ADVICE: MORE TRUTH ABOUT 3500KG TOWING

What weight you can really tow

For that reason we've tabled the most popular utes below to show what they can tow when laden. So rather than explain just how little weight you can carry in the ute when towing its maximum permitted amount, here we're showing you what weight you can realistically tow, after you have loaded up your ute to its maximum allowed weight.

Why 3500kg?

Why is 3500kg the magic towing weight to aspire to in the first place? That's the maximum a light trailer can legally weigh according to Australia Design Rules, so as a vehicle manufacturer if your ute can tow this, it'll tow anything that a buyer is likely to hitch up. With bigger and heavier trailer boats and caravans more popular than ever, trailers weighing 3000kg-plus are perhaps not in the majority just yet, but at this rate they soon will be.

A 3500kg towing capacity has become a 'standard' specification like the seven-seat capacity SUV — it is 'given'. Release a six-seater SUV or a 2500kg tow capacity ute and see how that goes. Many buyers will go elsewhere.

The payload/towing reality

The reality is that most utes can't carry much in the way of people (or gear) and tow 3500kg at the same time. It's simply too much weight for the ute to handle, whether it's a mechanical issue or a dynamic one.

Provided you don't block the road, no-one cares if you cook your engine or break your transmission because you've overloaded your ute and are towing too much weight.

Break a spring and crash into someone, then you'll get a whole lot of attention. The weight limits set by the manufacturer is as much a law you are supposed to abide by as much as a speed limit is.

In a society more focussed than ever on accountability (including drivers not dangerously overloading their vehicles), you're obliged to abide by weight limits.

Gone are the days of 'she'll be right'. In a worst-case scenario, after a fatal crash an overloaded rig could well see you slapped with a manslaughter charge. Step back from that and you’re still facing not only the possibility of negligent driving charges but the risk your vehicle and van or boat insurance policies are now worth nothing.

How towing capacity works

There is the argument that if towball weight is actually vehicle payload once you've hitched up, then the trailer weight sitting on its wheels (a weight called Gross Trailer Mass) should be considered the maximum towing weight. That’s not how towing capacity is defined: like it or not, the vehicle industry defines maximum towing capacity as Aggregate Trailer Mass (the total maximum weight of all of the trailer - including towball weight).

Payload is measured by subtracting GVM from kerb weight, which is usually given by the vehicle manufacturer.

But what if that figure is wrong? We got Ian McCallum from WeighStation to weigh the 10 utes in our recent Best dual-cab 4x4 ute award only to find all but one of the utes was over its manufacturer stated kerb weight.

We've incorporated the corrected (measured) kerb weights as part of our Claimed v Real towing capacity and payload table. You can also see the measured weights and the difference between them and stated weights in table two.