After reading this, a GVM upgrade for your LC300 will seem like a no brainer

Picture this, you’ve just purchased a brand new LC300 and immediately deck it out with 4x4 essentials such as a bull bar, underbody guards, a winch, side bars, steps, rear step tow bar, an awning for good measure, along with an auxiliary battery, long range fuel tank and a roof rack.

You’re ready to explore the outback right!? Just one small problem…

After you’ve installed these aftermarket accessories, there’s approximately just 125-260kg payload remaining (depending on your LC300 model). That’s 125-260kg for all your passengers, cargo, tow ball and anything else you’re bringing along with you on your travels.

So, unless you’re travelling alone, with the lightest camping gear imaginable, little to no food or drink, and zero chance of a fridge or other camping essentials – staying under your legal GVM is nearly an impossible task!

But first, what is GVM?

GVM or Gross Vehicle Mass is the Kerb Mass, plus all accessories (bull bars, roof racks, winches, etc) and payload, and if you're towing something, GVM includes the Tow Ball Download.

To put it simply, GVM is the limit of how much your rig can weigh while remaining roadworthy. It’s there to make sure vehicles, their drivers, passengers and other vehicles on the road are safe. And penalties? Well, aside from copping a fine for exceeding GVM, or potentially having insurance claims denied in the event of an accident, a vehicle that’s over its GVM will experience:

• Poor handling
• The inability to perform evasive manoeuvres properly
• Difficulty slowing down or coming to a complete stop
• Excessive wear and tear (or straight up breakages) in your vehicle

So, GVM seems like a pretty big deal doesn’t it?

Well, we’ve got some good news! You can actually increase the GVM rating on your new LC300 quite easily with one simple upgrade. And that upgrade happens to be… the suspension.

That’s right, your vehicle’s suspension is the main component that’s directly responsible for handling your GVM and effectively distributing weight.

Unfortunately, the suspension that comes with your LC300 is primarily designed for on-road driving and minimal load adventures. So, if you plan on going four-wheel driving and carrying plenty of cargo, sadly, it won’t be up to the task. The answer to this problem is a good suspension upgrade, which will give you a better driving experience, better load-carrying capability, and higher clearance when you go off-road.

At TJM, we have actually engineered a specific suspension upgrade that’s designed to increase the load-carrying capability of your 4WD – it’s called TJM GVM Plus. TJM GVM Plus is built upon TJM’s renowned suspension range, which is designed to deliver exceptional performance, and combined with TJM leaf springs, coil springs and other suspension components, our twin-tube XGS or our advanced Pace remote-reservoir shock absorber to enhance any drive with supreme comfort, vehicle ride and handling.

In fact, we’ve been installing this essential off-roading upgrade to Toyota’s Land Cruiser range for quite a long time, including the LC300’s predecessor the LC200.

Our GVM Plus upgrade has gone through extensive testing in a long and arduous certification process, to ensure that it’s 100% designed to properly handle increased weight loads both legally and safely. To receive this certification, we didn’t just certify ourselves, we sent our GVM Plus suspension system to a third-party specialist testing facility that independently tested the performance, reliability and accuracy of our suspension system.

This whole testing process can take up to six months and can range from anything such as analysing the materials that the suspension components are made from, to loaded and unloaded real-world driving tests. These tests even include vehicle-mounted sensors to see how well a heavily loaded vehicle performs when undertaking evasive manoeuvres. As you can see, these tests are no walk in the park and quite a lot goes into making sure true GVM suspension systems are fully compliant before being available for purchase as a 4x4 accessory.

Aside from passing with flying colours, and being accredited as a true-blue GVM upgrade that shines in load-carrying capabilities and ability to perform evasive manoeuvres, our GVM Plus testing result has been officially certified by the Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities.

So, what are you actually getting from a GVM upgrade to your LC300?

Seeing as every LC300 vehicle setup can be slightly different, it does mean that we can’t give you exact numbers in terms of payload and GVM capacities. However, what we can do is provide you with an accurate estimate of what these figures look like depending on which LC300 model you have. Check the table below to see how much extra payload your LC300 model will have with a TJM GVM Plus upgrade.

Please note: Due to the suspension setup of the GR Sport and Sahara ZX, we won’t be able to provide a GVM upgrade to these models.

Whether you’ve bought an LC300, waiting on more stock to arrive, or contemplating getting one, if you’re keen on taking your new LC300 off-road, get yourself a GVM upgrade.

If you’re unsure if you need a GVM upgrade, simply load up your car with what you’d normally bring on your trip, take note of any 4x4 accessories you’ll have equipped to your LC300 (bull bars, awnings, etc), and take your car to your local weighbridge.

You’ll be surprised how close, or even over, your GVM you really are.

For more information on our GVM upgrade process or if you’d like to book your LC300 in to give it the payload needed for your adventures, drop into your local TJM store and chat with our fitment experts today. Or to explore more on what is to offer for your LC300, use our vehicle finder from the homepage.