Tow Capacity Comparisons For 2015 Trucks
Here are three links to some truck brand comparisons for half-ton, three-quarter and one ton trucks with some jaw dropping surprises. Half-ton Truck Realistic Towing Capacity Three-quarter Ton...
Forum Discussion
There you go! as I have been stating. The reason to go NOT go over the manufactures ratings are, handling, shortens the life of the vehicle, ALONG WITH as I have stated, warranty will and can be denied. THOSE are the reasons for NOT going over the manufactures ratings.
I can design a trailer that will move a million lbs of cargo on it, it would take special permits etc. Hook up 5 or 6 duramax or equal powered pickups, move the load the 500-1000 miles max the state and Federal DOT would let me and be legal! Yeah said pickups might be toasted at the end. BUT, there is no law(s) that state I can not do this. I can find multitudes of them that state I can. So at the end, I sell the pickups to a junk yard.....oh well, cost of doing business.
As I also stated earlier, the SAE specs use 4 starts forward and backward on a 12% grade as minimum spec. What happens if I am at the supposid rated GCWR on a 30% grade? probably will not move! I do not know the min std is 12%, fry a transmission, I pay for the todays 10K auto tranny replacement. It was $3000 back in 91 when I fried a th400 on a low 20% grade driveway 4K under the gcwr GM gave me for that particular R3500 dually cab and chassis rig I had. Since this time, I have not trusted manufactures ratings to do what I need a rig to do. Hence why when I bought my MDT, I made sure the drive train would go up 30% grades at the wt I would be driving at. up to 30K lbs. I can do this with a 185/335 non turbo 7.3 diesel. My no sold 05 dmax dually, 26% at 20K lbs, my 96 6.5td with a whopping 12500 gcwr, can do 30% at 20K lbs. Neither the 7.3 or 6.5 are as fast as the dmax at any equal weight on a 3-5% freeway grade. BUT< they will get to the job site if the grade is over 25-26%, vs the dmax will stall out on the steeper grades, 3000lbs BELOW it stated gcwr. If I toast the tranny overheating it. I've bought the tranny.
Its more important for folks to know "what is behind" the door of the ratings. Which is generally speaking, hard to find out in light duty trucks. One can find the meanings, how a rig is rated in MDT and HDT trucks. It is very easy to have a truck speced to your needs in the upper ranges. Where as with light duty trucks you get a one size fits all. A problem with the SAE specs. I as a contractor know I will be driving up local roads and driveways that are in these grade percentages. I NEED and WANT to know if a rig will do what I NEED it to do. This is what the ratings need to tell me. How I can also modify them to suit my needs.
I made a dmax engineer squirm at te factory on 9-7-11, ie friday before 9-11. I asked, how steep a grade I could pull in first gear. He said with BIG googly eyes, its a mtn climber! I replied, yeah right. I was told that about my 89! So how steep a grade can I pull? as I have/had a formula to tell me the intitial grade starting of the rig, at the time, it was around 20% at 20K lbs with the mid 500 lbs of torque it had. more than the R3500, still less than my NV4500 trannied 6.5! He did not like what I was saying, had to look at another person there, I gave them an email so they could send me the specs at the office, not in the lunchroom where we were at......NEVER got the actual spec to see if my figures were correct!
My step father was an engineer at Boeing. He was the one that showed me not to always trust an engineer spec or rating. If I the end user did not say what spec I needed, it would probably get designed incorrectly. I've used that motto in 30 some odd years of being a contractor too. If the std spec for the pavers, wall block etc does not seem to be correct, I ask an engineer to verify my gut feeling that it is indeed incorrect, then how do I need to build the project to meet the spec!
As I have said before, I can run legally down the road OVER the manufactures ratings, not get an overweight ticket, IF I have bought/paid enough tax to cover the damage to the road bed I am doing. As long as I do not go over 20K per axel, for most of us with single wheel rigs, this will be 10K per axel as we do not have enough tire width to bridge/spread the load over the road bed! Can an LEO get me off the road at or just below these limits. Oh trust me......I'm screwed if I am at 20K in my C2500, or 32K in my dually pickup! I'll be taken off the road with something wrong! 2-300 lbs over a manufactures gvwr rating......unless the trailer is swaying more than 12-18" side to side, speeding etc, an leo/cveo will not even look at me! The only folks that will look at me will be the RVNET weight police!
