D max vs Triton vs Ranger

orid · Senior Member

D max vs Triton vs Ranger

yobarr · Guru

orid wrote:
Thanks for all your comments guys,

I think I will stay with my FJ for the moment and take a look at the D Max X Terrain when available .

I do like my FJ ,but to keep it legal ,because of the crappy payload,

I have to remove the rear seats , then decide whether to remove the spare wheel also or leave the 40 litre Engel at home . LOL

Tried for a GVM upgrade none available in WA.

Mind you the handles the van 2.2 ton easily and hardly moves at all ,maybe 30mm down on the back , tows perfectly ,done around 30, 000 ks

but the low payload is a bummer
Thanks again , Regards Peter

Thanks for the update Peter...it always is nice to get some sort of response from the OP when others have tried to help.Good luck.Cheers

On The Move · Member

Hy Guys
On a face book BT50 Group the following subject of replacing the tub with a tray and or canopy came up.
It was revealed the only BT50 to allow this was the standard base model.
The upmarket models have a lot of safety equipment in the tub and if removed will give fault codes which I guess could cause limp mode or simply stop the car altogether.
Don't take this as gospel but it might be worth asking the question , if this is right is the D Max affected also ?

Ray

jontee · Veteran Member

yobarr wrote:
orid wrote:
yobarr wrote:
orid wrote:
I'm thinking of purchasing a new tow vehicle,
My short list .
Ford Ranger 3.0 litre.
D max latest model
Triton gls premium ,
Anyone have these , comments appreciated .
Regards Orid
Hi Peter.....Both the Ranger and the DMax are fine vehicles for safely towing up to about 3100kg. With the right amount of abuse,almost any chassis can be bent,but if you research "Triton bent chassis" (or similar) you may well reject that car? Good luck with your search.Cheers.
Thats a Bad look ,articulated for easy loading maybe. lol
Orid
A couple more...but there's pages of them!

If you research "bent Utes " you will even find bent 79 series utes .It happens to many makes , Its not confined to one make .

Cheers ,

Jontee .

yobarr · Guru

jontee wrote:
yobarr wrote:

Hi Peter.....Both the Ranger and the DMax are fine vehicles for safely towing up to about 3100kg. With the right amount of abuse,almost any chassis can be bent,but if you research "Triton bent chassis" (or similar) you may well reject that car? Good luck with your search.Cheers.
If you research "bent Utes " you will even find bent 79 series utes .It happens to many makes , Its not confined to one make .
Cheers ,Jontee .

Hi John...thankyou for this obviously well thought out post,but if you study my post above yours,you will see that I already have covered that point. "Almost any chassis can be bent" is what I wrote,and this is true,but a 79 is so much stronger than a Triton that they are not even worthy of comparison. May I suggest that you access articles written by "Barnsey" from Birdsville, detailing his many rescue missions of bent vehicles.At one point,from memory,he pens something like ".....I've seen bent chassis on every make imaginable,except a Toyota.Guess what I drive." Please note that that is not a quote,but simply my recollection of his words. I hope that this clears things up for you? Cheers.

sandgrooper1 · Senior Member

Hello,

Having had two Dmax utes 2009 and 2012 manuals and no problems in 11 years, Dmax for me every day of the week.

Have a Nissan Patrol now due to bigger van on order.

AL

orid · Senior Member

Actually one thing, me being old mechanic :) that did put me off the Ranger 3.2 was this issue with having to refill the engine oil within 10 mins, unbelievable in this day no big deal I know .
But (true story this) would you believe ,today I replaced the oil and filter on the FJ DIY for the first time ,because cheapo Toyota service finished
came to use the filter tool ,that I purchased from the same Toyota dealer at the same time I purchased the FJ 4 yrs ago still in packet , DIDN'T FIT ,
I had already drained the oil so had to travel 20 ks to town in wifys car dealer was closed so purchased new filter removal tool from Auto One .
Now if that was the Ranger and I didn't know / / ? well would I be in trouble .
Just a little whinge from me .
Oh what a feeling .
Regards ORID

