Are You Buying All These Half-ton Claims?

CKNSLS wrote:

BurbMan wrote:

buddyIam wrote:
With commercial operations such as refineries, power plants and manufacturing plants, they use a different type of rating. Operation speed is always set below what total output could actually be. For instance, if a refinery is rated a 100 barrels/hour output. It would actually have the capability to put out more barrels/hour. The closer you get to your max rating, the greater the probability of failure. They reduce the rating because actually running at max would reduce the amount of time between maintenance, and increase the probability of failures.

I don't think any of us want to see a failure on the road. Both for safety and inconvenience reasons.

Same applies to trucks...it's all about Duty Cycle. I have no reason to doubt the manufacturers rating for a truck, whether it's a 150, 2500, 3500, etc...The question is how often? A 150 with EB is designed to be a fun to drive general purpose pickup...and the few times per year that the owner needs to tow heavy, it can deliver the mail. But if you were, say, a landscaping contractor, and you used the 150 to tow a 12000 lb landscaping trailer every day to jobsites, the 150 won't last as long as a 350 would.

This argument has been used as well and is not true IMHO either. I have towed my 5,500 pound travel trailer 8,000 miles in 8 months. A heavier "duty cycle" than most towing with a half-ton will ever see. The truck is a half-ton Crew Cab Silverado with the 5.3.The trailer is 29 feet long. I HAD ZERO ISSUES. Not even a flat tire.

There is a guy over at bobistheoilguy.com that runs a fleet of half-ton Silverados with few issues. So-I don't buy in to the "duty cycle" thing either. Both from first hand experience and from what I read over on the above mentioned website.

5500lbs for 8000 mi?
That's not getting into the duty cycle yet.
Yes the newer crop of 1/2 tons are Alot more capable as those from 15-20 years ago.
It's not even a fair comparison for hp, amenities and suspension/brakes.
You put a 1/2 ton thru its paces for years on end at max capacity and it will have more wear and tear than a HD doing the exact same work. I've had almost exclusively F150s for company work trucks for 20 years now and I can tell you that I can and do flatten out a set of rear leaf springs in 30-40kmi, every truck, every time. Also greater wear on other components. I've put mile for mile with other superintendents who don't work their trucks and the difference is noticeable.