Thread: Rear shocks - D4 - 3 tonne van

Originally Posted by Pedro_The_Swift

What suspension is under your Bushtracker?

Simplicity dual wheel load sharing suspension. Quite impressive the articulation and sits very stable on the road.
I overtook several jayco's on my way home with it from dubbo to adelaide

Originally Posted by Discodougie

I have a 2012 tdv6 with an off-roader weighing in at 3.2t loaded and 260kg on the ball. All up have done 150,000 and about 50,000 towing the van around Oz without any problems. Just remember to get your auto serviced.

Yeah, def have that on the cards at 70-80k
I think I am just paying far too much attention to the way the rear handles bumps... I think suspension is a fairly personal thing, I just need to pay a little less attention...
It just doesn't feel as rock solid as previous live axle and independent coil 4wd's I've towed with, but I suppose air suspension is always going to feel a tad different.
Have yet to tow with the 4wd loaded etc too, so need to get away for a few short trips to really test it out.

The engine/trans/stability when towing are ridiculously good...

Originally Posted by Discodougie

Is that TR Spares in Adelaide? Don’t be upsold!

Ha, yeah they actually said don't spend anything... but I here you.
They sure are better than the dealers though...

Originally Posted by GeoffH

Based on my own experience, for such a large van, you need to get the Caravan's drawbar as neutral on the D4 as possible.

I've recently completed a 1.5 year trip around Australia with my family using our 2015 TDV6 D4 tug, towing a 3.5T Kimberley T3 dual axle off-road variable suspension van - not unlike your Bush Tracker in physical size & weight.

We ended up moving to instal a Mitch hitch male-mount on the D4 in replace of the standard LR hitch mount (which is far too low for such a heavy & large van) and throughout the whole trip, we never had one issue with towing, stability, dampening, swaying or pitching. We did the Gibb River Rd, Birdsville Track and several other explorer tracks on our trip ...all without a single problem. The key to effortless towing with such a large and heavy van is to ensure you align the height of the van's draw bar to as equal (or near too) of that of your D4's hitching position as possible. This is why the MitchHitch (Mitchell Bros, Brookvale, Sydney) D4 hitching solution worked so well as it's fixing pint & alignment raises the hitch point equal to your rear bumper bar - almost equivalent to your BushT, & in our case, our Kimberley.

The rear dampening issues & pitching you mention is almost certainly caused by your "ball weight" and the angle of the drawbar attached. The standard LR 4 hitching point was purposefully designed as low as it is for the main (not sole) purpose of towing horse trailers and floats. If you have ever towed one of these trailers, then you would know they are (typically) much lower to the ground to allow horses to get on & off the trailer much easier - therefore the lower hitching point on the vehicle.

This design however did not put to much consideration into towing a large & heavy caravan with large wheels & off-roads tyres - hence the downward angle of your draw bar. Equal this all up and your D4 will have a new lease of life when towing. Good Luck...

Hey Geoff, thanks for the thoughts, sounds like you had an amazing trip.
I think you might be right, D4 does not need as much nose weight as maybe a traditional 4wd, but let's face it Bushtracker know their stuff and they are very firm on nose heavy being the safest option in the event of an emergency manoeuvre. It The 5-10% nose weight is a pretty widely accepted rule.
I will definitely try removing the spare wheels and emptying front water tanks and see what it does.
Bushtracker are strongly opposed to rear mounted spares due to pendulum effect, but our is a short van, I think it will be fine and is worth consideration.

Re hitch height, I have now got it sitting pretty level, could probably go up another 40mm.
At the moment it is setup with the do35 hitch underslung, standard LR receiver in the upside down position.
I will get another receiver hitch made up with 40mm more lift and the van will be dead level.
I am putting a hold on any larger spending until I am sure this will work, i.e. mitch hitch vs what I have now is really only a clearance issue, the drawdar is at (or will be) the right height.

There are a few bushtracker owners in adelaide with D4's I think, so I will touch base with them too.

Thanks again for all the thoughts.

Originally Posted by JamesAdelaide

The 5-10% nose weight is a pretty widely accepted rule.

There is a huge difference between 5% and 10% of 3.5T on the coupling and therefore rear springs and shocks.

Hi James - glad to hear you found it useful.

The BushTracker are great vans and these types of high clearance off-road vans require a little more thinking (which you are doing which is the right thing to do) to align and hitch them properly to any 4x4 and especially the D4.

We initially had similar load & weight issues with our 3.5T Kimberley when we first took delivery of it. Getting the draw bar much higher (@150mm) and aligned solved most of the ball weight, pitching and braking issues. As you probably know, getting as much as the movable in-van weight over the vans rear axles as possible, will also help as we'll as finding the right tyre pressures for your set up. Balancing water in your various tanks can also help.

In terms of the D4 hitch point, we replaced our standard D4 with a Mitchell Bros 4x4 version.

I have attached a photo I took of our's today which is now 2.5 years old and proudly sporting powder coating flakes and chips from the amount of off-road towing we've done over the past two years. You'll first notice how high this unit sits on the vehicle and with a van like your (& ours), makes the whole hitching, unhitching and towing experience at lot more pleasurable and safer. There are other solutions - even imitations, but i can recommend this one and bumped into other D3/4 users of them on our various outback trips. The power coating could be better, but that is more about aesthetics than function.

Anyway, perhaps something else to consider if you cant find the right solution for your BT in Adelaide.

Cheers, Geoff

Originally Posted by JamesAdelaide

They sure are better than the dealers though...

You need to build a better relationship with the dealer then!

I get better pricing from the dealer!

Originally Posted by Discodougie

I have a 2012 tdv6 with an off-roader weighing in at 3.2t loaded and 260kg on the ball. All up have done 150,000 and about 50,000 towing the van around Oz without any problems. Just remember to get your auto serviced.

Thanks for your reply Discodougie - that's really good to know and gives me peace of mind knowing it shouldnt be a problem towing a weighty off road van for the big lap in 6 weeks time....cant wait!

Originally Posted by Tombie

You need to build a better relationship with the dealer then!

I get better pricing from the dealer!

So you get a service for $450 from solitaire in adelaide? Sorry but I doubt it...
The senior guys at TRS know way more than solitaire guys about the D4.

Originally Posted by JamesAdelaide

So you get a service for $450 from solitaire in adelaide? Sorry but I doubt it...
The senior guys at TRS know way more than solitaire guys about the D4.

If that is what you choose to believe.