Clarification on tow capacity

Shorteelaw wrote:
If a vehicle says it's tow capacity is 9,000 lbs what does that 9,000 pounds include? Obviously the TT plus whatever we have in it and the water in it... But what else?

Tow capacity is not the only number you need to watch. You also need to watch payload and receiver rating.

If you look at the towing guides, from various manufacterers, you will frequently see a statement "When properly equipped", or "Max tow capacity is limited to the vehicles weakest link in the towing system". Nissan is one of those who use the weakest link statement.

The problem with concentrating on a tow capacity number is, the vehicle also has a rating on what it can carry, and, the receiver has a rating on what it can carry.

Think of this analogy:

You have a four wheeled wagon loaded with 2000 lbs of bricks. You are able to grab onto the tongue and pull that wagon by yourself. You have 2000 lbs tow capacity. Now, take the front wheels off the wagon and you can't pick up the tongue, because, your payload is not strong enough to carry the weight on it.

You need to look for a vehicle that can, not only "pull" XXXX lbs, but, it needs to "carry" your family, some cargo, a WD hitch, and "the biggie", up to 15 percent of that XXXX lbs. You're looking to pull and carry. There are 1/2 ton trucks that will do what you need to do, you just need to be carefull to buy the right one.

A few recent posts where this comes to light:

A fellow with 1/2 ton Suburban, it has 1250 payload and 7500 tow capacity. His tongue weight is 800 lbs and gross trailer weight is within his tow capacity. The problem is, he has six kids. Before he loads that 800 lbs tongue weight, he already has 700 lbs of passengers and cargo. He is 250 lbs over on payload and GVWR.

A fellow has 1000 lbs tongue weight and a passenger who requires 500 lbs of wheel chair equipment. He sees Ford advertising about 3120 lb payload on F150's and assuming they all have that payload, he buys one. When he checked payload on his particular F150, he found it only had 1450 lbs. He was overweight on payload and GVWR, before his passenger got into the truck.

A fellow with a Nissan Titan, had 975 lbs tongue / hitch weight and noticed his receiver was rated for 930 lbs (with WD). He was within his tow capacity, borderline on payload, and overweight on the receiver.