Australian 4WD Action – July 2019

MODIFICATIONS

MOST^ CO

MMON^ IL

LEGAL

Some of these are obvious, some less so – but all are essential to understand.

LIFTING A VEHICLE MORE THAN 75MM ABOVE STANDARD:
To sum up a very complex topic as quickly as possible, lifting a
vehicle can be done in a number of ways – by modifying the
suspension, by fitting larger tyres, or by (less commonly these days)
raising the body up off the chassis. Regardless of method, vehicle
lifts fall into two categories – those that can be ‘self-certified’ (i.e
stay under a pre-defined total raise limit so the owner can certify the
vehicle meets roadworthy standards), and those that need
engineering approval. Until recently, a self-certification limit of
50mm total lift (including lift from wheels and tyres) was all that was
allowed – typically 35mm suspension lift, and barely-bigger-than-
standard tyres. Thanks to a lot of hard work by the Australian
Automotive Aftermarket Association, this has been recently
increased to 75mm – so legally you can raise a vehicle 2inches in the
suspension and fit a 2inches larger than standard diameter set of
tyres (giving a 1inch raise). Anything over this requires automotive
engineering approval. This is also now true of vehicles with
Electronic Stability Control, which once were not able to be modified
at all. If you’ve got a modern 4WD, thank the A A A A that you can
modify it.

TYRES/WHEELS TOO WIDE FOR GUARDS:
Yeah, we agree, 4WDs look tough with big wide wheels and tyres, but
the fact is, if tyres hang outside the guards, they’re instantly illegal.
That’s because the wheel arches are designed to cover the tyres and
stop water, stones and mud from being flung at a rate of knots, but
there’s also a practical purpose to guards too – they keep mud from
covering the side of the vehicle. On this topic, wheel spacers that
space the wheels out wider are blatantly illegal – no two ways about
it. Keep your tyres under cover with wider-than-standard wheel arch
flares from a variety of manufacturers.

SPOTLIGHTS OR LIGHTBARS ON BULLBARS:
Generally speaking, any lights including driving lights and light bars
cannot protrude forward of the profile of the bullbar, or above the top
tube. This means many of the old-style 240mm or larger spotlights
that sit proud of the bullbar when viewing it from the side, are illegal.

The same goes for light bars bolted to the top of the bullbar, with the

general idea being that any lights installed in this fashion may pose

an increased risk of injury to pedestrians in case of an accident.

Yeah, yeah, we hear you – it’s a bit hazardous to your health to be hit

by a vehicle in general, but this is the mindset we’re dealing with

here... While we’re on the topic, any spotlights or light bars that face

forward, must be wired up so that they come on and off with the

highbeams, as well as being individually switchable, so they can be

instantly dipped for oncoming traffic.

FISHING ROD HOLDERS:

Same as with spotlights – the sharp edges of fishing rod holders can

present an increased risk of injury to an idiot walking out into the

street while they’re immersed in posting the latest Poke-whatever

meme to their 12 followers. Coppers in coastal towns regularly have

crack-downs on empty fishing rod holders, with the great irony being

that if you’ve got a rod in the holder, you’re okay. Fines easily get into

the hundreds of dollars. The solution? An old $20 rod from a garage

sale cable-tied permanently into the rod holder...*

*not legally an actual solution.

EXCEEDING GVM:

A big one! Do you know how heavy your 4WD is – or for that matter,

what your vehicle’s Gross Vehicle Mass actually is? It’s actually scary

how quickly you can exceed your GVM, once you add all the big

accessories that a typical rig cops during a buildup process. This is

one that authorities offer very little leeway on – if you’re overloaded,

you’re pushing your brakes and suspension way too hard. There’s

enough involved in GVMs that we’ve dedicated an entire section to it

later in this article.

NEXT LEVEL MODS:

Dual-cab chops, solid-axle swaps, engine and gearbox conversions

• no large re-engineering job can be done legally without the formal
  sign-off of a vehicle engineer. We’ll talk more about that next as it’s
  such an important part of what constitutes a legal or illegal 4WD.

V8 swaps are common place but

require proper engineering

W

W

W

. 4
W
D
A
C
TI
O
N
.C
O
M
.A
U

(^05)
7