1/2 ton trucks?

dedbird wrote:
I have a 2014 Silverado 1500 with Max Towing and it tows a 10500lb 5er with ease.

And gets 24 miles/gallon on a grocery run.

Best of Both worlds

You mean it doesn't break all the lug nuts and overheat the half ton?

Half tons are capable and it's pretty rare that we actually see them with tires over loaded. Almost NEVER overloaded on tires even the so called "squishy" P rated truck tires. Axles overloaded? Yes we see that.... Tires overloaded? Pretty rare. Especially as we help the users properly set the WD hitch.

We need to understand that in the real world most vacationers are technically overloaded. I'm not even talking about RV'ers...I'm talking regular old vacationers with just a vehicle.

You know that Camry with a family of five, trunk full, bubble on the roof packed full, yep, it's "overloaded" and still handles pretty good and still brakes pretty good. but, I bet that the tires are still not overloaded.

My Town&Country has 1150 lbs of payload "excluding" the driver. Now my TC is pretty loaded up with options but doesn't have "everything" possible on it. My family of four weighs 750-800 lbs in the flesh, before gear. So us traveling on vacation are at or pretty close to GVWR with our luggage...scary huh? Guess what, so are most people traveling with half tons (that includes cars because the payload is similar on a lot of them) and families.

I see these T&C and other minivans and SUV's all the time with 7 teenage to adult size people in the car, bubble on top, loaded cargo carrier off the hitch. Are they over GVWR? Yep, are they over axle rating? Yep, are they over tire capacity? Not likely.

For example, using MY personal 2014 Town & Country as an example.

Here is the tire load sticker (including payload) and the axle rating stickers.





Now, here is where the math gets fuzzy... notice that the payload is calculated at 36 PSI? I wonder why that is? Probably for ride and comfort.

The Kumho tires on my T&C Carry a max of 1,764 lbs each at 44 PSI. Thats 3,528 lbs per axle or a total of 7,056 gross before the actual tires are overloaded...again, this is at 44PSI not the 36 PSI that the tire loading sticker says.

Why? I don't have the answer for that.

I wanted to share that example because MANY MANY MANY "overloaded" light trucks (1/2, 3/4. and 1 ton) are overloaded per the sticker on the door, but many of them (I would venture to say MOST) are under the tire load rating. Especially if they are running at Max PSI.

Many "overloaded" on Half Ton owners report good handling and point out that the tires are NOT overloaded while towing. Many with scaled weights, guess what, they are 100% correct the tires are safe... they are not going to blow out under the load because they are NOT overloaded.

I'm not advocating overloading, just pointing out that some of the math is fuzzy. (Ram payload calculation vs Ford payload calculation is another example) I am also not saying that tires don't get overloaded..it does happen. Especially if replacement tires are not equal to the OEM tires.

Thanks!

Jeremiah