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Hi PPers,
My first shot at this so hope there is some one out there with some ideas.
Having made the plunge with the 2008 vX prado to tow the van around Aussie I've just returned from the first excursion through the Territory. Despite pushing the load to the limit the Prado handled the van well and while 18.3 l/100km initially seemed daunting a check on a weighbridge showing a total weight of 5.4tonne made me feel a bit better!
Now to the real problem. Fishing the top end without a tinnie proved to be frustrating or expensive ($96/ half day to hire a baby tinnie) so when I spotted a 3.7 m quintrex with a new 15 HP Suzuki on a good little trailer fro $2K I snapped it up with the view to putting the tinnie on top and the outboard in the back. For some reason I had in the back of my head that the Prado could handle 120kg on the roof so after loooking at every alternative (and realising that manually loading a 70kg tinnie on the roof might become a retirement nightmare) I decided to get a self loader. A model called the Tinnie Tosser made in southern Queensland appeared to be the answer but on ringing the manufacturer he informed me that the Prado in fact could only handle 80Kg on the roof and as his loader/rack weighed around 35-40kg (depending on whether it had its own winch motor) I would be well over the limit with my 70kg tinnie.
So I have several questions for the experts or those that may have already got their tinnie on the Prado roof:
1. How critical is the 80kg limit. It doesn't seem a lot and I'm wondering if its a limit set because of the roof's structural strength to take the weight or whether its related to the risk of making the vehicle top heavy or whether its related to the roof rails and their attachment points and risks of them tearing away????
2. If the self loader and the Tinnie (lets say 105kg) is well beyond the Prado's capabilities what is my best option if in fact I have one at all?
3. If I mounted three 1.05m cross bars (the tinnie's beam is 1.015m) to the Prado rails - firstly how do I mount them. The Rhino rack bars are much shorter and are fitted by a clamp mechanism that is tightened by a screw system accessed through the end of the bar. With considerably longer bars this might be difficult. And secondly I'm still left with the bigger problem of the roof rails ending some distance from the back of the roof meaning that I need some low weight solution of having a roller bar at the back that I can rest the tinnie against before hoisting it into the roof - even the thought of it makes the hernias grumble!.
Would greatly appreciate any comment on the above.
Josh
My first shot at this so hope there is some one out there with some ideas.
Having made the plunge with the 2008 vX prado to tow the van around Aussie I've just returned from the first excursion through the Territory. Despite pushing the load to the limit the Prado handled the van well and while 18.3 l/100km initially seemed daunting a check on a weighbridge showing a total weight of 5.4tonne made me feel a bit better!
Now to the real problem. Fishing the top end without a tinnie proved to be frustrating or expensive ($96/ half day to hire a baby tinnie) so when I spotted a 3.7 m quintrex with a new 15 HP Suzuki on a good little trailer fro $2K I snapped it up with the view to putting the tinnie on top and the outboard in the back. For some reason I had in the back of my head that the Prado could handle 120kg on the roof so after loooking at every alternative (and realising that manually loading a 70kg tinnie on the roof might become a retirement nightmare) I decided to get a self loader. A model called the Tinnie Tosser made in southern Queensland appeared to be the answer but on ringing the manufacturer he informed me that the Prado in fact could only handle 80Kg on the roof and as his loader/rack weighed around 35-40kg (depending on whether it had its own winch motor) I would be well over the limit with my 70kg tinnie.
So I have several questions for the experts or those that may have already got their tinnie on the Prado roof:
1. How critical is the 80kg limit. It doesn't seem a lot and I'm wondering if its a limit set because of the roof's structural strength to take the weight or whether its related to the risk of making the vehicle top heavy or whether its related to the roof rails and their attachment points and risks of them tearing away????
2. If the self loader and the Tinnie (lets say 105kg) is well beyond the Prado's capabilities what is my best option if in fact I have one at all?
3. If I mounted three 1.05m cross bars (the tinnie's beam is 1.015m) to the Prado rails - firstly how do I mount them. The Rhino rack bars are much shorter and are fitted by a clamp mechanism that is tightened by a screw system accessed through the end of the bar. With considerably longer bars this might be difficult. And secondly I'm still left with the bigger problem of the roof rails ending some distance from the back of the roof meaning that I need some low weight solution of having a roller bar at the back that I can rest the tinnie against before hoisting it into the roof - even the thought of it makes the hernias grumble!.
Would greatly appreciate any comment on the above.
Josh
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