Towing vs. Being over gvm

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Originally Posted by Russrobe

Awning is going. There's 20kg. Hasn't been used once.

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I reckon that's the starting point. When you get back look what got used and what didn't. That doesn't necessarily mean you don't what didn't get used but you need think hard about why it should be taken next time. 40kg of spare parts sounds like a lot?

To me lightness is everything. It doesn't mean I still don't carry too much, but weight is what makes things break. I think keeping below GVM is a no-brainer. If you really must carry more than that a trailer is the only sensible option but it is going to limit, or at least modify, what you can do.

Of course it's easier said than done.

Cheers,
Jon

I think it's a combination of a few little things that will add up to get us atleast very close to gvm.

Spare parts that are heavy:

Wheel bearings × 2. 1 F 1 R (won't pack the rear from now on but the front hub assembly is definitely changeable roadside.)

1/2" socket set. Heavy.. i thought about removing the imperials but the D4 seems to use both =(

5l of oil.. 5kg(Maybe bring less next time?)

Sensors are all next to nothing...

Having everything required to do the wheel bearings including the 34mm i think it was socket. Adds a chunk of weight and you either take the lot or none of it i figured....

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Originally Posted by Russrobe

Tbh I'm only worried about it because of the amount of people complaining about towing and mentioning only having 300kg on the ball when our has about 500kg in the back haha.

Awning is going. There's 20kg. Hasn't been used once.

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We love our awning, but we have kids and venture to the beach regularly.

Can stay when not doing long trips i reckon Jeff.

Our tent has an awning which turns into a 2nd room and we use that for any place we're at for longer than 2 nights. It's great to be able to sit somewhere with no mossies at night. Or fly's during the day...

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Originally Posted by Russrobe

Awning is going. There's 20kg. Hasn't been used once.

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I'll be carrying a woven plastic fly sheet, a couple of poles and guy ropes.
This fits my other criteria of everything having at least two uses. The sheet can be used as a ground sheet also if required.

C

The awning on my D2 has to be the most useful item I carry, In fact they are that useful I actually have one each side of the truck.
As far as going over GVM (Overloading) goes I just don't do it, It is not that hard to tow a small trailer even down the beach and using a trailer to carry the excess weight saves a lot of unnecessary wear and tear/damage to the truck.

I was a bit shocked to say the least the other week when we weighed ours at the start of this trip.

We had weighed it a few weeks ago when we went to Corowa, she came in at 3120 + 1200, pretty sure I had full tanks, but not really loaded up with food. We did however have all our cast cooking stuff, extra poles, pegs and various other bits and pieces which all add up.

On this trip to SA, and I'm hoping one of the others will chime in here to clarify, we came in at 3500 + 1400,, and yet we didn't really appear to have that much. We'd stripped the van of all and sundry other than what we really needed. I was going to take the awning off the camper, as well as remove all poles, pegs, ropes etc, but decided to keep them for the Melrose setup, and then get Gav to bring them home for us from there. We kept them for the rest of the trip,, kind of wishing we hadn't, canvas etc is fairly weighty, but now that'll probably all go, and just replace it with an awning I guess for the car.
More research to do [bigwhistle]

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Russrobe

Our tent has an awning which turns into a 2nd room and we use that for any place we're at for longer than 2 nights. It's great to be able to sit somewhere with no mossies at night. Or fly's during the day...

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There's a big opportunity to lose weight. How much would that thing weigh - 20-25kgs? Move to a lightweight cuben fibre hiking tent. Two person tent weighs 450g. Sure you can't sit up during the day, but you can sleep at night knowing you'll be closer to GVM. [biggrin]

IMO - don't carry spare hubs for modern vehicles and don't carry spare brake pad sets (fit new ones before you go, not on the way) although a single old pad for each of the front and rear might be useful.
The D4 only uses metric sizes.

Easy fix , take what you can not absolutely do without , then halve it , problem solved !!! .