I have a 2002 courier one ton ute and want to extend the chassis . Does anybody know the laws involved? I have designed and am seriously thinking of buildind a bigger camper on the back as the present slide on is a bit small to live in. I would appreciate your views. Thanks, Bill
How would that affect your steering and other engineering which keeps the vehicle balanced? Would there be more weight on the back with a bigger slide-on?
I guess it depends on how much longer you want to extend the tray.
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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.
Only an extra meter. I would move the water tank forward, and perhaps get a bigger fuel tank.I have a long ranger fuel tank out of a hilux in the shed. I just wantmore room for living inside, and perhaps a comfortable arm chair.I am an engineer by trade. I want to see if anybody has done this sort of modification. Thanks, Bill
brothrt in law added 900mm to his, made a real truck out of it. mods drawn up by eng and then approved by transport /adr before mods and replated after with a mod plate
I have a 2002 courier one ton ute and want to extend the chassis . Does anybody know the laws involved? I have designed and am seriously thinking of buildind a bigger camper on the back as the present slide on is a bit small to live in. I would appreciate your views. Thanks, Bill
Bill
It depends what state you are in. It is a modification to and ADR certified vehicle and as such you will need approval and probably (depends on state) a 2nd manufacturers compliance plate fitted for a mod such as this.
I did approvals for this type of mod years ago and don't think much has changed.
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Why is it so? Professor Julius Sumner Miller, a profound influence on my life, who explained science to us on TV in the 60's.
You're a brave man Bill! I'd first either ring up the Dept of Transport or wander out to Garbutt and talk to the inspectors out the back just to get an idea of the legalities. My guess is that any lengthening of the chassis will in addition to an engineers endorsement of your changes require stress testing which can add real costs as they won't let you use sandbags anymore like when they turned VW's in convertibles.
Having said that, I have noticed some very low extended wheelbase Nissan utes (720's?) around Toowoomba....whether they are imports I do not know but I'm pretty sure they are not standard.
Sorry I cannot be of more help.
An extra axle behind the driving wheels would help stability wise.. Spread weight better too..
Yep go through Dept of transport.. Stay with same engineer and keep the paperwork..
Slide-on campers have been known to break the backs of these utes. Just imagine what making them another metre longer can do. Any lengthening would need to entail an increase in the wheelbase or the Stertchpack or similar.
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PeterD Nissan Navara D23 diesel auto, Spaceland pop-top Retired radio and electronics technician. NSW Central Coast.
I met someone who did this with their dual cab hilux years ago, not sure of the extra length, but would have been close to 1m. If I can find the photo's of the vehicle after going over a big hump in the bush will post them, nothing like a "V" shaped ute to verify your work. We met them on the road and they asked if they could follow us, as they didn't know the road at all. Told them it was a very rough track, but they didn't listen. They had an off road van on the back, we had a small camper trailer. We got almost airborne when we went over a big hump, as we had to have speed to get up the dune. They got over, hit the other side and the chassis buckled, sending the vehicle sideways and into the bush. It snapped the tail shaft and drove it through the ute floor, nearly flipping the ute. When we dragged it out it stayed bent and nothing we did would unbend it, the van was a bit of a mess from going through the bushes, but tow able and livable. We drove to civilisation, organised a truck to pick it up, dropped our camper and went back for their van as the truck couldn't fit them both on and wanted a huge amount to go back for the van, which took us another day.
If you want a long wheel base ute, get a 250 ford, they are big in every way, including fuel guzzling.
