What is the risk of exceeding payload?

jtallon wrote:

NC Hauler wrote:
I know 1/2 tons have come a long way. So has TTs and 5ers, but guess as Ive gotten older and learned more, I look back in 1970 WHEN I towed a basic pop up through the mountains of WV with a 65 Olds Cutless and didnt understand why it slowed down so badly climbing long grades....anyway, I lived and learned over the years, sometimes the hard way... so I guess I thought I might be able to help someone to do a better job than I did....guess I was wrong...believe the OP will have to glean from all the post and make up his own mind. Guess Im chicken and maybe trying to be too safe, only to find out Im on the wrong page...bottom line, tow what you want with whatever one wants to tow with now seems to be the general concensus on rv.net

Don't apologize for encouraging people to tow safely! Everyone here should appreciate it.

Sure, we used to get by towing with less. Less power, less safety, less payload capability. Most of us even survived it.

But we can do better now in all those respects. Why not take advantage of that? Why not be safer? Why not have more margin in case of emergencies? Now that we CAN expect more, we SHOULD expect more. It's not the 70's anymore, even if things worked back then. They can work better now.

Stick to your guns, NC Hauler.

The problem you have with the speed limit plus 5 on an 8% grade as you stated in an earlier post. This is non realistic! For a what I would call typical RV'r with a TT, half ton etc, 15K lbs, 90 sq ft of frontal area, will need some 500+ hp to go 60mph up an 8% grade. I personally do not know of ANY 1 tons, much less a typical DOT class 1 or LD class 2 truck under 8400 gvwr with that HP spec. So reality is, as the SAE J2087 specs have, min speed of 40 mph up a 5% grade at gcwr with 80 sq ft or less frontal area. There is no deduct for being over the frontal area which can add another 10-20hp in needs vs the 80.

Question now becomes, engineers specs? or personal spec to follow? at the moment, the engineer spec is easier to follow than the user spec!

marty