Payload vs Tow rating?

Issue as Dougie pointed out, payload can be gone before you even hook up a trailer. If the rig is at gvw before hooking up a trailer, you have NO trailer capacity! My family of 6 was a bit heavier than dougie, when my 4 kids were adult size teens, we pushed teh scales into the 1200 lb range. Pretty much putting his burb at gvwr BEFORE adding the 600-700 lbs of hw of our trailer. Not to mention the two alaskan malamutes and crates in the bed. Sometimes a canoe, 3500wt generator, 6 bikes, gear for the canoe. It was not uncommon for my CC K3500 to be in the 9-9500 lb range, and it weighed 6600 empty! so 3000 lbs added to my truck, and I was only pulling a 6500lb trailer with up to about 750 lbs of hw depending how it was loaded for what type of trip etc!

Here is a pic of my 88 ext cab, but had the same trailer behind a 96 CC! you can see my sons at age 6 or so, the dog crates, did not have teh canoe, but add a rack, tool box etc......adds a few lbs!



Reality is, if you talk tow capacity, you need to discuss payload! as you can not have one, with out the other! Kinda like HP and torque. For our motors, you can not go forward with out both!

marty

Three type of people out there OP.

1. Folks who follow manufactures GVWR. Manufactures are pretty dumb folks though as they know nothing about the truck they engineered :B

2. Folks who run by the GAWR or axle rating. Heck a 9350 rated axle can always hold that much weight with 6k rated tires :E

3. Then there are those who just hitch up and go. I'm sure the Yugo will be just fine honey.

Life is choices.

part of the reason i dont have a picture of my truck and f'ver on here we like and enjoy our setup. there is great information here sometimes it just is better to be guarded.

jerem0621 wrote:
As an online community of people we are doing something wrong when a new persons first line is

"Okay, I'm new, so be gentle"

Maximum trailer weight your truck is rated to tow is a warranty issue. It defines the weight that the manufacturer is willing to guarantee it will tow and THEY pay for problems that may occur during the warranty period. Payload on the other hand is a SAFETY issue. That's why the infomation about it is found on the DOT safety plate that is required to be in the door post of every vehicle sold. Other safety related issues are the Axle weight ratings and the GVWR Gross Vehicle Weight Rating. Other WARRANTY issues are GCVWR (gross combined weight rating).
Good luck / Skip

Payload is an important number as if you are not careful, you can exceed the weight the car/truck was meant to CARRY. Think of it as how much stuff you can load into your car without overloading the suspension, etc...

I was one of those guys that thought "oh, my suburban with 8600lb tow rating can easity pulll our #6500lb RV." 20 min down the road I knew I was in trouble. Suburban felt like it had two flat tires. Sadly, it only had a pitiful 1425lb payload capacity.

1425lbs Rating
-600lb hitch
-700lbs for 2 adults, 2 teenagers, and 2 kids
-150lbs for 2 kayaks
-??? for 6 bikes
-??? for etc

you can see you can get into trouble quickly with a 1/2 truck. Our 3/4 ton truck sits happy with 2300lb payload capacity.

jerem0621 wrote:
As an online community of people we are doing something wrong when a new persons first line is

"Okay, I'm new, so be gentle"

Got that right. There is some uncommon sense found here, and an over abundance of "overkill" advice on here.

Funny how the OP started off on the right foot. He get's it. Yet only one person came out and said that before adding their own addition.

I want more blue koolaid.

jerem0621 wrote:
As an online community of people we are doing something wrong when a new persons first line is

"Okay, I'm new, so be gentle"

I'm new here, but its not my first forum :C And I know how 'truck guys' can get... Let me tell you what I REALLY think of blue ovals... That type of thing really gets them going... one way or the other.

harmanrk wrote:

hmknightnc wrote:
The reason you see payload/GVWR/Axle ratings discussed so often is unexperienced people tend to look at only tow rating and believe that is what the truck should be able to pull. In reality tow rating is the maximum a truck can pull with a theorical trailer. TT and FW with thier associated on the heavy side tongue wieghts and large wind resistance aren't even close to that theorical trailer

So for theoritical tailer, that would max out the tow rating, you would something like a hay wagon, with wheels at the four corners, and basically zero tounge weight. Not that you would want to pull any hay wagon I have ever seen at any speed.

Well not quite that bad. Something like an equipment trailer carrying a relatively low hieght load with wieght adjusted such that there is just enough tongue wieght to prevent sway

Think about this way. You can tow a heavier flat bed trailer than a boat trailer and a heavier boat trailer than a TT/FW. All with the same truck.

As an online community of people we are doing something wrong when a new persons first line is

"Okay, I'm new, so be gentle"

hmknightnc wrote:
The reason you see payload/GVWR/Axle ratings discussed so often is unexperienced people tend to look at only tow rating and believe that is what the truck should be able to pull. In reality tow rating is the maximum a truck can pull with a theorical trailer. TT and FW with thier associated on the heavy side tongue wieghts and large wind resistance aren't even close to that theorical trailer

So for theoritical tailer, that would max out the tow rating, you would something like a hay wagon, with wheels at the four corners, and basically zero tounge weight. Not that you would want to pull any hay wagon I have ever seen at any speed.