Having haules steel for years over the road and being stupid heavy on occassion (and avoiding the scales). I know what happens when you are heavy. Your ability to stop quickly becomes a fantasy and you'd better anticipate every stop well in advance. Having said that, there is always the chance someone pulls in front of you or the little old lady jaywalks in front of you and your chance of stopping in both instance is also a fantasy.
I prefer to be loaded at less than my truck's designed capacity just foe thbose events.
You can never control what another person does that may impact you in a negative manner. I sure as heck don't want to cream an old lady or smash into another vehicle because I was unable to stop because I exceeded the limits of my brakes and/or be unable to avoid a person or vehicle through an evasive manuver because my camper would put me on it's side.
Not me. I like to err on the side of safety, especially knowing first hand what being oveloaded entails as far as stopping in a safe distance.
I had a lot more braking power available than a 2 axle pickup truck. I had brakes on every axle, big brakes and I typically ran a truck with 11 axles x 2 brakes on each axle. Thats 22 sets of brakes and when heavy, that wasn't enough.
