Towing capacity vs max cargo weight rating

ognend wrote:
Hello, OP here. I guess I was concerned with the legalities of things first and foremost. We did use our truck to pull a 12,500 lbs horse trailer around the West for months, camping with our two horses full-time (it weighed about 2800 lbs on the hitch). The truck _appeared_ (!) perfectly capable to tow this trailer and stop it - I am not the kind to fly about with a trailer with livestock attached in the back anyway, my self-imposed limit is 65mph when I tow. Now, with that said, we bought the truck brand new in 2016 (F-250 4x4 diesel, crew cab, short bed) and it squatted something awful when we put the trailer on. I had to go the next day and get a set of "super springs" installed on the back, to level the truck under load. We traded in a 2006 GMC 2500 diesel 4x4 crew cab to get the new Ford and interestingly enough, the 10 years older GMC did not squat much with the same trailer (it too appeared perfectly capable to tow the trailer) - this tells me that personal anecdotes mean little in these discussions as sometimes all they are is "ignorance is bliss" kind of approach :)

Thanks! :)

That's why legality and safety can be 2 separate things!

Every State and Province have their own weight laws. I live in a rare place (BC) that does enforce GVW. However, unless you're visibly overloaded, you'd never get pulled into a commercial scale.

So ironically, an older truck with stiffer springs is less likely to get questioned than a newer sagging one.

But safety it's a lot more than just springs. My old 2500's chassis is worn out, and components are not that stiff by modern standards. With 5000 lbs in the bed, the steering is so poor it truly feels like a boat. A modern F250 / 2500, may technically have less payload, but will handle MUCH better with a set of helper springs.