Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaark he said!!

[Pete22]

Thought you guys might be interested in seeing this. Happened out on the Halligans Bay (Lake Eyre) to William Creek road a couple of weeks back. The guy, towing a Conqueror Caravan, crested a rise to find himself in an unsighted water-filled hole. The resulting impact bent the chassis (no shit Sherlock??) and also the draw bar on the Conqueror.
People out that way were mighty helpful with the folks at William Creek flying them to Cooper Pedy to pick up a hire car to complete the trip to Alice and make the necessary recovery arrangements. This sort of thing is a frequent occurrence out there apparently. The folks at William Creek told them that in the past few weeks two more similar incidents had happened; another Navara and a Hilux.

 

[KraftyPg]

Pity you didn't get a pic of the Hilux because apparently bent chassis only happen to Navara's

 

[jjohn]

Airbag suspension strikes again???

 

[Pete22]

Airbag suspension strikes again???

Nope....not fitted to this car.

 

[mike1303]

Is there anything we can do to strengthen the chassis?

 

[nakedape]

So run me through this again! He fell in a hole after cresting a rise and the weight of the van bent the chassis? Or the sudden deceleration bent it?

 

[user 10312]

Looks nasty!

 

[sparra04]

I bet he was over his gvm and had too much weight over towball

 

[04SilverSTR]

damn that would suck big ones!

 

[180degrees]

So run me through this again! He fell in a hole after cresting a rise and the weight of the van bent the chassis? Or the sudden deceleration bent it?

its likely that he came to an almost complete stop as he hit the bog hole and the momentum carried in the van caused the vans rigid steel frame to push forward and bend the chassis on the D40 since they were offset slightly from each others central axis a large bending moment would have been applied to the D40 chassis.

would be easier if I drew it to conceptualise, the bent chassis in this case couldn't be caused by airbags.

Pity you didn't get a pic of the Hilux because apparently bent chassis only happen to Navara's

you can bend the chassis on any car if you overload it or go over the cars max tow limit.

 

[joe2006]

For both the drawbar and the chassis to bend, both the van and tug would have had to be overloaded, alternatively both were as weak as pi5s, alternatively it was impact.

If they fell in a hole, it sounds like impact was the culprit and nothing to worry about.

That's my expert clinical analysis

Bugger 180degrees beat me to it and put in a much more eloquent way.

Twas the angle of the dangle.

 

[d22dave]

I bet he was over his gvm and had too much weight over towball

I,m agreeing with sparra, there,s a pod on the roof and a fully loaded cargo bag on a rack on top of the tub, and god only knows what's in the tub. plus the van has twin gas bottles and a rather large looking tool box on the draw bar, would be a fair bet the its over its limits on the ball weight.

 

[180degrees]

Insurance is going to love that if it is indeed over, technically its unroadworthy in which case insurance is basically void.

 

[nakedape]

...and the multiplier effect of inertia! Have to ask yourself if you realy need the shower/ toilet/ washing machine/ kitchen sink after all. Viva le swag and trangia!

 

[happy john]

So he will have a sore arse for a few days looks like the back wheel has buckled as well.

 

[Pete22]

The camper being towed was a Conqueror UEV-490 (http://www.conqueroraustralia.com.au/images/stories/reviews/brochureconqueror.pdf) and I believe it is well within the towing capacity and ball download limits of the D40. I reckon this is entirely due to getting everything airborne coming over the rise and the resultant heavy landing.

 

[sparra04]

aftermarket arb towbar also?
but it looks in tact
its impossible to judge with only one pic but i still reckon it looks overloaded/not loaded properly and maybe not driven to the conditions
or was it simply an accident?
only he knows
i just hope he gets insurance to cover it cause i gaurantee nissan wont want to know him

 

[tweak'e]

if its bent the trailer draw bar as well then it sounds mor elike impact damage. hit a big hole at speed will do it.
that will be rather painfull. i've been slammed into the seatbelt and the roof from small holes at low speed, let alone big ones at high speed.

 

[180degrees]

to the guys thinking it was overloaded, the forces involved are absolutely enormous, even at like 40km/h that van behind the car has a huge amount of kinetic energy which has to go somewhere on deceleration. In this case it was expended bending the cars chassis since like I said there would have been a moment acting on the chassis rails if the car stopped suddenly in the bog hole, its the same as hitting a concrete wall with a caravan behind you, its either going to jack knife or bend the cars chassis and/or caravans chassis.

remember we are dealing with an entirely different situation to the well known fraser island D40 which was overload and running airbags when they hit a washout r bump which caused the chassis to crack upon downward motion of the rear end.

 

[happy john]

its likely that he came to an almost complete stop as he hit the bog hole and the momentum carried in the van caused the vans rigid steel frame to push forward and bend the chassis on the D40 since they were offset slightly from each others central axis a large bending moment would have been applied to the D40 chassis.

would be easier if I drew it to conceptualise, the bent chassis in this case couldn't be caused by airbags.


you can bend the chassis on any car if you overload it or go over the cars max tow limit.

Your studying to much mate but your spot on