Ram 2500 Diesel
I have a 2018 Ram 2500, diesel, short bed, "standard" rear end. I am considering a 42 ft 5th wheel trailer with an empty weight of 12K. Will my truck handle it on cross country trips with hills and ...
Forum Discussion
I will also add that de-rating or even up-rating a truck happens a lot in the medium/heavy duty industry that I work in. In most cases it comes down to regulations and/or money.
Here is a great article about re-rating a truck from two employees at Ford's VSO department, one being an engineer. It also further explains why a fleet customer would want a 10k GVWR truck.
"Beattie and Chew noted their greatest involvement comes with vehicles rated at 10,000 lbs. and under. With heavy and medium trucks, VSOs are now set up to accommodate the special GVW ratings. One requirement for vehicles over 10,000 GVW is that the drivers maintain comprehensive logbooks.
So, according to Chew, "The customer might say 'I'm willing to give up the payload capacity. I really don't need it. I want you to de-rate the vehicle. I'm happy to have all the components that allow me to have that much capacity, but I want a vehicle that's rated at 10,000 lbs. or less, so I can avoid maintaining logbooks and some of the other markings that must be on the vehicle.' "
He added the logbook and vehicle marking issues are the main reasons, over the past few years, the VSO group has been asked to do a 10,000 lb. de-rate from a higher GVWR — either 11,500 or 10,700 lbs.
Canada mandates a similar requirement as well, based on a GVWR of 4.5 metric tonnes (9,900 lbs.)"
Re-rating GVWR: Why and How it's Done
As I said before, Ram seems to take a different approach than Ford by just increasing the actual carrying ability of a 2500(that is already at 10k GVWR) with higher GAWRs and other components for these types of customers rather than de-rating a 3500.
Here is a great article about re-rating a truck from two employees at Ford's VSO department, one being an engineer. It also further explains why a fleet customer would want a 10k GVWR truck.
"Beattie and Chew noted their greatest involvement comes with vehicles rated at 10,000 lbs. and under. With heavy and medium trucks, VSOs are now set up to accommodate the special GVW ratings. One requirement for vehicles over 10,000 GVW is that the drivers maintain comprehensive logbooks.
So, according to Chew, "The customer might say 'I'm willing to give up the payload capacity. I really don't need it. I want you to de-rate the vehicle. I'm happy to have all the components that allow me to have that much capacity, but I want a vehicle that's rated at 10,000 lbs. or less, so I can avoid maintaining logbooks and some of the other markings that must be on the vehicle.' "
He added the logbook and vehicle marking issues are the main reasons, over the past few years, the VSO group has been asked to do a 10,000 lb. de-rate from a higher GVWR — either 11,500 or 10,700 lbs.
Canada mandates a similar requirement as well, based on a GVWR of 4.5 metric tonnes (9,900 lbs.)"
Re-rating GVWR: Why and How it's Done
As I said before, Ram seems to take a different approach than Ford by just increasing the actual carrying ability of a 2500(that is already at 10k GVWR) with higher GAWRs and other components for these types of customers rather than de-rating a 3500.
