Example you have a pickup rated to tow 9,500 lb.You have a trailer that weighs 2,000 lb and is ratedto carry an 8,000 lb load. So the trailer and load is10,000 lb.Is it legal to tow the trailer empty?Is it legal to tow the trailer with 7,500 lb load?

Is it legal to tow the trailer empty? Yes if it has registration plates on it.Is it legal to tow the trailer with 7,500 lb load? Yes

I'm pretty sure "legally" you can tow anything you want with any vehicle, as long as the hitch set-up, chains, lights, break-away cables, etc. are all legal.Even a small Chevy S-10 can pull a 20,000 pound travel trailer. (yes it can).... the question is, .... "HOW FAR?" will it tow before the transmission breaks or the engine explodes.Another factor to consider is the braking ability of the tow vehicle. Does the vehicle have enough "umph" to adequately stop the trailer in tow? One would think the brakes on a trailer would be adequate to stop the trailer on it own. The fact is, that's not necessarily true. When momentum gets the trailer going, it takes and equal counter force to stop it! What happens (IF) the trailer brakes goes out.Not too long ago I forgot to plug in the pig tail on the trailer. We got withing 20 miles from home when someone flagged me down as I was making a turn into a grocery store parking lot. He said my trailer lights were out. I checked. I forgot to plug in the pig tail. I had no clue! The truck braked the trailer well enough, I didn't even realize I had no brakes in the trailer. I plugged in and THEN I really noticed the difference ... DUH! This was the only time I missed plugging in the camper. Hope I never do it again! Point being, my truck was big enough and heavy enough, that even without trailer brakes, the truck was more than sufficient to stop both truck and trailer by itself. Any vehicle that cannot do this (in my opinion) is simply too small for the trailer being towed.Edit: I just read the first responded post. Maybe I misunderstood. If you overload the bed of your truck more than the rating of your license plate, yes you are illegal.If you overload a trailer more than it's rated amount, yes, you are illegal.In Indiana, my 3500 dually can be licensed at 12,000 pounds, 10,000 pounds, or 7,000 pounds. As the weight limits of my truck indicate a payload a little more than 12,000, I decided to license it at the 12,000 tag. I pay more for sure. If I licensed it at the 7,000 license plate rating, the entire truck and with it's payload cannot exceed 7,000 pounds or I'm illegal.By the way, the weight of a trailer is not included in those weights. I learned this too. Weight limit applies only if loading something like, dirt or gavel, that does not have a separate license plate or wheels touch the ground.

32vld wrote:Example you have a pickup rated to tow 9,500 lb.You have a trailer that weighs 2,000 lb and is ratedto carry an 8,000 lb load. So the trailer and load is10,000 lb.Is it legal to tow the trailer empty?Is it legal to tow the trailer with 7,500 lb load?Yes, and Yes.IF the truck is registered for the weight that it is carrying when the trailer is connected (actual truck weight + cargo weight + trailer tongue weight = truck GVW) That GVW MUST be at or less than the registered GVW to be legal.

Manufacturs GCWR have NO basis in what you can tow etc. You are legal to the axel wt limits. Generally speaking, assuming you have a paid for plate that includes a max tare amount, you will get to 20K per axel, 34K per tandem, and no less than 500 lbs per inch width of tire. THat is how states are supposed to max weight vehicles per the engineer road bed limit of roads, bridges etc. As noted, if you go over engineers limits, you will have lower handling, performance etc. BUT, pulling a trailer OVER manufactures limits is legal. Happens all the time, with very few issues. BUT, you warranty from the manufacture may be null and void if you are really over the limits and it can be shown that this caused the part to break. You are not on the hook to pay for repairs.Simple answer, reasonably simple answer, but not.marty

There is another issue here that is often overlooked. Civil liability. We live in a highly litigious society. It's why we all have to carry umbrella policies. Should you get into an injury or death related accident, even if not your fault, if it's discovered that you were towing weight over the manufacturer's set limits, you are setting yourself up to be sued. Yes your insurance will cover you. Then drop you like a hot potato and put you on a blacklist.

Towing A Trailer Rated More Than A Vehicle Can Tow

hotpepperkid
Explorer
Nov 23, 2015
Terryallan wrote:
Campfire Time wrote:
There is another issue here that is often overlooked. Civil liability. We live in a highly litigious society. It's why we all have to carry umbrella policies. Should you get into an injury or death related accident, even if not your fault, if it's discovered that you were towing weight over the manufacturer's set limits, you are setting yourself up to be sued. Yes your insurance will cover you. Then drop you like a hot potato and put you on a blacklist.

And that NEVER happens. First the trailer in question would have to be weighed at the scene to prove it was over weight. Not a good way to do that. Second. manufacturer's weight ratings are NOT law. they are warranty limits only. Auto makers do not write law.
And as has been asked on this site a million times. Give a real world example of someone being sued because their TT was too heavy. There are none.

