Saturday, May 26, 2018 at 21:28
My Prado came from the dealer fitted with OEM bull bar and winch. When I put it on a weigh
bridge the front axle was already over the max loading with two occupants in the car,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
That is common with many cars. If the bull bar and winch was fitted on Toyota's assembly line then the car would have had heavier springs installed at the front and most likely a few other alterations to the
suspension to cater for the additional weight and change in its handling characteristics.
About a month ago I read a review on a soon to be released Hilux 4x4 that I think will be called a "Rugged". It has a factory fitted bull bar and stiffer front springs to cater for the additional weight which is not only on the front but is hanging about half a metre in front of the centre line of the wheels. The leverage would have added even more weight to the front
suspension.
That is normal procedure for car makers. They don't just throw an extra 80 to 100 kilos on the front and leave it at that. If you go back to the days when factory fitted air conditioning was an option, you would find front springs listed in the dealer's parts book for cars that rolled off the assembly line with air and a different part number spring for those without it.
If the dealer installed the air conditioning kit, the car would not have the stiffer springs. This is what happens when you get a dealer or aftermarket company to fit a bull bar and winch. I know because I have installed both bull bars and air conditioning kits while working for new car dealers in my younger days.
The
suspension has not been designed for these accessories and the front end will most likely be over its maximum axle capacity.
That additional weight on your front end that took it over its maximum capacity would have also caused the increase in understeer that you noticed. You can't alter anything on a car without affecting something else.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
The other main issue I see these days is car and van manufactures putting vehicles on the road that have little carrying capacity that are targeted to those they know will be loading them up, some of these vehicles are already overloaded with just full tanks and bums on seats,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
There is only so much carrying capacity that can go into cars like Prados, Landcruisers etc. unless you build them like mini trucks with dual rear wheels and a very hard
suspension. Sales would fall through the floor if they did that.
The big mistake so many people make is they don't understand that a car like my single cab ute has its main load carrying area out the back in the tray while station wagon or SUV designs have their maximum load carrying area in the seats.
Look at the average weight of people these days.
WEIGHT Add winter clothes and it would be up over 90 kilos for men and many are
well above that. That is what car designers in this country have to contend with. They can't design the seats and weight distribution to cater for people the size of jockeys and no more.
This means all the popular five
seat.cars like Prados and dual cab utes need over 450 kilos on the seats if the owner wants to load the car to its GVM. If you back off with
seat weight and load up the rear end or tow ball, the car is going to be outside its design limits and sagging badly at the rear.
The aftermarket loves this and has a product to fix everything. Unfortunately when you alter the original
suspension design, you gain something and loose something. The car can easily have some very undesirably handling traits that may not show up until it gets into an emergency situation and that could end in disaster if the driver can't handle it. .
By the way, when I had my single cab ute up to its maximum capacity, it did have a full load in the front. My wife and I weigh around the same weight and combined we are 150 kgs. Inside the cabin with us both behind and under the
seat is a large recovery kit,. fire extinguisher, jack plate,
UHF radio, an old but updated and heavy Barret 250
HF radio, a few
tools including a tension wrench and some tyre inflating items to go with the ARB compressor under the bonnet. Then there is her handbag! It has no bull bar.
That would have taken the cabin load up to its maximum of around 200 kgs .
FollowupID:
891422