In 35 yrs of daily towing, I have NEVER had a DOT inspection. I have been thru the scales, NEVER been over weight, even when at 150% of the gvwr/gcwr of a given rig. I have always been under the road bed limit of 500 lbs in inch of tire width, and the 20K per axel, unless limited by tire width. Only issue I had was a emergency brake wire was not hooked up one time correctly per an leo, fixed it, went on my way.
I have not had any issues that folks talk about on here. Including pulling trailers at the time upwards of 8-9K with a hitch rated to DW 5000/10K with WD back in late 80's to early 90s when it was rare to find hitches rated over 10K.
Then again, the first new truck I bought, did not have a gcwr per say, when I found one for later year trucks, the gcwr was 100 lbs LESS than its gvwr, unless you looked in the fine print!
Generally speaking, if things are with in reasonable limits, the truck should do it. BUT as noted, one needs to know how much weight is of the FA, as that has been my biggest issue with heavier trailer and pickup truck handling. MY MDT has never had this issue. As very little weight is taken off the FA with this trailer attached.
marty
