Busted axle in my Navistar with a 16'500 Spicer axle. Sorry, dot class one and ld class 2 trucks under 8400 gvw per manufacture are not the only vehicle that break axles.
With this said, I happen to like U-Hauls slogan. "Any vehicle can tow something" granted my 69 Convertible VW bug with it's 1600cc 60hp motor will not tow what my class 6 Navistar will tow. But it can be set up to tow 500 or so lbs. Safely I might add. I would not want to have a BIG boxy trailer either. A small cargo trailer, inflable rib boat, laser sailboat or equal.
An old rule of thumb I was told in late 70s, tow no more than 2x the grawr. So a current 15 series truck like I am thinking about, 3900 grawr, max trailer 8000 lbs. My C2500 with a 6k grawr, 12,000 lb trailer.
Of course now one needs the drivetrain to meet YOUR performance specs. You need to include total weight, frontal area and aerodynamic drag, number of tires on the ground, type of tires, type of road bed you will be on, grade of road you want to go up.
IF you DO NOT take into account, any and all of these factors and more, you will end up with a useless tow rig! I can name TWO 35 series Game I've had, total useless POS trucks.
I don't trust manufactures GCWR numbers. GRAWR, yes, GVWR, in LDT rigs, again, total sham! Should be the sum of axle ratings. Not some reduced figure from a warranty factor.
Getting correct performance, it would take a book or directions 20-40 pages of formulas, explanations etc.
Buy what you think will work, at the end of the day,. You can only hope it meets your needs. Or as many do, you buy a known bigger power output truck, chassis etc than is truly needed, as many on here say you should do!
Marty
