attn: Weight Police

spoon059 wrote:
Again... where does the SAFETY aspect come into play here? It seems that you are agreeing with me. The "weight police" are always saying its unsafe... stay away from me when you are driving... you are endangering your life and your families lives and anyone else on the road... Where is the safety aspect?

Tundra CLAIMS that my GCWR is right around 16,000 lbs using the new J2807 standard. I've never, nor will I ever, get my truck that heavy. But according to Toyota, it is safe to be that heavy.

My truck empty is something like 6200 lbs (don't have exact numbers off the top of my head). Suppose I decide to pull an 8000 5th wheel (everyone on RV.net seems to agree that 5ers are the best method for pulling). My GCWR is 14,000 lbs. That's a ton under my max rating... which we ALL agree has some sort of safety margin built in. All my weights are below the ratings, except RAWR. But suppose I have air bags to supplement the suspension. How is this "unsafe"? Yes, I am over my RAWR, but between the trailer and truck brakes I have plenty of stopping power. Yes, I could potentially have rear axle problems faster than Toyota anticipates because of the higher weight ratings. How is it UNSAFE though?

This is the question that I ask and nobody can answer. Half ton owners get reamed out for being UNSAFE because they are 500 lbs over their GVWR... but I see nothing to substantiate the claims. I agree 100% that they have a higher likelihood of mechanical breakdown as a result of over loading... but that isn't UNSAFE.

There is a picture in another thread about a F-450 that appears to be grossly overloaded... to the point of bending the frame. But the picture shows the truck broken down on the side of the road (cue Ford jokes here...), not crumpled up in a wreck in the travel lanes. Even having a load so overweight that the frame snaps in half, it wasn't UNSAFE.

If it was so unsafe we would be inundated with stories and pictures of overloaded half ton trucks that are involved in wrecks all the time. I go camping as much as I can. I see LOTS of half ton trucks pulling trailers that are obviously more than they are meant to handle.

I saw a guy with a 35' rv that had a dry weight of 9500 lbs that he pulled with a 2007 Tundra Crewmax. He had a big dog, his wife, his teenage son and his parents in the truck and was pulling well over 11,000 lbs loaded in that trailer. We were in the mountains too. Every weight rating they publish... this guy was over. He had been pulling like that for several years... no problems.

There are 2 guys that pull 5ers with Tundra's from the Midwest to Bradenton, FL every winter. I've seen them down there the last 3 years. These are smaller 5ers... but still over the payload that Toyota advertises. They've been doing it for longer than I have been going to that particular campground... no problems.

I'm not advocating doing it, I don't do it myself... but I don't see the huge SAFETY issue that people keep throwing around on these forums.

Yes, I guess I am kind of agreeing with you. IMHO safety comes in more than anything with the driver behind the wheel. Driving for the conditions at hand. You can be just as unsafe driving completely empty. You can be unsafe by not maintaining the vehicle. Is loading your Tundra to the point that the tires are about to blow unsafe? It depends on the conditions at hand IMO. Things like are you going two driveways down at 5 mph or are you going two states over at the same speed and following distance that everyone else is doing?

I don't have a problem with anyone using their vehicle they way they want to as long as they are doing it to the conditions at hand. The biggest thing I think people rave over with the 150/1500 series trucks is that there rear axle don't have any backup if it snaps. Do you know the axle manufactures rating on your Tundra's rear axle? I'm asking because I don't. The thing with a 250/2500 trucks axle is that they are basically rated the same as a 350/3500 from the axle manufacture.

The axle on my 2005 2500 is rated to just about the same as the trucks GVWR on the door of the truck which is 9,000#. The axle rating that Dodge gave it was 6000#.

I believe that if you overloaded your Tundra to the same percentage as the Ford in the picture you mentioned your axle would go before your frame. Have you ever tried to control a vehicle with it running down the road without one back wheel and tire? It would be a little different than having all four wheels on with your belly dragging.