Will a 3/4 ton do

PA12DRVR wrote:
"Our computers would have recorded, sounded an alarm at each overload attempt and refused to move after a preset number of trys. Some required a keyed reset after reaching those numbers of trys...this is why said pretty soon, OEMs will control more to all ratings like they now do with ICE rev limiters"

Not quite the same but as a young buck installing piping on a natural-gas-fired-steam boiler-steam turbine power generating plant, I was in the plant when a series of out of spec issues (low steam flow on one turbine, excess on another, failed gas valve delivering full fuel to a boiler running at 40% capacity, etc) resulted in an automatic system "shutdown"....the most dramatic effects of which were the steam blowdown (wherein a 10" sch. 80 steel line wiggled like an RV hose between supports spaced circa 80' apart) and the max capacity gas flare. Lots of shiny lights and interesting sounds.

An out-of-spec truck trailer combo won't result in the same sort of fireworks, but at the end of the day, one has to decide whether they will stay in spec or not. Hopefully if they go out of spec, there is some analysis behind that decision.

Good analogy. As the crane analogy whoever brought up is accurate, albeit not comparable.
Crane standards (go figure, I have 25 years running cranes and running projects that use cranes and designing critical and engineered lifts, as well...) require 100% of chart (whether based on tipping or structural capacity) to be a maximum of 85% of the worst case static AND dynamic loading for a given weight. None of y'all that cant believe a 3/4 ton is good for more than 10k will even begin to understand dynamic loading factors....but, I digress.... I'll give the synopsis though and dynamic loading factors could increase short term loading by another 10, 20, 30%.
So now we have 15% min factor of safety (FS) for full duty cycle use at 100% of chart. PLUS up to 30% greater FS if dynamic loading factors (wind, side loading or end loading booms, unintended dynamic weight transfer in multi crane lifts, etc). THESE are the factors you don't want to start pushing the limits of...real world break s hit, crane collapse stuff.
Now OSHA/L&I require any multi crane picks, any Christmas tree rigging over 3 levels, or any single pick over 75% of the chart to be either a critical or engineered, stamped, lift.

THEN due to liability, real or perceived, companies like the ones I work for also have requirements to de-rate the REAL chart ratings, even if within the governmental controls (OSHA) to 75%-80% of the real ratings already factored for everything I mentioned above.

Same deal, my Company (the scared person who is afraid to put more than 2000lbs in the back of a 3/4 ton truck and prohibits towing with a 1/2 ton altogether...real story, I'm breaking policy by simply hooking up an arrow board to the back of my half ton) IS effectively the administrative control that self imposed increases requirements to protect themselves from the lowest common denominator person who has no clue and try to make it safe for them too.

SO if YOU as a person, fit into the lowest common denominator category, then YES, YOU should absolutely go buy more truck than you need to help save yourself and others from yourself. For the rest of us that have at least average intelligence and ability, we are safe operating off "the chart" at least in the crane analogy...