A View on Australian Towing Laws

[weeds]

The exact same vehicle with the '96 release was 250kg!!!

What max. Towing on the tojo?


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[Steffo1]

What max. Towing on the tojo?


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Braked capacity 3500 kg.

[Fizzie]

Not related to Oz Towing Laws I know, but just saw this: https://www.motor1.com/news/178276/whipping-trailer-toss-ford-excursion/, & thought I'd share

They did speculate that it was due to overload, too much weight too far back & too fast, so seems like a good place to post it!

What got me though (keep watching after the truckie gets out) was the other cars just driving past, 20 seconds after it's all happened

[KeithB]

A similar Sprinter Select caravan I looked up has a tare weight of 3027kg with a cargo weight of 1,267kg. The unladen ball weight is 303kg.
The 2019 Ford Explorer seems to have a maximum towing weight of 2,268kg and a maximum ball weight with a WDH of 227kg.
So the entire rig was overloaded before the groceries went in. Then we have God knows how much weight stored down the rear end of the caravan, probably to stop the bum sagging on the tow.
He was passing a semi doing around 110kph. No wonder the tail wanted to wag the dog.
Keith

[Bigfish]

A similar Sprinter Select caravan I looked up has a tare weight of 3027kg with a cargo weight of 1,267kg. The unladen ball weight is 303kg.
The 2019 Ford Explorer seems to have a maximum towing weight of 2,268kg and a maximum ball weight with a WDH of 227kg.
So the entire rig was overloaded before the groceries went in. Then we have God knows how much weight stored down the rear end of the caravan, probably to stop the bum sagging on the tow.
He was passing a semi doing around 110kph. No wonder the tail wanted to wag the dog.
Keith

The turbulence would have been terrific.    Just another reason I,ll never own a wobbly box.  Hope the poor buggers got out of it alright.

[Fizzie]

A similar Sprinter Select caravan I looked up has a tare weight of 3027kg with a cargo weight of 1,267kg. The unladen ball weight is 303kg.
The 2019 Ford Explorer seems to have a maximum towing weight of 2,268kg and a maximum ball weight with a WDH of 227kg.
So the entire rig was overloaded before the groceries went in. Then we have God knows how much weight stored down the rear end of the caravan, probably to stop the bum sagging on the tow.
He was passing a semi doing around 110kph. No wonder the tail wanted to wag the dog.
Keith

Thanks for those figures Keith - so it would appear he was 800kg over before putting anything inside!!! 

& pausing the video as they passed the semi, it looks like they've got a washing machine (& other stuff) hanging off the back!!!

Hope the poor buggers got out of it alright.

The article did say that apparently everyone was OK

But they were definitely lucky in more ways than one - if it had been about 20 sec's earlier, there looked to be about a 50' drop at the side of the road ...

[Rumpig]

choose the right rig to suit what you tow and towing a van isn't a big deal, especially if the van is set up correctly.....i overtook plenty of trucks and cars without issue with me sitting on 110kph on our recent trip away....choose a vehicle not suitable to towing the van you have and set the van up with big tail weights and that video shows what will happen. There's plenty of people in this country towing big vans with medium sized vehicles, it's a disater waiting to happen IMO.

[jclures]

Watching the video the truck was already doing 68mph (109kph) I doubt I would want to overtake, towing a van at that speed.

[moeite]

Watching the video the truck was already doing 68mph (109kph) I doubt I would want to overtake, towing a van at that speed.

Me either.
The mindset seems to be - it's bigger so therefore it's slower so therefore I MUST overtake it. I see this sort of behaviour a LOT and it really irritates me that they bust a gut to overtake on a blind bend over a crest with double lines and then promptly slow down as soon as the pull in front of the overtaken vehicle....grrrr....

[GBC]

More a function of craptacular trailer building than tow vehicle. It got out of control all by itself going through the bow wave of air off the truck. The tow car was completely stable for the first couple of oscillations. It would take a pretty long wheelbase tow vehicle to pull that thing back straight.

[Paddler Ed]

A similar Sprinter Select caravan I looked up has a tare weight of 3027kg with a cargo weight of 1,267kg. The unladen ball weight is 303kg.
The 2019 Ford Explorer seems to have a maximum towing weight of 2,268kg and a maximum ball weight with a WDH of 227kg.
So the entire rig was overloaded before the groceries went in. Then we have God knows how much weight stored down the rear end of the caravan, probably to stop the bum sagging on the tow.
He was passing a semi doing around 110kph. No wonder the tail wanted to wag the dog.
Keith

It's (supposed to be) a Ford Excursion, not an Explorer, but I think it's a Ford Expedition - so it's a wagon version of a Ford F150, and has a towing limit of upto 9,000lbs (or just under 4,500kg)
Page 28 in here; https://www.ford.com/cmslibs/content/dam/brand_ford/en_us/brand/resources/general/pdf/brochures/17RV&TT_Ford_Expedition_Sep7.pdf

I would say also add in the down hill run, and the cutting as problems, as that can cause all manner of problems with wind.

[hardroad]

I bet the first thing they said was "it was towing beautifully and was very stable before this happened!"

[Bird]

..

[prodigyrf]

Well we've got a rare local one towing 2.5T if that's a 19'6"Kingdom Kensington as he realises there's a car coming and he tries to turn in too quick but the van's having none of that and it all goes pear shaped from there-
https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/south-australian-couple-survive-caravan-rollover-caught-on-video/news-story/cd0161d09e04ffa23dc7758910b70890
Pretty good McHitch or similar as the car rolls and can't lose the van.  He simply got it wrong thinking he had enough space ahead to overtake and then panicked but given he knows he has to get back in his lane pronto there's no thought of hitting the brake manual boost button to straighten up 

[GBC]

Same high front van style with no cutaway, bow wave off the truck hits it and the rot sets in. That van didn't look to have a bad wheel base with not too much rear overhang but the double pendulum still kicked pretty hard. I'd be interested to know where the weight was and what the tyre pressures were.

[Bird]

This ad just popped up on google.. wonder how much on top ...

With a market leading GVM upgrade of up to 4495 KG these DMW XT200 is the perfect vehicle for tourer or work.