attn: Weight Police

transamz9 wrote:
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.
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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.

I honestly don't know the TRUE axle ratings for my truck. The placard lists 4000 lbs front and 4150 lbs rear. However, the weight ratings specifically state that those are the ratings with the STOCK 18" tires. The stock tires are BF Goodrich Rugged Trails... load range C tires rated at 2300 lbs per tire.

My Tundra is the Rock Warrior package that comes stock with 17" E rated BF Goodrich All Terrains rated at 3100 lbs per tire. That is a total of 3200 lbs MORE capacity than the crappy Ragged Trails that come on a "stock" Tundra.

I'm not sure if the axle ratings are lowered because of the crappy tires that come stock, or if they maximum weight carrying capacity of the suspension/axle/lugs is only 4150 lbs. Either way, Toyota took 950 lbs off the axle rating for the GVWR.

I imagine breaking the axle would be quite similar to losing a wheel while driving. This is something that I have seen quite a bit in my profession. I've never seen anyone "lose control", but the increased coefficient of friction quickly grinds the vehicle to a halt.

Not really a safety issue, its somewhat like having a tire blowout. Lots of people have blown out tires, very few die as a result.

I still don't see a "SAFETY" issue from overloading a truck by 10% of its GVWR. In my case, that would be overloaded by 720 lbs. That would bring my combined weight up to 7920 lbs... still under my axle ratings.