-- Edited by orid on Saturday 12th of September 2020 05:48:41 PM

blaze · Guru

orid wrote:
Actually one thing, me being old mechanic :) that did put me off the Ranger 3.2 was this issue with having to refill the engine oil within 10 mins, unbelievable in this day no big deal I know .
But (true story this) would you believe ,today I replaced the oil and filter on the FJ DIY for the first time ,because cheapo Toyota service finished
came to use the filter tool ,that I purchased from the same Toyota dealer at the same time I purchased the FJ 4 yrs ago still in packet , DIDN'T FIT ,
I had already drained the oil so had to travel 20 ks to town in wifys car dealer was closed so purchased new filter removal tool from Auto One .
Now if that was the Ranger and I didn't know / / ? well would I be in trouble .
Just a little whinge from me .
Oh what a feeling .
Regards ORID

-- Edited by orid on Saturday 12th of September 2020 05:48:41 PM

not a problem, just put in oil. run the engone now change ftlter

cheers

blaze

Radar · Guru

What is the configuration you are looking at trayback, extra cab or crew cab?

-- Edited by Radar on Sunday 13th of September 2020 05:53:52 AM

orid · Senior Member

Crew cab ute

yobarr · Guru

orid wrote:
Crew cab ute

Suggest you forget the Triton,which leaves Ranger and DMax.Personally,I like the Ranger,but from reports I've read,the engine seems to be an issue? Isuzus seem to go forever....perhaps that is the car for you? Good luck.Cheers

Radar · Guru

orid wrote:
Crew cab ute

Hi orid.

After making decision to buy a crew cab ute mainly based on the amount out there towing caravans, I now realise the tub section for holding our gear is a waste, placing 270 to 300 kgs on the tow bar leaves you very little weight you can place in the tub area.

The other regretable thing I got roped into was buying the canopy which weighs around 80 kgs which really kills the ute for me now. In 4 years I have never loaded the ute over the orignal height.

Before I drop the caravan on our ute ready to go 2 of us, a bit of camping furniture, tool bag, 4wd gear, 2nd battery and the frg, we are looking at 2600 kgs add 270 for towball weight. You see why I regret the $2700 for the canopy. And a back seat I never sat in or gets used.

orid · Senior Member

Yes I get that Radar thank you , I did same with my previous Navara

But my tow ball weight on this van is 180 kg
Tha van is 2200kg loaded ,so a ranger or Dmax should leave me a good payload , as long as I dont go crazy with extras.
I should be able to use the full payload or close to it.I think ranger and Dmax is around 6000 kg Gcm is I think I can tow up to around 2800 kg with a full payload.
I know this includes passengers fuel etc.
I may be wrong on those figures ,it has been known I make a mistake lol.
Regards Orid

Radar · Guru

orid wrote:
Yes I get that Radar thank you , I did same with my previous Navara

But my tow ball weight on this van is 180 kg
Tha van is 2200kg loaded ,so a ranger or Dmax should leave me a good payload , as long as I dont go crazy with extras.
I should be able to use the full payload or close to it.I think ranger and Dmax is around 6000 kg Gcm is I think I can tow up to around 2800 kg with a full payload.
I know this includes passengers fuel etc.
I may be wrong on those figures ,it has been known I make a mistake lol.
Regards Orid

Sounds like you are on to it, well done.

Warren-Pat_01 · Guru

The two good things I see with the D-max are the improved room in the rear of the cab (dual cab) although the tub is marginally smaller & the diff lock.

The one thing that I'll be watching is the rear springs - they've reintroduced the softer (yet same rating) 3 leaf springset. Will the company say to buyers in 6-8 months "that your car has a safety recall & we need to replace the springs with the HD 5 leaf springs?" After all this is what they have done with the last two models without any improvements. I was happy to buy the standard 2019 model as it had all that I wanted except a rougher ride. As Pat's back is not the best, we opted for the cushy middle of the range model with carpets, etc - only to have it converted back to a ruff-rider in April this year. I am still tossing up between swapping to ARB For Terrain Tamer parabolic springs.

Your choice of car will depend on your requirements, whether it will fit in the garage, can you reach into the back without a small set of steps. It's like the old Toyota, Nissan, Land Rover choices of old. Yes Isuzu have a good record on reliability but this is a tweaked engine, though still nowhere as much as it's competitors. Busted, bent chassis in these vehicles comes from using things like airbags & expecting the bags to work miracles, rather than using common sense.

yobarr · Guru

orid wrote:
Yes I get that Radar thank you , I did same with my previous Navara

But my tow ball weight on this van is 180 kg
Tha van is 2200kg loaded ,so a ranger or Dmax should leave me a good payload , as long as I dont go crazy with extras.
I should be able to use the full payload or close to it.I think ranger and Dmax is around 6000 kg Gcm is I think I can tow up to around 2800 kg with a full payload.
I know this includes passengers fuel etc.
I may be wrong on those figures ,it has been known I make a mistake lol.
Regards Orid

