Looking at Two trucks the difference is the engine

southtexan said:

please read and repeat after me

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SouthTexan said:

Which states enforce the manufacturers certification sticker for non commercial vehicles? Do they enforce those capacities for the hundreds of thousands of vehicles without stickers before the manufacturers had to certify them in 2000?

All it is is a certification sticker imposed by the NHTSA on manufacturers who make vehicles saying it meets the certification requirements and the recommended capacities. Those capacities are not binding by law to the non-commercial consumer. The weight you register your vehicle for is what is binding by law. In many states, axle weight ratings is also binding my law.

A little fact about that sticker is that it was imposed after the Firestone/Explorer fiasco in the late 90's and was enacted by the Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability, and Documentation (TREAD) Act of 2000 to hold the manufacturers liable for their products and so consumer would have the info readily available. It is not a legal number that is enforced on non-commercial consumers especially since just changing tires to a lower weight rated tire or decreasing your tire pressure can make that sticker completely useless.

Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability, and Documentation (TREAD) Act of 2000

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MN-Ram said:

That is true, but if you get into an accident while towing more than the manufacturer's weight sticker calls out, good luck. That is the first thing lawyers look for in that type of situation. Not saying it will result in an automatic loss in court, but boils be costly in legal fees.

This is just one article on that: Know Your Limits: Towing more than 5k pounds with a half-ton pickup is against the law | Equipment World | Construction Equipment, News and Information | Heavy Construction Equipment

I would just stay within the ratings if I were towing the same trailer with the same truck on a regular basis. But that is just my opinion.

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SouthTexan said:

Trust me, I know the legal ramifications of these ratings. It was my job to do so when I worked for a heavy duty vehicle manufacturer. Almost all states go by GAWR which are mainly only for commercial vehicles.

Also, that article involves towing, not payload. Their are laws against towing more than your ratings(17k in my case) in many states especially now that their are SAE standards. DOT nor the NHTSA have a standard to set standard on how to come up with a GVWR or payload other than the requirement for them to be in a certain truck class which is why some trucks are de-rated to fit in their class. Most of the laws that deal with weight ratings applied to the truck deal with axle weight ratings, not some number that the manufacturer concocted since there is no technical standard across the board to come up with such a number.

The GAWR on a vehicle is the axle system which encompasses the ratings of the individual axle, brakes, tires, and suspension and uses the lowest rating as its GAWR. In my case I have a 6,000 GAWR front axle which is the exact same on the 3500 diesel. My rear GAWR is 6,500 lbs which is only 500 lbs less than the diesel 3500's 7,000 lb rear axle ratings (Yet my paylaod is over 1,500 lbs less because Ram has to fit it in the class 2B max GVWR of 10k). The rear of my truck weighs about 2,950 lbs. Subtract that from my 6,500 lb GAWR and I have over 3,500 lbs which is a lot more than the the purposely de-rated factory certification and recommendation sticker that doesn't mean two schnits in a court of law.

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Skrap said:

This is all good info and I know you probably have more knowledge about these trucks than 90% of the people on this board, however, if you are overweight per the sticker on your truck and you kill someone you will most likely be held liable. Why? Because have you seen the state of jury pools in America. Any good lawyer can convince 12 broccoli stocks that the 17,800# and 3500# pin weight 5er you were towing was overweight for that 2500 Cummins and killed the other driver when the trailers tire blew and went out of control.

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