King pin weight

tinner12002 wrote:

JIMNLIN wrote:
Thanks for giving us actual scaled axle weights. Eliminates all the guessing.
No your truck isn't overloaded.

How do you figure the trucks not overloaded...

so many things can change the weight rating, as well as the actual carrying capacity of the vehicle.
the manufactures vehicle weight rating is not the carrying capacity of the vehicle, but its only a rating based on the weight of the vehicle and the tires/air pressure, and suspention it was delivered with..

the manufacture of the axle determines the maximum load that the axle can carry, which is a few times more than is safe for the suspension to carry.

in addition, manufactures know the truck can haul more, and they know people who buy trucks to haul a load with are going to cheat the rating quite often, so they give a very conservative rating to keep it within the definition of "passenger vehicle"..

if a 3/4 or 1ton pickup was rated its true weight carrying ability, it would fall under DOT rules....
and technically, even though the rating is well under DOT requirements for a passenger vehicle, if it gets loaded beyond the manufactures rating, it does fall under DOT regulations.

in addition...
in a lot of states, any combination over 10,000lbs may fall under DOT regulation.

also, in some states, any vehicle or combination over 20,000lbs is required to cross the DOT scales

...and any combination or single vehicle over 26,000lbs always falls under DOT regulation.

if you have any doubts, look it up on DOT website, as its spelled out fairly clearly.

there is a lot about the vehicle weight ratings, regulations, requirements and laws to understand if one want to get technical, but luckily, unless one is blatantly abusing the laws/rules and advertising it, our recreational vehicles are largely ignored to keep the tourism/recreation industry of the states healthy.