attn: Weight Police

spoon059 wrote:

blt2ski wrote:
A manufactures GCWR has absolutely NO meaning to ANY LEO/CVEO on the road. only in a civil court will any of the door sticker/warranty max weight numbers be a difference. And even then, not always.

Marty is 100% right, I've said the same thing many times. I can register my Tundra for 10,000 lbs if I want to, and can LEGALLY operate it with 10,000 lbs of weight distributed amongst my 4 tires. I can be stopped and weighed (VERY unlikely to happen) and there isn't a darn thing that a police officer could do... even though my sticker from Toyota RECOMMENDS a max weight of something like 7200 lbs.

Now, if I was loaded to 10,000 lbs and got into a wreck, a civil attorney could attempt to sue me for negligence for being over the manufacturers RECOMMENDED weight limit... but that isn't a guarantee that they WIN the argument. I can muddy the waters a little more...

Toyota limits my GVWR to 7200 lbs. My combined axle ratings are something like 8400 lbs. If I was over Toyota's RECOMMENDATION, but under the axle limits, its a lot harder to prove negligence.

Now, lets get into the argument of stopping the vehicle. I promise you that my Tundra, loaded up and weighing 8300 lbs total will stop from 55 mph in a shorter distance than a loaded diesel class A motorhome that weights 40,000 lbs. Nobody would argue that the 40,000 Prevost is inherently unsafe, because it is within the frame manufacturers RECOMMENDED weight range. So, my "overloaded" Tundra stopped in less distance than the Prevost... how is that negligent? Stopping distances are not the end all, be all of safety either. Now, if I had the vehicle so grossly overloaded that I couldn't safely negotiate a turn, a lane change or stop within a reasonable distance then it would be much easier to prove negligence.

Again... I am NOT advocating going over your weight limits. I spent too much on my truck to overload it and wear it out faster than need be. I'm just pointing out that from a criminal standpoint, there is no violation. From a civil standpoint, it might make it a little easier to suggest negligence if you are over the RECOMMENDED weight ratings but, in and of itself, it doesn't establish the preponderance of evidence.

You seem to be mixing up GCWR with GVWR and while GCWR is more of a performance/warranty issue the GVWR is IMO MUCH MORE than just a manufacturer's recommendation. It is IMO an actual federally specified "SAFETY" number certified by that FMVSS GVWR sticker on the driver's side door jam. While there might be no law specfically written for GVWR violations a case could be made that one is operating a vehicle in an unsafe condition if they are exceeding the GVWR as listed on that door jam sticker. The main area where the GVWR plays a crucial role is in the brake testing and certification for that vehicle to meet federally mandated safety standards for passenger cars and LDTs.

Larry