Marty
I can design a trailer that will move a million lbs of cargo on it, it would take special permits etc. Hook up 5 or 6 duramax or equal powered pickups, move the load the 500-1000 miles max the state and Federal DOT would let me and be legal! Yeah said pickups might be toasted at the end. BUT, there is no law(s) that state I can not do this. I can find multitudes of them that state I can. So at the end, I sell the pickups to a junk yard.....oh well, cost of doing business.
As I also stated earlier, the SAE specs use 4 starts forward and backward on a 12% grade as minimum spec. What happens if I am at the supposid rated GCWR on a 30% grade? probably will not move! I do not know the min std is 12%, fry a transmission, I pay for the todays 10K auto tranny replacement. It was $3000 back in 91 when I fried a th400 on a low 20% grade driveway 4K under the gcwr GM gave me for that particular R3500 dually cab and chassis rig I had. Since this time, I have not trusted manufactures ratings to do what I need a rig to do. Hence why when I bought my MDT, I made sure the drive train would go up 30% grades at the wt I would be driving at. up to 30K lbs. I can do this with a 185/335 non turbo 7.3 diesel. My no sold 05 dmax dually, 26% at 20K lbs, my 96 6.5td with a whopping 12500 gcwr, can do 30% at 20K lbs. Neither the 7.3 or 6.5 are as fast as the dmax at any equal weight on a 3-5% freeway grade. BUT< they will get to the job site if the grade is over 25-26%, vs the dmax will stall out on the steeper grades, 3000lbs BELOW it stated gcwr. If I toast the tranny overheating it. I've bought the tranny.
Its more important for folks to know "what is behind" the door of the ratings. Which is generally speaking, hard to find out in light duty trucks. One can find the meanings, how a rig is rated in MDT and HDT trucks. It is very easy to have a truck speced to your needs in the upper ranges. Where as with light duty trucks you get a one size fits all. A problem with the SAE specs. I as a contractor know I will be driving up local roads and driveways that are in these grade percentages. I NEED and WANT to know if a rig will do what I NEED it to do. This is what the ratings need to tell me. How I can also modify them to suit my needs.
I made a dmax engineer squirm at te factory on 9-7-11, ie friday before 9-11. I asked, how steep a grade I could pull in first gear. He said with BIG googly eyes, its a mtn climber! I replied, yeah right. I was told that about my 89! So how steep a grade can I pull? as I have/had a formula to tell me the intitial grade starting of the rig, at the time, it was around 20% at 20K lbs with the mid 500 lbs of torque it had. more than the R3500, still less than my NV4500 trannied 6.5! He did not like what I was saying, had to look at another person there, I gave them an email so they could send me the specs at the office, not in the lunchroom where we were at......NEVER got the actual spec to see if my figures were correct!
My step father was an engineer at Boeing. He was the one that showed me not to always trust an engineer spec or rating. If I the end user did not say what spec I needed, it would probably get designed incorrectly. I've used that motto in 30 some odd years of being a contractor too. If the std spec for the pavers, wall block etc does not seem to be correct, I ask an engineer to verify my gut feeling that it is indeed incorrect, then how do I need to build the project to meet the spec!
As I have said before, I can run legally down the road OVER the manufactures ratings, not get an overweight ticket, IF I have bought/paid enough tax to cover the damage to the road bed I am doing. As long as I do not go over 20K per axel, for most of us with single wheel rigs, this will be 10K per axel as we do not have enough tire width to bridge/spread the load over the road bed! Can an LEO get me off the road at or just below these limits. Oh trust me......I'm screwed if I am at 20K in my C2500, or 32K in my dually pickup! I'll be taken off the road with something wrong! 2-300 lbs over a manufactures gvwr rating......unless the trailer is swaying more than 12-18" side to side, speeding etc, an leo/cveo will not even look at me! The only folks that will look at me will be the RVNET weight police!
Marty
