So you are wondering if you can drive a Toyota Coaster on a car licence. Short answer is yes. Long answer is… maybe?
The first step to knowing if you can drive a Toyota Coaster on a regular car licence (Class C) is understanding the Tare weight and Gross Vehicle Mass (GVM) of a vehicle.
Tare: This is the weight of the vehicle when empty, except for all of its fluids and 10L of fuel
GVM: This is the maximum your vehicle can weigh when fully loaded. This includes everything you want to carry, passengers and fluids/fuel.
All vehicles will have a GVM rating.
Exceeding a vehicles GVM can come with heavy fines and is the main dictator of what each licence class can drive. The GVM listed on the plate of the vehicle is the law on the maximum the vehicle can weigh and what licence class is required to drive it.
Licence Classes
There are 7 licence classes in total as detailed on the RMS website https://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/roads/licence/driver/licence-classes.html
The main ones we want to focus on for a Toyota Coaster are Class C (Car) and LR (Light Rigid). However, MR (Medium Rigid) and HR (Heavy Rigid) may be relevant if you are looking at a larger bus for your conversion.
C (Car): Vehicles up to 4.5 tonne Gross Vehicle Mass (GVM). Vehicles that seat up to 12 adults, including the driver.
LR (Light Rigid): Rigid vehicles with a GVM of more than 4.5 tonnes, but not more than 8 tonnes. Any towed trailer must not weigh more than 9 tonnes. Vehicles can carry more than 12 adults, including the driver.
Each state will have its own website with details on licence classes. It is always worth checking your own states website to ensure you have the most up-to-date and accurate information.
Toyota Coaster
A Toyota Coaster, by default, has a GVM of 4990 and Tare weight of around 3300kg (Although the tare weight can vary widely based on model, engine, seats, door type etc). This puts it in the range of requirements of a LR licence class. But I am sure you, like us, have seen lots of Coasters that claim to be drivable on a car licence.
The GVM of a vehicle is able to be downgraded by an engineer. This will reduce the maximum load it can take but allow it to be driven on a lower licence class. In the case of a Toyota Coaster and a Class C licence, this would be downgrading the GVM to 4.5 tonne.
A Toyota Coaster (when referring to a Toyota Coaster on this blog we are generally talking about a Long Wheel Base (LWB) model unless specified) with all its seats removed weighs around 3000kg. This gives you around 1500kg for your conversion if you want to downgrade or 1990kg if you leave it as is.
Remember: GVM includes the bus fully loaded with fuel, water, people and heavy fines can be incurred if you exceed this limit.
Downgrading Your Toyota Coaster
To downgrade a vehicle you must take it to an Engineer to make any modifications required and to have it certified at the new GVM. You will need to take the bus over a weighbridge and get a weighbridge certificate to bring along with you to the engineer.
The engineer will install a modification plate on the vehicle certifying the new GVM, and issue you a modification certificate. Once any modifications are made, the RMS will need to be updated and new registration papers issued.
You should always speak to the engineer who you plan to do the work to get the exact information and requirements. Ultimately, they have the final say on whether they can or will downgrade it.
It is not rare for a seller to downgrade a Toyota Coaster prior to sale, so make sure you double check the GVM to make sure it is the weight you are after.
Downgrading Before Your Conversion
Downgrading the GVM before converting your Toyota Coaster is a bit of a trickier process. Because of the seat limits of a car license being 12, you need to remove some seats prior to downgrading.
Once the seats are removed and holes filled, you can also have your bus changed to a panel van, along with reducing the GVM.
The issue with doing this prior to changing to a motorhome is you will need to pay an engineering fee twice, once to downgrade and change to panel van, then again to change to a motorhome.
Did We Downgrade Our Toyota Coaster?
We mentioned in some early blog posts that we would be downgrading our Toyota Coaster to be driven on a car licence. This did not end up eventuating and Claire ended up upgrading her licence to LR.
When we weighed our bus on the way to the engineer, to be downgraded, it weighed in at around 4200kg. This was not quite finished and did not have any of our personal belongings in it. We also wanted to add a split system air conditioner and a bull bar, which would all need to fit within the remaining 300kgs!
That was a bit too close for comfort.
We didn’t want to wonder if every souvenir we bought would take us over the limit.
Tips For Keeping Your Toyota Coaster Under 4.5 Tonne
While we did have it tougher having a custom rear door and wheel chair lift, unfortunately we can’t blame not being able to downgrade solely on that.
We thought about weight with everything we did, but we also thought it would be so easy that we would never reach 4.5 tonne. It turns out were not as careful as we should have been.
We also wanted everything:
- Off-Grid Electrical System ✔
- Shower and Toilet ✔
- Full Sized Fridge ✔
- 140L of Water ✔
- Hot Water System ✔
- Gas Bottles ✔
- Large Lounge ✔
- … the list goes on
If your requirements aren’t as extensive as ours you are going to have a much easier time. We also wanted our bus to look as little like a motorhome as possible and as much like a ‘house’ as possible.
This means we used a lot of wood, which isn’t the lightest option.
Our pine roof, while beautiful, was probably the heaviest thing we could have done for a roof. There are much lighter options: Composite aluminum panel, 3mm plywood/mdf panel, vinyl etc. A lot of people leave the roof that is already in the Coaster. This would prevent you from changing out the insulation, but keeps the weight down.
Melamine/MDF is heavier then plywood. This means all of our Melamine walls could have been Plywood and that would have shaved off some weight. We also used 7mm Plywood for the walls of the Coaster. At the time we wanted 4-5mm but it only came in marine ply which is expensive. Lots of people use 3mm or composite aluminium again.
We framed our lounge, kitchen and bed with pine timber. This is another case where wood is not the lightest option. Framing using aluminium tube is a much lighter option. However, we have no skills when it comes to metal work so we disregarded this straight away. But is a good idea if it is something you are capable of.
Kits like those from Noq Noq forgo extra framing all together. They are just made out of stylelite laminated plywood, often keeping completed conversions to around 4000kg.
You can save a lot of weight by going with lithium batteries compared to AGM. A 100AH AGM battery weights ~25kg compared to a 100AH Lithium battery of ~10kg. Lithium batteries can also deplete to 80% capacity where AGM can only deplete down to 50%. So you need a smaller battery to achieve the same level of real world usage.
Ultimately it will all come down to what you want and need to make your Toyota Coaster feel like your home.
There is certainly value in keeping a higher GVM and upgrading your licence to a LR. However, with careful consideration, driving a Toyota Coaster on a car licence absolutely can be done!
