Adding weight capacity to a TV

While the ride may be made a little more comfortable, none of the above suggestions are going to increase any of the truck's capacities.

Seattle Lion wrote:
We bought the truck in June and the TT later that month. When we bought the truck we didn't plan on owning an RV. Long story. We are not badly over capacity. It is a matter of a few hundred pounds if any. I just wanted to see if I could improve things a bit. The truck never bottoms out with the trailer, never has any overheating (transmission, oil, water, etc) even when climbing, and there is no serious sway (actually none most of the time). It just worries me that I am possibly over a bit.

Exactly the same mistake lots of us have made over the years. You basically have two choices. Change the tires, add air bags, maybe stiffer springs and limp along as is or, bite the bullet, swap the truck for the correct tool for the job, IE a 3/4 ton and go camping in comfort knowing that your not pushing the old truck beyond it's design capabilities.

Remember that your Braking Capacity on the tv is designed to carry your GVWR. That's really where the problem lies IMHO.

Will 25-100 lbs over kill your truck? Probably not, 500 is 1/4 of a ton extra load.

My best advice if it's a serious concern is to change vehicles. The half ton does fine loaded to rhe max. No problem. It was designed to operate at those capacities.

IMHO if you add springs etc to the truck and you exceed the Axle weights you should seriously look into upgrading the brakes too. Get some braded flex lines, cross drilled roaters, and some ceramic brake pads. That will help some.

Thanks

Jeremiah

Assuming all things being equal and you just have softer springs then adding air bags or Timbrens will HELP your overloaded problem. Fact is though it could be an issue if you have a 3850lb RAWR as opposed to a 4050lb RAWR. I don't know what Ford does on the F150 as far as GVW goes, since it's not like there are F150 and F200's per say. In other words in the 3/4-1 ton world sometimes the only difference between the two is the rear spring pack. On an F150 I don't know what the difference between say a 7200 gvw and a 7650 gvw is in terms of springs.
Now the other catch is the weight sticker on the truck and whether or not you are okay with violating that.

We bought the truck in June and the TT later that month. When we bought the truck we didn't plan on owning an RV. Long story. We are not badly over capacity. It is a matter of a few hundred pounds if any. I just wanted to see if I could improve things a bit. The truck never bottoms out with the trailer, never has any overheating (transmission, oil, water, etc) even when climbing, and there is no serious sway (actually none most of the time). It just worries me that I am possibly over a bit.

I used to ask the same question, got the same answer as above only one thing more from a friend of mine. He told me if I wanted my 1/2 ton to tow like a 3/4 ton, I should have bought a 3/4 ton in the first place. a girl ran into the side of the truck and I used that as an excuse to buy my 3/4 ton and it towed like the saying," the difference in night and day". I will never buy another 1/2 ton unless I give up towing first.

You can install an add-a-leaf rear spring and a class V hitch. The weak link in any 1/2 ton is the rear axle, though.

There is nothing you can do to legally increase your payload. You can add springs, airbags, higher load tires and axles to make it more comfortable and maybe safer but none of them will increase your payload. You're still stuck with the same frame etc.