Caravans do not have to be small in Australia

Boomerweps wrote:

RobertRyan wrote:
A medium sized Caravan being pulled by a Ford Ranger
Medium Caravan being pulled by a Ford Ranger

Wow, a Ranger described as a one ton class vehicle!
With a choice of a 5 cylinder diesel or a 2.0L turbo with more power than the US 2.4L versions.

This really should not be too much of a surprise. Our US weight ratings are way out of whack and designed more to push buyers into a bigger, more expensive vehicle that could easily do two times what is rated.

A really good way to judge this is the commercial truck lines. Your average class 8 tractor (the ones hauling 53 foot trailers or semi's) weighs in at only about 14k to 16k lbs. Yet it hauls a GCVW of 80,000lbs or about a 40k payload depending on the type of trailer and how much it weighs.

They have torque ratings of on average 1200 to 1600 or so. with horsepower between 375 to 500 depending on engine and settings.

So My Dodge Ram has 385HP and can be set for 800ft/lbs of torque. And I can only haul 12K? 15K?

Sorry the math doesnt work.

All else being equal I should be able to haul about a GCVW of at least 40k.

This is why you see the ranger rated at a 1 ton rating.

So the class 8 truck has a tractor to GCVW weight percentage of 20% (16000/80000=.20)

My Ram weight is 8350 as standing in my driveway. Based on my trailer rating GCVW of 10720 my rig would weigh 19,070.

That means that my truck to GCVW percentage is 43% a more than double factor.

There is a HUGE amount of marketing and misunderstanding involved in these ratings aimed at appealing to wannabe Peterbuilt drivers with lots of cash to spend on a giant 1 ton dually.

As for the Ranger they need to get the diesel in it here sooner rather than later.