Actual Payload of vehicles....

sch911 wrote:
There is nothing you can do to MOD your truck to get any more capacity out of it beyond what is on that door sticker. That sticker contains your legal limits. Period.

Legal? The "legal limits" are what you register your truck for. My Tundra was registered to 8000 lbs, but my GVWR was 7200 lbs. I was LEGAL to 8000 lbs, because that is what my registration paid for. OP, you can register your vehicle to 25,999 lbs and be legal trying to haul that weight... period.

Your manufacturer will likely fight any warranty work if they find you over your RATINGS for your truck, also known as axle weights and GVWR. Those RATINGS are simply a compromise between engineering, legal, accounting and advertising. The engineer knows the EXACT breaking point for each and every piece on that truck. They know the static and dynamic breaking points. Legal knows how much money they can stand to lose if they produce an inferior product or are subject to recall or lawsuits. Accounting knows the exact cost of every piece on that truck and how much they want to set aside for warranty work. Advertising knows what the competition claims for payload and max towing and wants to have the highest number possible. When they combine those departments, they eventually agree on ratings. Those ratings are to cover the manufacturer and to limit warranty claims. You would have to be significantly over those ratings in order for the dealer/manufacturer to be able to PROVE that your issue was caused by being overweight. The weekend warrior towing 6 times a year for less than 200 miles per trip is unlikely to cause any obvious damage to his vehicle even being 300 or 400 lbs over weight. Remember, the dealer/manufacturer has to PROVE that being overweight caused the issue.

If you are involved in a collision or other event resulting in damage or injury, there is some lawyer somewhere itching to sue you. You don't have to be at fault, you don't have to be overloaded... you can still be sued. In order to prove negligence the lawyer would have to display a preponderance of evidence that you did something egregious... your speed was too fast, your vehicle was overloaded, you were distracted by your cell phone... any litany of reasons. To produce that preponderance of evidence, the lawyer would have to show that your actions were UNSAFE. Is being 200 lbs over your axle rating unsafe? Depends on the judge or jury. Is being 2 mph over the limit unsafe? Depends on judge or jury. Are driving on bald tires unsafe? Depends on judge and jury. There is no set precedent that states that 1 lbs over a GVWR is de facto negligence and therefore that weight, in and of itself, is sufficient to prove liability. A lawyer would have to prove (preponderance of the evidence) that because your vehicle was overweight, that was a DIRECT cause of the damage or injury. Again... being 400 lbs overweight is going to be hard for a lawyer to PROVE.

Legal Schmegal... don't over load your vehicle. Not because its "illegal", but because it just isn't smart to do.