[love ke70]

my GQ (Y60) is 4 tonne nearly all the time, put it over the bridge and had 2.5 on the rear axle.
This is a coil sprung ute, with stronger lower and upper arms, stiffest coil dobinson make, very expensive after market shocks by MCA and a coil tower brace from superior engineering and it has not missed a beat.

Never done a bearing, never had an issue, I have a canopy on that I cram all that weight into, and its a heavy tray so its behind the 8 ball to start, and when loaded and you drive along a road that has some of those nice rolling ups and downs that unload the weight in the rear end, you actually see the cab get closer to canopy, I assume because the back of the chassis/tray bends down over the axle support point, you can actually see the bend if you sight the bottom rail of the tray, even with this happening, I am yet to have a problem and have done Cape York, kakadu, lytchfield and most of the local 4wd parks. Destroy tyres a bit, but never anything structural, touch wood.

 

[love ke70]

Is there all that much point?
I have always assumed the idea of the flex is because thats normal for steel, stiffen it in one place it will just crack at the end of the stiff point as it will flex around it. I know the fish plate is meant to avoid that happening, but is there any point to doing it?
Do these things have a habit of cracking on the joins?

 

[love ke70]

I drove my truck without the weight in it tonight, only the long 2.6m long steel tray and solid aluminium fully enclosed canopy (I may put it over the bridge to see what it weighs empty) and it is sooo much nicer.

I also run no swaybars.

so, in short, keep your sway bars, run stiff springs, and do what you can to limit the weight, because despite all you do, they will handle like **** when heavy.

Especially if you have a long overhang, I run similar weight in a patrol wagon when I have the ute off the road, minus tray and canopy, but alot of weight on the steel roof rack, and its a much nicer drive, just slower. The wagon does have swaybars though.

 

[love ke70]

Y61 rear towers are more inclined to it interestingly.
Impressive photos of some that have been destroyed.
You can wind the stops in and get more lock, just have to be careful how much power you out down in 4wd at full lock.

Has the op told us a estimated payload or purpose for the vehicle?

 

[love ke70]

torsional rigidity does not always equate to load carrying capacity though...
everyone knows the GU is more likely to rip the side out of the chassis on the coil sprung rear than a GQ, unless they are braced.