Me Again wrote:
sch911 wrote:
That's allot of information you've provided. As an OEM truck engineer I am involved in tow capability testing. You've made a few assumptions which I'm not sure I agree with all of your assessments. Now I cannot speak to the documentation, including what's on the various web sites as it's usually heavily adjusted by the marketing and legal teams.
When people ask me about these things I like to keep things simple:
Tow Ratings are published for marketing purposes ONLY. There are too many variables for the actual tow capacity to be advertised for every combination of vehicle.
Actual payload and towing capacities are easy to calculate.
GVWR - Actual_Truck_Weight = Payload available
GCWR - Actual_Truck_Weight = Trailer tow capacity
Yes, you need to weigh your truck! They are all different.
Yes, you also need to stay under the front and rear axle ratings too.
Bring on the weight police... :)
For pickups GVWR is a manufacturers warranty number and has nothing to do with what legally can be hauled by a pickup truck! My state licensed my 8800 lbs GVWRed truck at 12K. Then there are the federal bridge weight laws that no pickup comes close to. GCWR is also a manufacturers warranty number!!
Chris
Along with, even the new SAE specs for the tow/gcw ratings, many of the specs the SAE speced, would be illegal. IE being able to g a minimum of 35 mph up a 5% grade. You would be illegal in the state of washington at 40, michigan 45 mph if you can not go that speed on an interstate at that grade! So from that perspective, again, gcw ratings are a performance/warranty issue.
The amount of wt etc I can carry is also this way. ie how many miles, compressions of the springs, tires not blowing up due to heat before something breaks. If you need it to last 60K, but the manufacture has warrantied the vehicle for 100K miles. You can overload it beyond the spec sch has done, you just will not get the oem to pay for any damage due to going above and beyond what they speced it to do!
I probably should not mention again, been pulled over with out getting an overwt ticket at 150% of the doorsticker for my navistar. I was even 1200 lbs over my paid for license to boot!
marty
