This over weight business and things breaking on utes these days !!.

Hoyks is spot on. The old unit-construction Holden and Ford utes weren't unbreakable.

The earlier model vehicles such as Mainlines and Inters and Chevs, with chassis' could take a pounding - but none of them ever did any real speed, until the HP race started with Holden Red motors, Valiants, and Ford V8's.

The brother and I had an EH 179 ute when they were new, and the heaviest load we ever carried in it, was 1-1/2 tons (1524kgs), in a set of bulldozer rippers.

But we only moved the rippers about 20 kms, and we couldn't go over about 50kmh, because the front end was so light, the ute was all over the road.
The rear axle was sitting solidly on the stop bumps, and I wouldn't be surprised if the rear axle ended up bent.

Before that episode, the brothers boss, (a bulldozing contractor), used to carry 4-1/2 tons (4570kgs) of clearing chain draped between his FB Holden ute and a tandem trailer!

His boss used to pump the 6.40x13 crossply tyres up to 65 psi to try and stop them from bulging! - but he only succeeded in splitting the rear rims!

This bloke also owned a KB1 (1 ton) International tray truck, which used to pull around a homebuilt caravan, which was built by a bloke working in the Midland Railway workshops - in his spare time!

The caravan had a frame made from 3/4" (19mm) waterpipe welded together, and it was clad with corrugated iron!
One day, they were shifting the van with the Inter, and the boss wheeled around a corner a bit fast - and the caravan fell on its side!

But - the funny part was, the road was so dusty, they didn't realise what had happened, until they'd dragged the 'van for nearly half a mile on its side!! LOL

However, the 'van construction was such, that no real harm was done - they merely went back and got the dozer, and tipped the 'van back on its wheels! - and off they went again! LOL

Try doing that with one todays caravans, and you'd end up with a pile of matchwood!

Cheers, Ron.

Stephen - I've still got one! - a fully original 1984 WB trayback 1-tonner in excellent condition, with a genuine 138,000kms on the clock!

The fools who have chopped them around, and cut them down into hotrods, with 350 Chevs, will regret it eventually!

What makes me cry though, is - I bought a yellow and black HJ Sandman ute, brand new, in 1975!

But I wore it out with hard work, and around 280,000 hard kms - and I turned it into a roo-shooting ute!! (insert head-banging icon here).

It went to the tip around 1995 - and how I wish now, that I'd looked after it!

Cheers, Ron.

Gday Ron. Coincidentally was talking about shaggin wagons oops panel vans to my daughter's bf a few months ago. Pretty rare that you'll see one anywhere these days. Still don't completely understand why they haven't made a comeback in Oz. Too ugly for our spoonfed youth perhaps or more likely it was an Aussie thing and the market simply isn't big enough?

Hi Bazooka

Yes in my younger days, I was once the owner of a new 1975 HJ Sandman Panel Van, with those very distinctive Sandman decals.

Being the 253 V8, it drank fuel like there was no tomorrow. It’s first long trip, was up the all dirt Stuart Highway to Ayers Rock and Alice Springs, when the only people that owned four wheel drives were farmers and station people.

I saw a restored one in Coober Pedy a few years ago, and it brought back many great memories.

If only I still owned it.......lol



Cheers


Stephen

I have an original 72 Belmont Panelvan my dad bought new, he has passed now but yrs ago in my 20s everyone told me to get rid of it and buy a faster flashier car.. i am so glad i didnt listen to them.

True, I don't think today's single cab utes break very often. It's all about speed and where the weight is sitting.

Macca - Spot on. And it's a problem that is largely peculiar to the Japanese brands of dual cab utes.

If you take a look at the dual cab "Yank tanks", you'll soon notice that they don't hesitate to make them lo-o-ong wheelbase - and on all of them, the rear axle is centred under the tub or tray.

The extra long wheelbase of the big Chevs, Fords and Dodges, is not conducive to parking or turning around sharp corners - but it has two major advantages - a smoother ride, and no fear of fractured rear chassis rail members.

Cheers, Ron.

Back in those Days Yes!, But so was everyone else in the same industry.



Tippers out on the road were way over weight out in some areas

There was a lot of breakages though.

It would still be the same today, only strict regulation and bigger fines quietened everything down a tad.

The same things need to be looked at in regard to the 4wd and caravan industry

better regulation of weights carried and towed.


Manufactures need to be more accountable on what their throwing out there

and what their advertising as far as towing and carrying capacities really are.


Cheers Axle.

In the bad old days of the 1970's, I had a farmer client tell me how he ordered 57 tonnes of fertiliser from CSBP.

He was expecting it to be delivered in 2 semi-tipper loads - but a Perth trucking company, notorious for overloading, delivered it in one load, on a tandem-tandem semi-tipper! (which is good for around 25 tonnes legally, at best!).

It was operators such as this that created major problems for everyone in the trucking industry - to the extent, that today, even being a few hundred kgs over with a heavy vehicle, will see you harshly penalised.

Cheers, Ron.

Hi Ron, Yes very true, I still have some contacts that run tippers and checking stations have them scared stiff !!...lol....it has to be that way though, to many on the road these days!.

Cheers.

I don't see anything wrong with that, they're just fitted with a tipper body like my Falcon ute

ARRG!!, the old EK steering!, near had to put a crowbar thru the wheel to get it to turn one way or the other...lol.


Cheers.

..

What about the "go faster" drum brakes of virtually all the GM and GMH vehicles of that era!
Put your foot on the brake, and you go faster! - that's if you could actually pull up in something resembling a straight line!!

Most times, one side would pull you so far off line, you'd be fighting the steering as well, trying to pull up!!
Of course, those dreadful, standard, cheap cross-ply tyres were little help, either!

Thank the Good Lord, someone in GM saw the light and introduced disc brakes on the HR Holdens.
I can still remember that wondrous feeling of stopping with amazing, straight-line ease, in our new HR with discs!

Cheers, Ron.