Towing capacity T5 - something to consider

[Transporter]

Pics of my T5 towbar that has been engineer re enforced & certified to a 230kg ball weight:

Updates on our Dual cab

Had to have it done properly - we tow cars / trailers & wanted to ensure insurance coverage

Hi Guy,

Can you give us more details on your tow bar, like who made it? It could help to some T5ers.

[Peter Jones]

Pics of my T5 towbar that has been engineer re enforced & certified to a 230kg ball weight:

Had to have it done properly - we tow cars / trailers & wanted to ensure insurance coverage

I considered doing the same thing to the Bora but chose just to balance the trailer instead

You'd be doing more towing than me with a bigger variety of trailers so fully understand your reasons.

What was the work involved? For the Bora there would have been a huge amount of work to reinforce all the sheet metal in the back of the car as well as adding some poly air bags to the rear coils.

As it is I added additional pickup points to the towbar inside the rear bumper anyway.

I Imagine the T5 chassis rails would have made the task at least possible.

Nice choice of support vehicle by the way, I'm considering an Amarok next but I looked long and hard at the T4/5 before I finally went with the Bora.

[gldgti]

Ball weight....

I'm an engineer, I design stuff too, not just manage people. I also weld and build things out of steel on a weekly basis. I deal with, design and built steel products that carry oftentimes tens, and sometimes hundreds of tonnes under dynamic loading.

I have seen towbars that I wouldn't put more than a 100-200kg static load on (when driving that could easily triple or quadruple in an emergency). But a lot of towbars are, from an engineering perspective, very "strong".

The ball weight thing is less about towbar strength, and a lot more to do with stability, and the tow vehicles ability to take the extra weight so far behind the rear axle without causing damage or playing havoc with the suspension, brakes and steering.. And there's a whole other can of worms.... as the tow vehicle varies so much in weight, height, length, centre of gravity, spring rate, damping rate, not to mention the lever arms that everything is loaded on. Once again, the laws here are founded upon some rule of thumb guesses that roughly cover all bases in a very generalised way, and its for this reason that at no point can you automatically assess the actual safety of towing a particular trailer with a particular vehicle, based purely on whether the ball weight is 10% of the trailer mass.

I like vans for towing, especially the transporters. Engine all the way up the front, hard load carrying rear springs, rear axle close to the back of the vehicle all mean minimised impact from whatever ball load there is. Passenger vehicles are never as good.

[petenkaz]

Thanks for your input all, good to see some debate! Personally I think the T5 could pull twice the weight of the van, it is only 900 odd kgs, however as usual in the off chance that something may go wrong I don't want to take the chance...besides, the caravan place now know the capacity of the T5, and won't sell it to me anyways which is wierd for a salesman to make that call, most dodgy ones would count the money and leave it all up to me.
Just back from Tassie and saw Nissan x trails pulling heavier vans, they have a 150 kg towball rating...I know which I would much rather do it in! So back to my old camper trailer for now

[Guy_H]

Petenkatz,

the Towbar was modded & reinforced by Welcome to Truck and Bus Towbars Qld now part of the Aranda group - Laurie, the engineer really knows his stuff.

Now mine was a Hayman Reece.

The other day at QLD Raceway, I noticed Paul Stokell had a "new" T5 VAN (probably a 2007 model) - always curious, I checked out his towbar - it was "Trailboss" brand & there in plain sight is a sticker with 2500kg's & 250kg ball weight! I was astounded.

Anybody want to call Trailboss?

[Guy_H]

I considered doing the same thing to the Bora but chose just to balance the trailer instead

You'd be doing more towing than me with a bigger variety of trailers so fully understand your reasons.

What was the work involved? For the Bora there would have been a huge amount of work to reinforce all the sheet metal in the back of the car as well as adding some poly air bags to the rear coils.

As it is I added additional pickup points to the towbar inside the rear bumper anyway.

I Imagine the T5 chassis rails would have made the task at least possible.

Nice choice of support vehicle by the way, I'm considering an Amarok next but I looked long and hard at the T4/5 before I finally went with the Bora.

