[Laneco]

When I was in my 20's, I worked at a ford and toyota dealership. This was when they first came out with the little Toyota vans that were rear wheel drive with very short wheel bases. The engines were under the driver and front passenger seats.

We had a brand new one that the customer kept bringing back because the tires were wearing badly. The customer and his wife were really really large people. Probably 400 lbs for the man and a solid 350 for the woman. So that's 750 lbs plus slung out over the front tires. Wicked alignment change with the weight up front in the little van.

Her parents often went with them on trips and they were every bit as large. Now we're talking a solid 1500 pounds of people plus all their luggage in the van.

The problem with that is it exceeded the weight rating for the entire vehicle. As we all know, this effects the steering, handling and braking...

I would not consider that vehicle, operated in that fashion, to be safe for the public highways. An 80's toyota van isn't a 3/4 ton Chevy van...

angela