GCM for SWB SX

[PradoJim Member Find all posts View Profile Close PradoJim]

Sweetpea, I owe you an apology. I realised I may have missed your point and in fact your words had me reading the owner's manual at 4 am this morning.

I agree with you. A careful reading of the manual does shows that the only limitation is the reduction in GVM to 2575 and at that weight, by inference, you can tow the full 3000 kg. IE a combined mass of 5575 kg. Following the manual alone given that no other figures are supplied (except rear seat limitations), I couldn't be breaking the law.

However, I still have my problem. With the RMS citing a GCM of 5250, the maximum weight you can tow with the 3 door at GVM would be 2650 kg. This is the situation I'd be in with a couple of coppers scaling me at the side of the road. No way I could convince them to have a careful read of the owner's manual, they'd be pulling up the GCM on the computer and I'd have to fight it out in court.

Still looking for someone with a printout of the GCM on some sort of official paperwork, please. By the way, my suspension specialist has asked Toyota and as mentioned, they no longer have a clue so he's asked them to chase it up with Japan. He's also contacted Toyota in Saudi where they still sell the 3 door. In the latter case, the RMS will certainly not accept figures from another country when they won't even accept official weighbridge figures from another Australian state.

[sweetpea Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sweetpea]

Sweetpea, I owe you an apology. I realised I may have missed your point and in fact your words had me reading the owner's manual at 4 am this morning.

I agree with you. A careful reading of the manual does shows that the only limitation is the reduction in GVM to 2575 and at that weight, by inference, you can tow the full 3000 kg. IE a combined mass of 5575 kg. Following the manual alone given that no other figures are supplied (except rear seat limitations), I couldn't be breaking the law.

However, I still have my problem. With the RMS citing a GCM of 5250, the maximum weight you can tow with the 3 door at GVM would be 2650 kg (or 2635 kg with a WDH). This is the situation I'd be in with a couple of coppers scaling me at the side of the road. No way I could convince them to have a careful read of the owner's manual, they'd be pulling up the GCM on the computer and I'd have to fight it out in court.

Still looking for someone with a printout of the GCM on some sort of official paperwork, please. By the way, my suspension specialist has asked Toyota and as mentioned, they no longer have a clue so he's asked them to chase it up with Japan. He's also contacted Toyota in Saudi where they still sell the 3 door. In the latter case, the RMS will certainly not accept figures from another country when they won't even accept official weighbridge figures from another Australian state.

No problems. I struggled to explain it but we got there in the end.

Toyota UK still sell a 3-Door which can probably be imported under the new rules https://www.toyota.co.uk/car-configu...7-44f90ce521ee

This is the 3 Door brochure https://www.dropbox.com/s/p8183sqfxg...Saver.pdf?dl=0

which says the answer is on their website.

"(13) The GVM may be reduced when towing
at or near maximum capacity, please
refer to Toyota website for actual values."

I had a quick look on the wayback machine but didn't find it in the specs for 2010 ZR.

The archive is here https://web.archive.org/web/20100618...r-turbo-diesel

Just curious what you are towing?

S.

[PradoJim Member Find all posts View Profile Close PradoJim]

I'm towing a 19' van which weighs 2500 with all our gear in it or around 2700 with the water tanks full as well. It actually isn't a problem and the car towed it up from Melbourne quite well. The issue started when I asked my suspension guy about a GVM upgrade for the car.

The car's measured actual weight with all the gear on it (smart bar, winch, snorkel, upgraded suspension and 265/70R17 tyres) and a full tank of fuel is 2,160 kg. Add to that 225 kg towball weight (the minimum 9% Toyota mentions) plus 18kg of WDH plus two pax of around 160 kg and I'm already at 2,563 kg. Just 12 kg short of the WDH GVM of 2575. That's not even with the wife's hand bag in the car.

The 3 door can be upgraded to the same GVM as the 5 door as they have the same part numbers for load bearing components. However you lose towing. I discussed an upgrade to just 2,800 GVM with a reduction in tow capacity to 2,775. That extra 200 odd kg for the car would be fine and even with full watertanks, the van would be safely clear of the new max towing capacity.

That's when suspension guy dragged out his book and said that I can't even tow a 2,700 kg van with my current GVM because in combination, 5,300 kg, they exceeded the car's GCM which he had as 5,250. I told him that it can't be right and there were plenty of forums where people spoke about the 3 door's 5,600 GCM. He rang the RMS who were less than helpful but basically said "that's the figure we have (5250)" so unless you can prove otherwise, that's it.

There's my problem. I can just go all quiet and say that as far as I can see, according to the owner's manual, I can tow 3 tonne and my van is way under that. But I'm left with a car that, while legal, can't even carry the groceries if the van is attached.

PS I had the van at 2,600 at one point on the way home and the car towed it nicely at 90 kph, stable and it sat nice and level with the WDH.

[sweetpea Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sweetpea]

The car's measured actual weight with all the gear on it (smart bar, winch, snorkel, upgraded suspension and 265/70R17 tyres) and a full tank of fuel is 2,160 kg. Add to that 225 kg towball weight (the minimum 9%) Toyota mentions plus 18kg of WDH plus two pax of around 160 kg and I'm already at 2,563 kg. Just 12 kg short of the WDH GVM of 2575. That's not even with the wife's hand bag in the car.

As I said above, my SX is bog standard except for a second battery, Polyair bags in the back springs and a tow-bar.

When I put it over the free weigh bridge on the Hume at Broadford it showed 2220kg with 3/4 of a tank of fuel and my fat bum in the drivers seat.

If you only showed 2,160 kg with all your extras it seems I need to go on a diet. Bugga! Does anyone know how to do that or what the Toyota part number is?

I can only suggest you write a letter to Toyota and ask them to explicitly state the maximum allowable tow weight for a fully loaded SX.

They should be able to provide the answer in writing which would appease the RMS.

If they fail to provide the information I would consult with the NRMA technical advisory section and if they fail then lodge a complaint with the ACCC as I think they are obliged to supply parts and information for minimum time of possibly 10 years.

Good luck,

S.

[PradoJim Member Find all posts View Profile Close PradoJim]

Great minds and all.

First of all, you don't need to diet. That weight of 2160 has no driver or passenger, it was weighed with nobody in it.

Meanwhile, all the responses to this thread confirmed what I believed so I wrote to Toyota myself this morning. My suspension guy had already called them but has so far had no response.

Remarkably, they responded in a few hours via email with this. Now, just to convince the RMS. Thanks to all for your help:

Subject: Re: 2017-040059 - 2012 - PRADO T/D SX - GROSS COMBINATION MASS ENQUIRY [ ref:_00D30iWht._500a01Kqwpc:ref ]

Dear Wayne,

Thank you for your recent email received by the Toyota Guest Experience Centre.

I can confirm according to our internal information the Gross Combination Mass (GCM) is 5,575 kg's.

Thank you for contacting Toyota and allowing us the opportunity to respond.

Regards,

Frank
Guest Advisor
Guest Experience Centre
Toyota Australia
P 1800 TOYOTA (869 682)
E [email protected] | W www.toyota.com.au

[sweetpea Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sweetpea]

Excellent!!!

S.