G'day Guys and Gals, What a great site, I have just joined. We have a Jayco Heritage 20 footer tugged along quite happily by a 2003 Commodore V6 with stiffened rear suspension. I know what some will say!!! but I can only state that we have completed some 19000klms without a problem so far including Melbourne to Darwin last year. Car is on dual fuel and performs very well in the consumption stakes, plus it gives us extended range when both tanks are used.
Wife and I are happy to be part of this list and I hope that we can make a useful contribution along the way.
Magnarc, (alias Sir Percy)
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Those who wish to reap the blessings of freedom must, as men, endure the fatigue of defending it.
I bet you can provide some very useful information on this site. Welcome aboard, and I look forward to reading your input. Safe and happy travels. Cheers Chris
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20ft Roma caravan - Mercedes Benz Sprinter - SA-based at the moment. Transport has no borders.
Management makes the decisions, but is not affected by the decisions it makes.
G'day "sir percy" and welcome to the forum, you wont get any bad press from me as far as the commodore goes as a tug, dont need a puddle jumper to get out in the great outdoors, theres a lot of happy ford drivers out there and commodore drivers all out and about while the toorak tractors are taking the kids to school and doing the shopping
one question about your commodore, does it have the independent rear suspension and if so how do you deal with the issue of scrubbing out the rear tyres when
(1) the van is on
(2) when the van is off
you say your rear suspension is stiffened did you incoorporate air shockers in the mix so you can adjust the setup thereby compensating for the extra load and the times when you have no load
I have followed many commodores (I am a die hard holden fan by the way) and often looked at the rear wheels laying out volkswagon style and often thought they must be scrubbing, how do you deal with that
I own a mitsi 380, it too has independant rear suspension but a different and far more advanced control arm setup, the wheels never layout at all thank god, doesnt matter what I tow they stand straight, often wondered why holden didnt copy the control arm setup on theirs
G'day Dave, Yes I have had two heavy duty coils fitted and air shockers. This has lifted the old girl about one inch from before. There has not been any abnormal wear on the rear tires since this was done some 6months ago. We originally had a 16ft Viscount Ultra-Lite which I used with level rides, but noticed the difference when we got the big beast!!. The only other addition to the Commodore was a transmission cooler.
The rig has performed very well up to now, and we are planning the Nullarbor to Perth this year around Sept' Regards, Percy
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Those who wish to reap the blessings of freedom must, as men, endure the fatigue of defending it.
Hi John, Nice to hear from you. Well Magnarc is ok Sir Percy was given to me by an old buzzard of a mate, the original name was Sir Percy,(dare I say it?) Longprong. Its a name which is far from the truth!!!!! Happy to be a part of this list with all its great members and advice, hope that I can contribute along the way, Sir Percy
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Those who wish to reap the blessings of freedom must, as men, endure the fatigue of defending it.
I tend to think that a trans cooler on an auto should be madatory on anything that is about to tow, you wont have any dramas doing the nully, it's a walk in the park with the correct preperation, make sure you stop and have a gawk along the way though, and read up on the "rip off" section to find which fuel depots to dodge
Hi Dave, good to see you are still in here and doing well, my this site just keeps evolving and getting better, we are sitting at port hedland after doing the gibb river road, beatifull and just as you described it, we will be here for a while, fuel, emails and a tyre, then we will head toward perth slowly, gotta drop into useless loop and look up an old freind, look forward to catching up with you again soon. look after yourself and check your email
Welcome from us also , Just a query, we have a 2006 commodore, and have thought of using it as you do in pulling our van, a smaller one than you, What is your linkage on the back of the car, is it a hayman ,and what is its rating Thank you Mike
G'day Mike and Judy, I use a 2100kg rated Hayman-Reese towbar with corresponding hitch. It was an necessity with a 20ft van. Our previous van, a 15' 6" Viscount Ultra-Lite was quite happy with the Holden towbar that came with the car, because it only weighed 950kg tare. I can only speak for myself here but I found that the Commodore, a VX, handles the tow very well. I have found that manually using the auto gearbox on steep inclines, takes a lot of the strain from the engine, indeed this i9s the recommended method in the Holden handbook.
I know that we are in good company when Davo drives a Commodore!!!! Regards to all, Magnarc (Sir Percy)
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Those who wish to reap the blessings of freedom must, as men, endure the fatigue of defending it.
I dont actually own a commodore sir percy but I am a big fan of holdens in general, I own a mitsubishi 380, a very good car but very painfull in the hip pocket when something goes wrong, but I guess thats modern vehicles for you
our "little blue" (a toyota hi-ace) is a different kettle of fish alltogether, I completely rebuilt her from the ground up just after we got her, she had only done a little under 100,000 km's, before our first time round with her (she's taken us around a couple times since and she just laps it up) it is all simplistic under the hood and easily repaired anywhere
I raise the bonnett on the 380 and I can hardly recognise, never lone see, anything at all, the main drive belt would be impossible out in the sticks, I get everything replaced every 50,000 kms so I dont get stuck doing it
the dragon is toying with buying a caravan after we shift so I may have to update to something with a little more pulling power, the mitsi is not real flash in the towing stakes
knowing mother she will want a palacial grandey mansiony, may have to look at what mack has on special
