GVM upgrade for the LandCruiser 200

Unfortunately for most 200 series LandCruisers owners, in fact most modern 4wds, as soon as you start adding accessories like bull-bars, winch, rear drawers, driving lights and roof racks etc, you start eating into the vehicle's legal weight carrying capacity otherwise known as the Gross Vehicle Mass (GVM).

The problem with this is that it’s all too easy to overload your rig with accessories and gear, not only compromising your family’s safety but also leaving you at risk with your insurance company in the event of something going wrong.

Using our Landcruiser 200 as an example, our 2011 Sahara has a factory GVM of 3300kg and a Kerb weight of 2720kg. This only leaves us with a total of 580kg for all the vehicle accessories, luggage, gear, passengers and driver before we exceed our GVM. This might seem like enough until you add the 120kgs for a Bull-bar, driving lights and winch, another 85kg for the rear draw system, 40kg for the sidesteps and brush-bars and 40kgs for roof racks and awning, it does not leave much for anything else once the driver and passenger get in. As soon as you add some tools, spares, 12v fridge and recovery gear, you are already overweight without even hooking up the caravan.

There is plenty of information on the interweb about managing and calculating vehicle and trailer weights including , GVM, ATM and GCM etc i will not go into the details here. For those who are interested, the free web magazine Unsealed4x4 had a good article which can be found following the link below.

https://unsealed4x4.com.au/payload-gvm-need-know/

The old suspension

In our case, there was really only one option to increase our vehicles load carrying capacity and that was a GVM upgrade. The GVM upgrade basically involves replacing the the vehicles springs and shock-absorbers with a certified set that have been signed off as engineered to take the extra weight. The ideal time to preform a GVM upgrade is prior to the vehicle's first registration because this allows for the upgrade to be considered a second stage of manufacture and recognised nationally. Completing the upgrade after first registration (as we have) limits the transfer-ability of the upgrade should the vehicle ever need to be re-registered interstate, likely requiring an additional engineering certificate for the upgrade to be valid in the new state.

There are a few different GVM kits options on the market with increases ranging from 275kg to 500kg and prices ranging from $3k+ to $4.5K+ in cost. All the kits require engineering certification with some installers able to manage all the paperwork while others provide the gear but require you to manage the paperwork.

For our vehicle, we opted for the Lovells 500kg upgrade and we are very happy with the results.

The only real noticeable different to the vehicle was the increase in height with the front lifting just under 50mm and the rear nearer to 70mm. This was despite already having aftermarket suspension fitted by the previous owner. Given the extra height, the vehicle still handles like it did prior and there is very little difference to the ride in terms of comfort.

I am very happy with the results after the Lovells GVM upgrade and it is reassuring to know we are on the right side of legal.