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... :)
While I agree with what you said the only issue I have is the GCWR ratings I think have some unrealistic numbers in their calculations especially in the area of wind resistance/frontal area, etc. which IMO are low when you are towing these full width, very high, and sometimes "BRICKS" we call TTs/5ers. Thus in general I think they are overinflated for many vehicles. I won't argue the point except to say I think a reasonable approach is to use the rule of thumb 80% of your GCVWR for towing these "BRICKS". I agree with this WAG based on my over a dedade of reading almost every post in several forums (the DieselStop since 2001 and here since 2007) concerning towing and reading the tea leaves so to speak. I'm even a little more biased since I tow with a Van I tow these as I call them "BRICKS" with another "BRICK":B
Larry
