payload

Optimistic Paranoid wrote:

S Davis wrote:
I drive over 20,000 miles a year, the truck drives great and nothing has exploded and I have not been arrested for being over the yellow sticker.

A comment from someone who may admittedly be overly cautious.

Just because you haven't been arrested for being over the sticker weight doesn't mean the vehicle's GVWR has no legal significance.

Worst case scenario: You're in an accident, and somebody else dies. Let's stipulate it wasn't your fault, and it couldn't have been avoided.

But the Highway Patrol goes into full investigative mode and decides you were WAY over the GVWR. Are you absolutely positive that:

1. The police won't decide you were recklessly negligent and charge you with Involuntary Manslaughter?

2. You won't have to a civil suit that you can't win that is going to cost you your house, your retirement, and your kid's college funds?

I'm not, which is why I don't treat the GVWR as a mere 'suggestion'.

Of course, everyone else here is free to do so if they want to.

Not this again. You literally made all of that up.
How about citing one real world example where that ever happened?
In the U.S., pickup factory GVW stickers have ZERO legal meaning.
Neither do commercial truck ratings. The DOT has its own rating system based on tire size, number of tires, and spacing of tires.

This fairy tale story that gets retold in camper forums (and nowhere else!) needs to be put to rest.
And you need to learn where the factory rating-sticker numbers come from. Hint: it ISN’T the engineering department.