And My brother's wife's brother's friend had a friend that had a friend that knew a guy who had a brother who knew a guy who got sued. That don't count. Has to be first hand knowledge

Yea but the storys for Your brother's wife's brother's grandfather who had 3 kids and the youngest grandchild said: those are very interesting storys.
tatest
Explorer II
Nov 22, 2015
Those ratings don't have much to do with "legal" unless the place where you are licensing the vehicles collects taxes on the basis of weight, in which case you might get a license violation for carrying more than you paid to carry.

Triker33 said "if it has registration plates on it." That varies also, since Oklahoma does not require registration of trailers for private use. I suspect New York, however, wants you to register it and pay an annual fee or tax. In that case, if the tax is based on registered weight, then it is not legal in New York to exceed that weight.
carringb
Explorer
Nov 20, 2015
gtnsmlr wrote:

Well, that does raise a question. Just how do you weigh an RV that is on it's side in pieces with it's contents scattered a 1/2 mile down the road?

Easy. Scoop it all up with a front end loader, put it in a truck or dumpster, weigh it, subtract tare weight. It's not rocket surgery. Even our sweeper at work has a built-in scales, if the debris were really that scattered.
BenK
Explorer
Nov 19, 2015
Depends on the severity of the accident. In dollars damage, major injury to death(s)

That then is split between criminal and civil

I don't like to use lawyers, but there is a time, place and need for them

It will cost to get to the approx weight range and why think depends...like the
reconstruction of an airplane blown out of the sky, or just that a plane fell
out of the sky...that kind of stuff see on the news all the time where they have
reconstructed the vehicle

Can get a good idea of what it was before...base line would be the OEM brochure
listed 'dry' weight and then go from there
gtnsmlr
Explorer
Nov 19, 2015
rockhillmanor wrote:
And that NEVER happens. First the trailer in question would have to be weighed at the scene to prove it was over weight. Not a good way to do that.

Ohh but they CAN and DO!

I have seen DOT pull out their portable scales time and time again right in front of my house, when some of the big trucks decided to use our street to skirt the interstate scales.

Portable and can weigh the big boys so my guess is that they can easily weigh a TT if called in to do so.

Well, that does raise a question. Just how do you weigh an RV that is on it's side in pieces with it's contents scattered a 1/2 mile down the road?
atreis
Explorer
Nov 14, 2015
So long as you are not exceeding any axle or tire rating, it is legal to tow the trailer in both cases. Whether or not it's safe depends primarily on how it's loaded and hooked up. (Improperly hooked up or loaded, the empty trailer could be just as unsafe as the full one.)

The only legally enforceable weight ratings are axle and tire ratings.

debraindi wrote:
So If somebody rams my rv from behind and and I'm 50 bls over my insurance company could say I was over loaded because my rv didn't stop in time, like the soso where replaying to.

If you are rammed from behind, the problem isn't that YOU didn't stop in time - it's that they didn't stop in time. Also, rear-end accidents are the fault of the person doing the rear-ending, by convention, unless there's documented evidence of something odd happening (like non-functional brake lights - hard to prove after the accident).

If you're overloaded and don't stop in time, you'll still likely only get charged with "failure to assure a safe clear distance". (In other words - you need to know how long it takes you to stop and make sure you have that much room.) Trucks, trailers, brake systems, vary considerably - a trailer combination well within margins can require more distance to stop than one that is many lbs over if the latter happened to have better brakes or the TV had better brakes (better adjusted, newer, stronger, whatever...).
BenK
Explorer
Nov 12, 2015
chracatoa wrote:
This type of thread comes up every time here. I don't remember a single web link to a real accident where the driver was prosecuted or sued due to his/her RV weight. The links in this thread are for trucks and the scale mentioned was also for trucks (they don't want them destroying the local roads).

Most civil, both settled out of court and court decisions, has NDA's

Especially OEM's, who settle out of court because it is cheaper...bad PR
and of course tight NDA's with teeth...
Bedlam
Moderator
Nov 12, 2015
naturist wrote:
Many, many things are legal and stupid. Many good ideas are also illegal. Wisdom counsels avoid both illegal and stupid.

Then you have regional laws that conflict with each other. Examples: Maximum length, width or height, Maximum trailer weight with no brakes, Double towing, Double towing behind a hitch ball trailer, vehicles register by Manufacturer GVWR or some other method, ...
chracatoa
Explorer
Nov 10, 2015
This type of thread comes up every time here. I don't remember a single web link to a real accident where the driver was prosecuted or sued due to his/her RV weight. The links in this thread are for trucks and the scale mentioned was also for trucks (they don't want them destroying the local roads).
mkirsch
Nomad II
Nov 10, 2015
debraindi wrote:
So If somebody rams my rv from behind and and I'm 50 bls over my insurance company could say I was over loaded because my rv didn't stop in time, like the soso where replaying to.

No, because your RV's contents would be splattered all over the road and there would be no way to weigh it accurately.

Also no, because the person that rear-ends you is the one at fault.

Why would "didn't stop in time" have anything to do with a REAR END collision anyway? If you stopped sooner, they would've rear-ended you harder!