BT-50 chassis extention

[MagicalG]

I'm about to buy a slide-on camper for my BT-50. The chap selling it suggested that the "ideal" would be to move the rear axle back about 30cm, ie extent the chassis, before putting the camper on. This, he suggested, might cost close to $5000.

Has anyone done this?

Has anyone any comment on this "ideal"?

How does it affect off-road performance?

All the usual questions ...

I'd be pleased to hear because where I come from $5000 is quite a bit.

 

[Jarh73]

I guess the first question would be how serious off road were you contemplating with a camper on the back?

If its really only dirt roads and very light off road its much of a much ness and probably not worth worrying about.

What does the camper weigh out of curiosity?

Cheers

Justin

 

[MagicalG]

I guess the first question would be how serious off road were you contemplating with a camper on the back?

If its really only dirt roads and very light off road its much of a much ness and probably not worth worrying about.

What does the camper weigh out of curiosity?

Thanks for getting back to me.

I don't want to do anything too heroic. But I do want to do things like the Canning Stock Route and the Gibb River Road - at this stage of my experience I don't really know how heroic they are to drive, but that's the idea.

Dry weigh is given at about 600 kilograms.

 

[Jarh73]

Not having done those roads but read a lot they are quite serious tracks mainly due to remoteness.

IMHO I would upgrade/raise the suspension and get light truck tyres as an absolute minimum.

Do you have any pictures of the set up you are looking at?

Things to watch would be rear departure angle and that MAY be why chassis extension was suggested in the first place.

Cheers

Justin

 

[MagicalG]

Not having done those roads but read a lot they are quite serious tracks mainly due to remoteness.

IMHO I would upgrade/raise the suspension and get light truck tyres as an absolute minimum.

Do you have any pictures of the set up you are looking at?

Things to watch would be rear departure angle and that MAY be why chassis extension was suggested in the first place.

Remotenes I can live with. It's deep water or steep muddy slopes or huge boulders that I'm not keen to rush into. Just yet !!

I have plans to beef up the suspension; apparently the stock standard BT-50 suspension won't cut the mustard off road with that load. The tyres are Bridgestone Dueler ATs; I think they'll do for now but am thinking Coopers in the longer run.

I think the chassis extension was to keep the weight between the wheels. That having been said this job has the heavy things: water, batteries, fridge, etc low and at the front.

Thanks for the tip on the departure angle; I'll check.

 

[Jarh73]

Yeah I just looked at your pictures and its also to with you having a dual cab Ute.

A single cab ute can have the camper further forward.

Dual cabs tend to have a lot of over hang with a flat tray or camper set up. Hence the Chassis extension

Cheers

Justin

 

[MagicalG]

Yeah I just looked at your pictures and its also to with you having a dual cab Ute.

A single cab ute can have the camper further forward.

Dual cabs tend to have a lot of over hang with a flat tray or camper set up. Hence the Chassis extension.

It's actually a Freestyle cab – a cab and a half – so maybe the overhang is a bit more manageable. I'm still looking at $5000 on top of what is pretty much a new vehicle so am resisting a bit, as you can no doubt imagine.

One of the other slip-on manufacturers told me of a BT-50 having its chassis broken by people putting loads way too far back. He even said there was a class action against Mazda over it but my Googling around didn't find any evidence for that.

Cheers.

 

[Jarh73]

There are pictures of the D40 Navara with a broken back!

My mistake I should have looked at the pics but the shorter the cab the better

Just keep any eye on your Gross Weight as long as you under that fully loaded that should limit any problems to some extent but no guarantee.

Cheers

Justin