Difference between 2500hd and 3500 SRW

transamz9 wrote:

Miles Away wrote:

travelnutz wrote:
Miles Away,

Wrong! You are not a commercial carrier or towing/carrying for business or financial compensation.

Please note that my post clearly stated OEM components and also airbags are approved as are elastic support enhancements and steel spring leafs/overloads.

Travelnutz:
WRONG? Having spent my carrier as a traffic homicide investigator, accident re-constructionist and insurance investigator, I can tell you with some authority that no matter what kind of parts you use and how good your intentions and mechanical skill package are, if the vehicle was not manufactured for the extra weight, or re-certified by the DOT after the proper modifications were made, it legally remains what it was when it left the factory. The fact that the vehicle in question is not in commercial service has nothing to do with the liability issue. If your insurance company wants to bail on you in the face of a catastrophic loss because your vehicle was not certified for the upgraded weight, you could be left holding the bag alone. The point of my post was to simply say, don't go blindly down a path without first having looked at the possible consequences.

And how hard is it to have it changed at the DOT? It's not. You call your Sheriff and tell him you have built a vehicle and need to get it certified. He comes out and makes sure it's not stolen, makes sure it has all the required equipment for highway use and it's paper work from there. You tell him what you built it for weight wise.I have done it many times on trailers also. If it's commercial it will have to have the weight tags listed on the door. (This is in Ky)

OIg the wt tags on the door are like they are here in Washington, they can be found at your local Napa or ANY place that has stick on numbers, at the limit your are registered for. Here in wa st, one buys a minimum wt tag of 1.5times the empty tare of the truck as finished! so a complete rig like a pickup, the manufacture supplies a tare tag, then you take ot to the DOL, they look at that tag, and set your gvw at 1.5 times to the next higher ton! so a 7000 empty truck, will be 10500 or 12K of license! Be it having an 8600-9900 door tag as many SW rigs have, or in the case of my dually an 11400 door tag. I am actually registered at 14K, along with being legal in this state to 14K gvw, not the 11400 on the door tag.

So with this all in mind.......one does need to know what the licensing and registration laws and codes are in the state you live in, and or will travel thru to know what your actual legal wts will be. If I really wanted to, I could license and run down the road with my dually 3500 at about 31K lbs, not that I would recomend it, I get 20K on the rear axel, front would be 600 lbs per inch width of tires, or 9.5" x 600 x 2 tires or about 11K on the front! plus the 20K ont he rear, as long as I had a 32K plate. The fun part of this is, the LEO that pulls me over, WILL get me off the road, as this would be dangerous, but weight would not be the killer. Probably lack of braking or some other issue frankly!

Marty