Re:Add-ons and GVM

We have a '21 Jimny and have been adding the usual range of accessories for bush travels, these include an Ironman Bullbar, 6000lb Carbon Winch, Towbar, 80l Longranger tank, full suspension upgrade with a 60mm lift from Tough Dog, Rhino Rack alloy roof tray with a 270 awning, front hitch points, rock sliders and a couple of light weight internal trays etc, kind of all the usual stuff. A recent trip to our local tip and I was in shock when we sat on the weighbridge, with my wife beside me (65kg) I'm 86kg and we were reading 1568kg, 133kg over GVM!

Now I need to do some double checks and a special trip to confirm the weights, but this scared the crap out of me as if we were in a accident due to some third party idiot, our insurance would most likely love to kiss us goodbye without a GVM upgrade.

Has anyone else experienced similar issues and how did you go about fixing it? I'm estimating we need a GVM upgrade to around 1800kg to be safe once we have some camping goodies and maybe a small trailer hitched. I've spoken to a couple of Certifiers but they have not got back to me with anything concrete for a path forward, also waiting to hear from Tough Dog on the suspension specs. Getting the impression people are running for cover!

ToughDog and Ironman will do a post rego gvm upgrade (in Australia) if you want to keep all that weight.
I mean a stock Jimny with 4 blokes will go over gvm.

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The question is, and I often ask it, how much of the extras do you actually even use? I get that in Australia especially there's a real chance of hitting a large wild animal and a bull bar is an insurance against that but if you only leave the city once a year the odds are definitely against ever needing to test it and the same thing applies to all the other kit, if you are living out of the car in remote areas for extended periods you will need the kit. It's a matter of need over want. I need tyres, I want 35 inch tall mud ones but I have the factory ones because they do what I actually ask of them 99.9% of the time instead of compromising the car for a 0.1% edge case.

Take the kerb weight from the gross vehicle weight and you have 300 kg to play with. Subtract 2 adults, in this case 151 kg and you have 149 kg left. Remove the extra fuel, 40 litres which is another 31 kg and that leaves 118 kg.
Whatever you do, the ultimate answer is that a Gen.4 Jimny is not suitable for what you want to do. Yes, a number of members go camping, but we do not have bush trails that can cross a continent and require a lot of extras to keep you provisioned for weeks at a time. In the UK, you are never more than a few hours from fuel, water and food.

Roger

We're into Gems and Opal so the kit we have on our little beast is very much justified as we can often end up in rugged country. We did a trip to Lightning Ridge a couple of weeks ago and one stretch on Tarmac had no fuel servos for 277km, in other areas one can do 500km with out a fuel stop. No... all the kit is there for a reason and we haven't added the Maxtrax yet or the roof ladder.

Also over here there are lot of dumb caravaners who have no concept of loading, overloading and GVMs so the authorities are regularly doing random roadside checks. Depending on the time or year there is a high chance of being nabbed and put off the road. Overloading is a big issue in Aus now. You only have to look at some of the Youtube vids on caravan accidents to understand why the authorities are finally cracking down,

I think the little beast is more than capable, jut got to make her legal!

Have you considered a small trailer? It adds a huge amount of useful load capacity (1,300kg towing capacity so around 1000kg extra carrying capacity, depending on the trailer and local laws) and, correctly chosen, will have very little impact on the car's abilities. I have an 8x4 trailer behind my Jimny approximately 50% of the time.

I like the idea of the trailer but it does not negate the overweight status of the jimny. You need a list of your extras, with the weights, and then you remove those items that can be replaced with mobile units that fit in the trailer. For instance, a hand operated Tirfor winch or similar will save probably 40kg and if the bull bar is for kangaroos remember that the bar might survive a roo hit but will the Jimnies chassis? All that energy has to be dissipated somewhere.
If you want to be legal, then you must be ruthless in your pruning.

Roger

From my limited understanding of the Australian rules doesn't an increase in gvm come out of the train weight so if you increase the weight of the car it corresponds to an equal reduction in the tow capacity? I would also suggest in your circumstances the roof system is likely the first thing to go as the roof capacity is only 30kg and most systems are most of that without anything on them.

The Ironman upgrade increases GVM from 1435kg to 1785kg.

Roger

wrote:

 if the bull bar is for kangaroos remember that the bar might survive a roo hit but will the Jimnies chassis? All that energy has to be dissipated somewhere.

 

I don't know if you've ever had the opportunity to take a close look at the construction of an ARB bar, but, they are designed with "crush cans", steel sections with accordion style pleated sections engineered to absorb the impact rather than pass it through to the vehicle frame - the intent is that the bar is considered "sacrificial" and replaceable, the vehicle is expected to survive.

ARB product is generally quite pricey, but in my experience you get your money's worth, yes, I can go to a local shop and have them cut & weld something together that at a glance will look like an ARB bar, but, I can guarantee you, it won't be as robust or have the same features, a lot of engineering design goes into the product.

Sorry to be pedantic but Dihusky says that he fitted an Ironman bullbar. Either way, a bullbar is very heavy and my point about excess weight created by add-ons is still valid.

Roger

The brand doesn't really matter - for an Australian manufacturer to sell the product it has to meet specific ADRs and in this case the ADRs relate to the force being transmitted to the vehicle frame for the purpose of airbag triggering.

Ironman bars will, like the ARB bars, be designed to progressively collapse rather than simply transfer the impact. As far as weight goes, I'm not certain on the Ironman bar, but for the ARB it's under 40kg.

I have the ARB figures because that would be my choice I can go hunt down the ironman spec if that would make a difference.