Hi Peter....Unfortunately,things are not as simple as you seem to believe! Less than 8% towball weight is not a good idea,and you will be never able to reach your GVM with a van attached.Details later,but congratulations on at least taking an active interest in getting your weights right,and keeping things safe and legal! Well done.Cheers.

orid · Senior Member

Some great points there Warren and yobarr ,The D max is very tempting for sure , the tow ball weight I keep at 180 To keep the fj legal but it will be nice to be able to increase it to 200 plus.
Although it tows fine I keep the van to Just over 2000 loaded with everything including the kitchen sink ha ha.
Im on the road at mo testing the Lithium setup .
Regards Orid

orid · Senior Member

orid · Senior Member

Oh and yes Im carefully with the weights after a bad deal when a number of yes ago I purchased a New Motorhome,
We did a trip around Aus with it , when we came home to Perth I had the great idea to get it weighed and see if I could tow a small car behind it.
Well at the weigh bridge in Perth with nothing in the van , no water, food ,No clothing, nothing except my wife sitting in the passenger seat.
The va (Brand New) the guy looks at me scratching his head and says this van is overweight and illegal to be driven
Any way long story. Said l would never buy another motorhome , it was a very well known brand.
Regards Orid

yobarr · Guru

orid wrote:
Some great points there Warren and yobarr ,The D max is very tempting for sure , the tow ball weight I keep at 180 To keep the fj legal but it will be nice to be able to increase it to 200 plus.
Although it tows fine I keep the van to Just over 2000 loaded with everything including the kitchen sink ha ha.
Im on the road at mo testing the Lithium setup .
Regards Orid

Hi Peter....seems the DMax would have absolutely no trouble legally towing the van you have,but I will give you a few more figures to ponder,in an effort to avoid confusion.As you plan,the first thing to do is get the towball weight up to about 10% of the van's total weight.It always is best to keep the load as centralised as possible,over the axles if possible. Your car has a wheelbase of 3095mm and towball overhang (distance from rear axle to hitch point/towball) of around 1400mm.This means that a towball weight of 200kg will add around 290kg to the car's rear axle,with the extra 90kg being transferred from the car's front axle. Assuming that you had miraculously (impossibly?) managed to load your car to its GVM of 3050kg,you would have 1350kg on the front axle and 1700kg on the rear.However,adding 200kg towball weight obviously would then put you over your GVM figure by 200kg, so therefore the maximum the car can weigh before the van is connected would be 2850kg.(3050kg minus 200kg),on paper! This would consist of 1350kg front axle plus 1500kg rear axle weights.BUT,when the van is connected,90kg is removed from the front axle and transferred to the rear axle,so your front axle weight now is down to 1260kg.Here the plot thickens, as your car's maximum rear axle weight is 1870kg.Assuming that that axle was loaded to 1500kg before the van was connected,it now will be carrying weight of 1790kg (1500+290kg) and under its rating by 80kg. Remember that your front axle now has dropped to 1260kg,so we now add that weight to the weight on the rear axle of 1790kg to get total weight on wheels of 3050kg.....Right on your GVM,and all legal.....majic,isn't it? This is because your car's GVM is less than the sum of the carrying capacities of the individual axles.If you loaded your car's rear axle to its capacity of 1870kg,your front axle would be limited to only 1180kg to avoid exceeding your 3050kg GVM.With 10% towball weight on your 2000kg van,you will have GTM (weight on van wheels) of 1800kg while the car has weight on wheels of 3050kg.This means that weight on wheels of car is 70%(+/-) more than weight on wheels of van,and super-safe.Go for it! Cheers

P.S That's a great looking car that you presently have.

-- Edited by yobarr on Monday 14th of September 2020 03:52:59 PM

orid · Senior Member

Thanks yobarr great info ,Those figures are for the D max , yes?
Regards Orid

yobarr · Guru

orid wrote:
Thanks yobarr great info ,Those figures are for the D max , yes?
Regards Orid

Yes Mate...4wd DMax details,specially researched for you! (In my records) Cheers

Stretch60 · Senior Member

Have a serious look at a v6 Amarok 8 speed auto. Great pulling power with 550nm on tap. Great rear springs van sits flat with van at 3T and 260kg on ball.

orid · Senior Member

Thanks Stretch ,worth a look :)
Orid