5 tonne.
LC 200 is probably 3500 KG rated, this is always a problem when sorting out your van etc.
Towing a van on most of our so called HWY is bull bleep , the conditions of most is bloody atrocious, I only tow a van of 1700 KGs and find it sometime very stressful, so I am thinking it is time to go back to a camper trailer.

Hi. My brother has the same set up as you with a 75l aux tank. He has polyair bags fitted and the van sits quite level. If you look at your ball weight, draw weight,Aux tank and spare wheel you are up around the 600kg max load recomended by Toyota so you can't really blame them. My brothers ball weight was 420kg for a while till he weighed it and was shocked. He redistributed water tanks and tool box on the van which brought it down around 300kg. As I said, with the Polyairs it now sits pretty level. Regards,Bob

What may I ask is a 'easylift WDC'

Just another question here.

There are two references to added aux fuel tanks of different capacities in this thread, both being approx 100% in excess of the aux fuel tank Mr Toyota supplies.

Soooooo! are the aforementioned two aux tanks over and above additions to the OEM aux tank, or are they in place of same.

I have towed a van upto 4 ton with a LC 200. (not anymore however changed vehicles)

No you no longer can just take the standard LC200 and use it for towing a large van. It is something of a street vehicle these days so you will need accessories.

The other advise given is good but the first thing I would do is get some airbags. Either polyair or firestone. I have had both but prefer firestone. Then re-assess the towing and if not happy look at adding something else. Maybe stronger springs as well.

You did not say if you had a Haymen Reece ride level kit either.

CLBL068
Those advertised towing weights are the maximum possible in ideal conditions. Conditions are not just road conditions though, there is a hell of a lot more involved and all have to be taken into consideration.

First of all, as Toyocrusa said, the maximum carrying capacity of your car is about 600 kg. That includes everything that has been added to it after it left the assembly line. In your case that would be the weight of all occupants, the tow bar, the weight on the tow ball, the contents of the standard fuel tank, the extra tank and its fuel, your drawer system and its contents and anything else. All of that has to be deducted from the maximum carrying capacity of the car. When you add it all up, there is a fair chance you are way overloaded.
This is where you have to start working things out to see what you can and can't do.

My Toyota handbook says the ball weight on my particular model should be between 5 and 10% of the total weight of whatever you are towing. Yours may be the same. This means if the towing capacity of your car is 3500kg and your van weighs in at that weight fully loaded, Toyota says the car will perform ok with 175 kg on the ball. That alone will make a huge difference providing the van has been designed to work at that weight. If its manufacturer says it should be 10%, or 350 kg, the car is still ok but the other weight in it will have to be reduced.

If on the other hand if you wanted to tow a 3500kg boat for example with two 100 kg people in the car and nothing else, you would be fine even with up to 350 on the tow ball.

If you have the right combination with everything within factory limits, it will work. You can't just load it up with five people, maximum tow ball weight and lots of accessories, as many people do, and expect it to work.

Be careful if you add air bags. They lift the car ok and make it sit flat but they don't increase its carrying capacity. You still have a standard chassis, axle housing, wheel studs, wheel bearings and wheels holding up all of that extra weight. Anyone who has ever worked in an outback repair centre will tell you they have lost count of the number of cracked chassis and broken axle housings that they have seen. Have a look in the vehicle and trailer breakdowns section in the photo gallery on the Mt Dare Hotel website and you will see what I mean.

The adding of Airbags ONLY LIFTS WHAT IS ABOVE THEM.

They do not and CANNOT in any way compensate for the weight lifted off the front axle by the weight on the towball.

A WDH is the only way of restoring your rig to somewhere near its original axle loadings.
I see you say you have a WDC is that the same as a WDH

If you have as much as you say you have probably exceeded your rear axle loading on the Cruiser as well.

Mr Toyota bulids a vehicle to certain specifications and then people load them up way beyond what is sensible and then moan about it.

Think about what you have put in it with full drawers extra fuel etc and then stuck 350kg on the back Unreal. About ???? 350kg 350 is the legal MAXIMUM

Also if your vans weight is reflective of the towball weight you have possibly exceeded the GCVM as well.

Happy days with the insurance company if anything goes wrong and can be attributed to the weight factor.

Its not just load her up and away we go a bit of common sense and thought should go into it

Have seen lots of 200's towing big vans in the past year and not seen any dragging their tails significantly so would suggest there is a load problem rather than a vehicle shortcoming here.

A set of progressive springs as I have on my 100 may help.

We learned the hard way about paying attention to the payload numbers.
We had an 80 series with all the accessories (bull bar, winch, draw system, extra tank, dual wheel carrier etc etc). It had upgraded suspension capable of taking the weight and even polyairs in the back because we towed a camper trailer. And a mighty V8 diesel engine to pull everything along.
But moving states we found it hard to register because it didn't leave that much payload left for gear and passengers, our kids were young so we were withing the limit and we didn't load anything into the back apart from what was in the draws already and the fridge already in there. But there just wasn't enough payload left to keep the rego people satisfied. Not just that though like others have mentioned you have potential insurance issues should you be in an accident.
Also don't forget about the brakes too having to stop all that weight, we had to do a brake test as well which it passed but only just (not sure which state that was in, we moved several times!).

Anyhow hopefully you can sort your issues out without looking at either a new vehicle or a new van!

This is not entirely true.

1. Our 200 Series has a Lovells GVM upgrade to 3800kg. This is signed off by an approved Engineer. The appropriate Compliance Plate is affixed to the vehicle. The NSW RTA has endorsed this modification and it is referenced on Registration documents. Our Insurance company has been advise and have accepted the modification. The Engineers Certificate must be carried in the vehicle at all times.

2. Our 200 Series has an upgraded Towing Capacity to 3850kg. This is signed off by an Approved Engineer. As with the GVM upgrade, an appropriate Compliance Plate has been fitted, the RTA have been notified, the Registration documents duly acknowledge the modifications and the Insurance company has been notified and accepted the modifications. A copy of the Engineers Certificate must be carried in the vehicle at all times.

The Towball Mass has been set at 420kg. Assuming this Towball Mass, the GCM of vehicle and Caravan (in our case) is 3800 + 3430kg = 7230kg.

3. We have also upgraded the ATM of our caravan from 3500kg to 4320kg. Once again the modifications are approved by an approved Engineer etc, etc. We are limited to towing up to 3850kg.

May I suggest that there are options available which will improve the overall performance and safety of the 200 Series as a towing vehicle.

I hope this helps.

Regards, Jack

I am also running the Lone Ranger 70 litre auxilliary tank on my LC 200 TD Sahara. I found installation of airbags (Firestone) was a huge improvement on the stock standard for towing.

I also found another huge improvement by changing my coils and dampers to an ARB heavy duty setup. It is not a particularly cheap solution - but I haven't regretted doing it. It has also enabled me to get a legal GVM upgrade to 3580 kg on the back of ARB's engineer's design.

I tow a Kimberley Karavan which is about 250kg down weight and take this off road. I originally towed a Kimberley Kamper - and the stock standard suspension just didn't cut it towing that either (about 150kg weight).

The stock standard vehicle just doesn't cut it for towing. It doesn't mean that it isn't a good towing vehicle when modified. There are some great upgrades for the LC200 now - it wasn't the case when they were first released.

Good luck with it all.