NautiqueFamily wrote:
Look on the door sill of the driver's side....
There resides the capacity sticker. On it, you will see the payload capacity for your particular truck. There is some debate whether that is max or you can fudge it some with wheels, etc.....
The bottomline is stay in the range of what that sticker says - NOT the dealer at the truck place nor the camper place.... they are notoriously wrong with payload capacities and safety regarding overloading.
Start with the capacity on the door sill..........
Sorry but this is garbage. All the truck manufacturers calculate a payload figure based on how the truck is configured when it left the factory and based on the weakest link. The weakest link is always the tires which can be easily replaced, followed by the leaf springs which can be upgraded even more easily.
The manufacturers also subtract 160 lbs. per passenger seat from the payload. Look at the payload ratings for the same truck with a regular cab and one with a crew cab and you will find that the crew cab itself adds 200 lbs. of weight by the payload rating is reduced by far more, to compensate for the "passengers".
All 2500 trucks built today have rear axles and wheel bearings rated for over 9,000 lbs. and the rear of the truck is less than 3500 lbs. so the maximum load that can be carried (without swapping out axles) is 5500 lbs. and this may require going to new tires or adding Supersprings but this is not a big deal or even all the expensive.
I upgraded the factory springs on my 2500 truck with Supersprings for $450 and for another $500 I replaced the factory tires rated at 3195@80 PSI (or 6390 lbs. in total) with ones rated at 3750@80 PSI.
Stock truck and every seat in the cab filled with a passenger then go by the manufacturers' payload ratings. But there is no reason not to spend $1000 and gain 1000 lbs. or more in payload capacity.
Thousands of people have been doing this with their pickup trucks for at least half a century but there are still many individuals who remain ignorant and think that you cannot modify a vehicle after it has left the factory.
