Every 4WD buyer’s guide tells you which vehicles are good. None of them tell you whether the one you’re looking at can legally carry what you intend to put in it.
That’s the gap this tool fills. Tell it how many people travel with you, roughly what your gear and accessories weigh, and what you tow. It checks all SUVs, wagon and ute variants on sale in Australia against those numbers – payload, GVM and GCM – and ranks what’s left against the things you said matter most.
What it actually checks
Three limits, not one. Payload is what the vehicle can carry once you’ve accounted for its own kerb weight. GVM is the most the loaded vehicle can weigh. GCM is the most the vehicle and trailer can weigh together, and it’s the one that catches people out – because towing closer to a vehicle’s maximum eats into what you can carry, kilogram for kilogram.
A 4WD rated to tow 3500kg almost never tows 3500kg with four people, all the gear and some accessories aboard. The maths says otherwise, and that’s what counts at a weighbridge.
Why some vehicles come back unverified
A number of manufacturers don’t publish a GCM figure at all. Where that’s the case we say so rather than guessing. An unverified result isn’t a failed one – it means the maker hasn’t given anyone enough information to check, which is worth knowing before you commit.
Of course, we’ll do everything we can to fill in those gaps – but just letting you know in case you get a non-result.
What it can’t do
It works from manufacturer figures and standard assumptions: 80kg per person, towball weight at 10 per cent of a trailer’s ATM. Your actual crew, your actual accessories and your actual van will differ. Treat the result as a shortlist and a warning system, not a certificate.
Ultimately it’s the weighbridge – and the authorities – that will decide if your rig is overloaded.
Already own your 4WD?
Use the payload calculator instead. Same numbner crunching, but pointed at one vehicle.