Thanks Peter, great support vehicle - everything locks up outa sight!

They reinforced the bar itself (3" cross member instead of 2" - welded not bolted) and some extra plates here and there. No work on the actual chassis rails as such.

[thevwbug]

Petenkatz,

the Towbar was modded & reinforced by Welcome to Truck and Bus Towbars Qld now part of the Aranda group - Laurie, the engineer really knows his stuff.

Now mine was a Hayman Reece.

The other day at QLD Raceway, I noticed Paul Stokell had a "new" T5 VAN (probably a 2007 model) - always curious, I checked out his towbar - it was "Trailboss" brand & there in plain sight is a sticker with 2500kg's & 250kg ball weight! I was astounded.

Anybody want to call Trailboss?

Trailboss is made my hayman and reece

[Wayne_Kers]

Upgrade

Pics of my T5 towbar that has been engineer re enforced & certified to a 230kg ball weight:

Updates on our Dual cab

Had to have it done properly - we tow cars / trailers & wanted to ensure insurance coverage

Hey Guy, I know this thread is old, but have seen you are still recently active on the forum.
Where abouts did you get the work done to upgrade the tow ball weight.
I want to buy one of the tow ball single motorcycle carriers.

Thanks
Josh

[Guest001]

Hey Guy, I know this thread is old, but have seen you are still recently active on the forum.
Where abouts did you get the work done to upgrade the tow ball weight.
I want to buy one of the tow ball single motorcycle carriers.

Thanks
Josh

Afaik The towball weight is set by the Vehicle Manufacturer and is stated in the vehicles manual It should NOT BE EXCEEDED as could void any claims that may have been caused by increasing it.
Here is an example
!n 1995 the 80 sreies Landcruisers had a tow eight limit of 2500kg and a stated ball weight In 1996 those weights were uprated to 3500and a higher ball weight
HOWEVER TOYOTA would not retrospectively uprate the 95 model even though they were basically the same vehicle.
Even Nissan Patrols have a sliding scale for ballweights depending on the loaded weight of the Patrol The more its loaded the less the allowable ball weight.

On reading this thread I would be very wary and I would never try and increase the Ballweight beyond the limit stated by the car maker.
To quote the ADR Rule
The vehicle is rated to tow either the limit set by the maker or the towbar WHICHEVER IS THE LESSER and the towball weight is that set by the manufacturer
My words but is what it means

So if vehicle is rated to 3500kg and Towbar is only rated to 2500kg You can only tow 2500kg

If Towbar is rated to 3500kg but vehicle is only 2500kg Same 2500kg towing

If Vehicle manufacturer stated 80kg towball weight Thats it.

Doesnt matter if your towbar has 300kg rated ball weight 80kg is all you can have legally.

Thats why Euro vehicles arent much good for towing here as the Euro vans are built differently and have lower ball weights as they are of lighter construction and locate kitchens and heavy stuff in middle of the van so arent heavy at either end and therefore have lighter towball weight

NIssan found out the hard way with Pathfinders a few years ago when towbars literally ripeid out the a**e of the cars because of too much weight on them.

So if you have a van with a 150kg ball weight and your car maker says limit is less than that you have the wrong thing on one end or the other

People will sell you an uprated towbar but are you game to try one knowing its not legal.

I wouldnt. I actually bought a Patrol limited to 2500kg and then bought a heavier van To be legal I would have had to tow it empty. Ha ha Cost me $23000 to upgrade to a 100Ser Cruiser with a 3500kg limit and a 350kg Ball limit

[4motionDC]

T5 ball weight upgrade

Hi Guy,
No luck finding Truck & Bus Towbars Qld as they appear to be permanently closed..
I’d love to find Laurie but again, no joy..
could you share any photos to show what was done to increase ball weight to 230kg?
many thanks
Chris
2009 T5 4motion dual cab

Pics of my T5 towbar that has been engineer re enforced & certified to a 230kg ball weight:

Updates on our Dual cab

Had to have it done properly - we tow cars / trailers & wanted to ensure insurance coverage