Do major suspension mods alter the cars legal GVW?
Discussion
This question has kept coming back to me so I thought I'd ask. Does a vehicles GVW and max train weight still apply if major suspension modifications have been made? As an example, my car has had the entire suspension replaced with an aftermarket kit.
To me it doesn't matter, it's just curiosity. But there's a lot of people in the 4x4 world that are fitting heavy diesel engines and heavy armour and winch bumpers to lightweight 4x4s and take them over their GVW even before the driver has got in! Case in point, Suzuki Vitara. Kerb weight is 1200kg, Max GVW is 1450kg, leaving just 250kg to play with, including driver, passengers, and their hand bags. Fit a diesel engine, as a lot of people do, some winch bumpers etc and you've probably already used up most of that 250kg. I'm wondering if they've also fitted an aftermarket suspension kit, which replaces the control arms, dampers, springs, trailing arms etc, then does the manufacturers GVW even apply any more or can it be argued that it no longer does?
To me it doesn't matter, it's just curiosity. But there's a lot of people in the 4x4 world that are fitting heavy diesel engines and heavy armour and winch bumpers to lightweight 4x4s and take them over their GVW even before the driver has got in! Case in point, Suzuki Vitara. Kerb weight is 1200kg, Max GVW is 1450kg, leaving just 250kg to play with, including driver, passengers, and their hand bags. Fit a diesel engine, as a lot of people do, some winch bumpers etc and you've probably already used up most of that 250kg. I'm wondering if they've also fitted an aftermarket suspension kit, which replaces the control arms, dampers, springs, trailing arms etc, then does the manufacturers GVW even apply any more or can it be argued that it no longer does?
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