Hi

[sc.carpentry]

Hi Guys
Thx for the add
I’ve got a D22 and am looking to upgrade to a D23 .
Have heard that series 3 are better for towing etc due to going back to leaf springs after briefly having coils.
Any info would be greatly appreciated.
Like any ute owner am trying to tick as many boxes as I can . I use it for work towing a tradie trailer and want to also build it up for going bush.
But also want to tow an approx 2 tonne caravan for hols with the family.
Have heard differing opinions regarding the legal towing capacity of the D23 .Have a soft spot for the Navara but want to get it right if I’m gonna spend 50plus K .
Thanks in advance for your knowledge and opinions
Cheers guys

 

[Old.Tony]

Welcome to the forum.

The D23 should handle 2 tonnes fairly well. Our van is approaching 2.5T loaded (it may not actually get that far, 2150kg empty and load is about 200 to 250kg). I could push the thing harder up hills but I tend to just let it slow down and keep the coolant temp below 105C to ensure nothing goes wrong.

A lot of the utes these days say "3.5 tonne towing". There's a catch to doing that. Actually more than one. NSW law here, not clear on other states but they can't be too different.

GCM (Gross Combination Mass) of our utes is around the 6000kg mark. That's the total mass of the loaded vehicle and loaded trailer connected to the vehicle and weighed as a unit. This is a very important figure.

GVM (Gross Vehicle Mass) is the mass of your ute, plus its load (passengers, fuel and cargo). Important note here: check the manual for the vehicle, if towball weight exceeds a certain amount (there's a table in the manual) you have to deduct kg from your GVM to accommodate the extra ball weight.

The trick (on the unsuspecting owner) is that if you buy a trailer with a total weight of 3500kg, you can only have 6000-3500 = 2500kg on your tow vehicle. For a car like, for instance, a Ford Ranger that has an empty weight of 2200kg, this means you can only put 300kg in the tow vehicle.

Let's look at what 300kg means.

Driver 80kg
Passenger 60kg
Kids x 2 @ 35kg each = 70kg
Fridge = 40kg (loaded)
Water 20kg
That's 260kg so far. Did you forget the clothes, perhaps? Add another 20kg. Nick wants his bike, does he? And Anita wants hers? Ok, another 20kg. Guess what, that's 300kg ...

You can't put fuel in the car.

So steering clear of the higher weight vans is a good thing.

As for off-road - Navaras have long wheelbases, so they've got some ramp-over to account for. They can still do it, they perform better with sliders and lockers. If you want to go "out there", your best friend will be a GOOD compressor that can take all 4 car tyres and all 4 van tyres from 18psi to 40psi without much of a break. Naturally things like MaxTraxx (or even clones, the ones Aldi have now and again aren't bad) are also useful, but remember to keep an eye on the weight. Especially on sand - weight is a curse.