Anyone uprated a 4x4 pick up to 3.5 tonner?

[Andrew Barrett]

Hi all,

 

We'll be needing a new truck soon. We need 4x4 but I don't want a Land Rover.

 

I am considering getting a newer pick up and uprating it to road legal 3.5 ton gross vehicle weight. They don't carry enough weight with box and tipper otherwise (e.g. nice tipper Hilux on eBay at the moment has only a 1/2 ton payload according to the seller).

 

I have found a company who will do this (depending upon vehicle chassis) - Truck & Trailer in Bristol. They tell me they have done it before.

 

Has anyone on here got any experience of doing this - good or bad? And what company did you use to do the conversion - and would you recommend them?

 

Thanks,

 

Andrew

[Stephen Blair]

There's usually a reason these types if vehicles are not sitting in forecourts.

Engineers love building things, your ideas will be reinforced by their enthusiasm, then when the A- team vehicle is like driving a gutless tank at the cost of 400% more than originally thought you will have learnt a tough lesson.

And the hardest thing is it was your idea so you will pay the huge bill and struggle on convincing yourself it's awesome!

I know someone who is sitting at over £20k just now on a similar idea, the vehicle hasn't earnt a penny and been in a shed for over 6 months after it was completed by the very enthusiastic boffin.

Just buy a £3k transit tipper and get another lad to drive it, simples:)

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Arbtalk

[timbernut]

This was on fleabay for months ( my ideal vehicle ) but by the time I'd raised funds ....... Gone!

Had a couple of county transit vansand a Newton Abbot transit tipper 4x4 conversion were all capable off road work vehicles!

[Dean Lofthouse]

It's no good converting a pickup to 3.5t. It's not just about the weight you carry, it's about having room to carry it too. I've looked into many a truck combination and still keep arriving back at the same start point......landrover.

 

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[Andrew Gale]

I'm going to show my ignorance about such matters now so please go steady with me.

 

But could you not buy a 5.5t truck and down rate it to a 3.5t? Don't even know if this is possible.

 

Obviously no idea about the issues of an O licence or other related stuff but I do know of a guy who bought a 7.5t truck, down rated to 6.5t to get over the issue of HGV; that's what he said anyway...

[benedmonds]

I'm going to show my ignorance about such matters now so please go steady with me.

 

But could you not buy a 5.5t truck and down rate it to a 3.5t? Don't even know if this is possible.

 

Obviously no idea about the issues of an O licence or other related stuff but I do know of a guy who bought a 7.5t truck, down rated to 6.5t to get over the issue of HGV; that's what he said anyway...

 

I am pretty sure it is easier to downrate a truck then to uprate one (although I have never tried uprating one). 3.5 toners can't carry much as it is. So if downrate a 5.5 toner to 3.5 ton you end up without being able to carry anything.

 

If you need 3.5 ton 4x4 tipper, there is only really the LR. IMO, everything else is too small (our 130 is to small for everyday tree works). There are a few rare oddities such as 4x4 transits, vw grafters, merc sprinters but not much else and they will all have tiny capacity.

[Paul Jenks]

Anything over 3.5 has to go on the O licence. Downrating a truck just gives you a heavier truck with less payload.

Our old LDV has a payload of 1.2tonnes which is about as good as it gets. We've got 2 Hilux tippers from overland. Very handy and good overall capacity as well as towing go anywhere credentials.

If the crew cab tipper posted above is a3.5t I'd suggest that with a box, 2 blokes and some saws it'll be overloaded without any chip or logs.

VOSA are becoming more active so I'd rather send 2 vehicles to site than risk livelihood and lives with an overloaded vehicle.

Yes it costs more, but not as much as fines, court cases, stress etc. As employers and contractors we have a moral as well as legal obligation to abide by the rules even if others choose not to.

[Mountain man]

There's usually a reason these types if vehicles are not sitting in forecourts.

Engineers love building things, your ideas will be reinforced by their enthusiasm, then when the A- team vehicle is like driving a gutless tank at the cost of 400% more than originally thought you will have learnt a tough lesson.

And the hardest thing is it was your idea so you will pay the huge bill and struggle on convincing yourself it's awesome!

I know someone who is sitting at over £20k just now on a similar idea, the vehicle hasn't earnt a penny and been in a shed for over 6 months after it was completed by the very enthusiastic boffin.

Just buy a £3k transit tipper and get another lad to drive it, simples:)

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Arbtalk

I don't need to read any more posts after this one (I will of course!) because this is bang on the money.

[cornish wood burner]

Hi all,

 

We'll be needing a new truck soon. We need 4x4 but I don't want a Land Rover.

 

I am considering getting a newer pick up and uprating it to road legal 3.5 ton gross vehicle weight. They don't carry enough weight with box and tipper otherwise (e.g. nice tipper Hilux on eBay at the moment has only a 1/2 ton payload according to the seller).

 

I have found a company who will do this (depending upon vehicle chassis) - Truck & Trailer in Bristol. They tell me they have done it before.

 

Has anyone on here got any experience of doing this - good or bad? And what company did you use to do the conversion - and would you recommend them?

 

Thanks,

 

Andrew

I'm intreged. Do they uprate suspension,brakes and chassis. Do you then need type approval. I know of down rating but I never known anyone who has had truck/pickup up rated. What's involved?

[timbernut]

Think it would be cheaper to turn 3.5t truck into 4x4! The front axles / transfer boxes on the transit counties were imported from US ( Borg Warner and Chrysler ). Most other bits were fairly simply engineered apart from gearbox which was made by same people who made MT 75 for ford and looked same but had slight difference in internal rear end to allow for connection to transfer box. I'm not an engineer but had lots of fun fiddling with em! Incidentally the new(inferior) AWD tranny was, I believe, designed for ford by Eric May of Countytrac ( formerly County) and they still carry spares for the later countys.