jus2shy wrote:
The sad thing is that I think most half ton pickups in the US could easily match the foreign trucks in payload capacity. It's just that the litigous happy society around here forces things to be over engineered and built up. So we get huge bulky 1-ton vehicles pulling these smaller 5th wheels in the US. Even the Chevy Colorado could had been made with the same capacities but it will be lowered to around 1,400 lbs payload probably because of the litigous nature of our populous. I digress. My perfect truck would be the size of the new Colorado/Toyota Tacoma and have the capacity of my current truck (RAM 3500).
And when you get a stiff cross wind or a semi passes you the opposite way, and the wake hits that big sail of a FW, it'll take that little TV right off the road. You still need some beef to counteract the side-forces produced by =any= trailer. Hell, drop the wheels off the pavement onto a soft shoulder, even at 25 mph, and your "perfect" TV would be tossed sideways 1-2', I'd bet. Don't ever forget that you've got a =long= lever arm from the center of pivot of the FW to the king pin to move you around.
Lyle
