Hello everyone,


After some advice on people's suspension and brake setups on their fwd magna/ verada tow vehicles.
Bit of info on my ride rig
1998 kf verada ei 275ks stock as a rock except for dual fuel, but well maintained (just purchased)
Mid 60s 14 foot van soon to be fitted with electric brakes and tekonsha iq controller. (Tare 950kg ball weight 80kg

I'd prefer brand, type of springs/ sway bar, shocks and any brake upgrades that have been done and how she handles on the road.

Have the maiden voyage Australia Day long weekend so will be getting her ready over the coming months. All mechanical work will be completed by myself except wheel alignment (wish I had the equipment)

Is anyone running lowered suspension and towing a van? How does it go?


Thanks in advance people.

"Is anyone running lowered suspension and towing a van? How does it go?"

I never towed a van with my wife's TF sedan, but could see no reason that it couldn't. As for one with a lowered suspension, you may have a bit of trouble in levelling the van. Mid 60's cars seemed to have a higher clearance and bumper setting than today's cars, so I would expect that your van may be heavily nose down. You can get adjustable height tow hitches but they look heavy and damned fugly. Still, that is about the only way you could go.

Don't try to take off uphill on a slippery surface with the van behind you. That is the only downer to using a Magna to tow a van. They have excellent power and weight distribution, and would make an ideal tow vehicle.

I have towed a pop top camper trailer with a tf magna before, loaded weight of approx 1 tonne. It towed just fine. It's a bit of a different story with the caravan due to it's lack of aero dynamics and more weight, I estimate to be 12-1500 fully loaded ready for a trip.

Your right about that, I nearly got stuck in a liberty fwd towing my camper a few years ago. I decided to veer off the road and onto a gravel road. When trying to get back up onto the road I had lots of trouble and may attempts getting back up the slight incline. Had to dig some tyre tracks with wheelspin to get to firmer ground. I learnt my lesson. Haha the wife reminds me every time I got to go off road. Lol

Thankfully the van is running 13inch rim and tyres with a drop axle so the body of the van sits at about 300mm when the van is level front and back. I picked up the van from renmark SA and towed it back with a v6 fwd toyota Camry and it towed quite nicely. Fuel economy was crap about 20l per 100km but it did the job.

I guess my concern with a lowered car is 2 things

Tow ball height when lowered (could someone measure the height of ground to where the tow tounge bolts on)

Lack of suspension travel when on open undulating roads. Don't wanna be hitting the bump stops.

Cheers and thanks for the reply erad.