Toyota Prado to get 3000kg towing upgrade

The much-loved Toyota Prado 150 Series will be able to tow another 500kg when Lovells Springs releases its Braked Towing Capacity (BTC) 3000kg upgrade for the evergreen mid-range 4WD around mid-2017.

The five-door Prado’s long-standing BTC of 2500kg has been a ‘handbrake’ for some years for both Toyota buyers and the Australian trailerboat (and caravan) market.

In fact, some local boat and van builders have been specifically targeting 2000-2100kg tare weights for their smaller craft to make their products legal behind the popular Prado.

A TOWING BUFFER
One manufacturer set to benefit, Whittley Marine in Melbourne was pretty excited about the upgrade and said it would be welcome news for buyers of key maxi trailerboats in its range.

"The upgrade will be great for towing our 2380 Cruiser, which weighs about 2000kg dry on road, and costs up to $140k by the time owners spec the boats up as full on-water campers," Alan Whittley said.

"We’re pretty LandCruiser orientated and so are our customers. To have
that buffer will be handy for a bit of peace of mind," he added.

ALL ABOVE BOARD
Similar to its Stage 1 (3700kg) and Stage 2 (4000kg) kits currently available for the LandCruiser 200 Series, Lovells Springs’ BTC 3000kg Prado kit will meet the practical and documentary compliance requirements of Work Safety, Police Licensing, Insurance, Lessors and Fleet Managers, says Mike Davison, Sales & Marketing Manager for Lovells.

Davison said as with the LandCruiser 200 kits, the Prado kit will have approval by all relevant Government Departments and will be supplied with a secondary manufacturers’ compliance plate.  

Federal Compliance BTC Upgrades can only be fitted to vehicles prior to registration and to vehicles fitted with a Lovells’ 3800kg GVM Upgrade, however, Lovells can also comply vehicles after registration via State Compliance Type Approvals.

Note, however, that Lovells’ BTC Upgrade tongue/hitch receiver/drop shank can only be attached to Toyota Original Equipment tow bars and are not compliant for aftermarket tow bars. Ball weights with the Lovells’ kits can still not exceed 400kg.

THE HITCH-EZY COUPLING
As with their LandCruiser 200 BTC upgrades, Lovells is again expected to partner with the Melbourne-designed and -manufactured Hitch-Ezy coupling.

The novel, but heavy (16kg) Hitch-Ezy 5-tonne self-locking pillar coupling is uniquely offered as part of the LandCruiser upgrades, but Hitch-Ezy has a new 3500kg coupling due for release around April 2017 and it’s believed this will be part of the Prado BTC 3000kg kit.

Weighing significantly less than its 5-tonne coupling at around 9kg, the Hitch-Ezy primarily uses aircraft grade alloy in its construction and is designed to offer similar functionality to its larger brother.

It will have a large-diameter ‘pillar-like’ shank and a self-centring action that automatically locks when fully seated. It also cannot accidentally be fitted upside down, as is the case with some other off-road hitches.

The Prado BTC 3000kg upgrade will only be fitted by Lovells Springs’ dealers and authorised fitters, but by arrangement with Toyota dealers it should be possible to have it fitted to a new Prado prior to delivery.

AFFORDABLE TOWING UPGRADE
The Australian trailerboat and caravan industries are expected to welcome a BTC of 3000kg for Toyota Prados, and we can expect to see tare weights creeping up closer to 2500kg once customers are let ‘off-the-leash’ and able to spec all their favourite options.

Pricing is expected to be in line with the LC 200 kits, that is, around $3000 as a Stage 1 kit, so budget around this. The warranty is likely to be similar, which is five years on coil springs, three years or 70,000km on shock absorbers and two years/40,000km on suspension and towing components (whichever occurs first).

That’s not a lot of coin when you consider the cost of upgrading your Toyota Prado to a LandCruiser 200 or another 3.5 tonne-rated tow tug. And when you look at the accessories on trailerboats these days, another $3k barely rates. As such, we predict that Lovells will have a long queue of Prado owners lining up to equip their favourite 4WDs with the new towing kit and, perhaps, a bigger trailerboat.

More at Lovells Springs.