WXman

I think a lot of guys are missing the point of this thread. I read the original post, and in no way did I take it as advice being given to ignore the official load rating sticker on the door jamb.

What I take away from the original post is that the true difference between a payload package truck and a standard truck are fewer than you might think, and are so trivial that in reality there isn't any practical difference at all. It's just fun information, which is very interesting to guys like myself.

Thanks for posting that. By the way, the drop in GVWR does not make ANY sense...especially when Ford was telling people in advertising that taking weight from the truck with aluminum would make it "more capable".

Truth is, if a 1/1000" difference in frame thickness makes it unsafe to haul the load you're hauling, then you are hauling too much to begin with. Gear ratio makes ZERO difference in load handling ability. And stiffer springs are easily replaced by air bags or load leveling shocks as many guys have done. So your post does make a good point...what's the REAL reason to pay extra for the payload package? Well, the only reason is to be legal for liability reasons, if that extra few hundred pounds really does get used in your daily business.

charles_slc

It's 1/100th...

Or 10%....

And if you think 10% of anything doesn't make a difference....feel free to send me 10% of your paycheck every payday.

robertsunrus

Hi, no matter what you do, add, or think, it still comes down to the yellow sticker and ratings on your truck. Ford made the truck lighter for fuel economy. [aluminum body] Ford used smaller gas tanks to make the full tanked vehicle lighter. [26 gallon] Ford lowered the GVWR so the fully loaded vehicle would be lighter and save more fuel than the 7,700 lb. GVWR previous trucks. If you make a vehicle 700 lbs. lighter, but the GVWR is the same, there will be no fuel savings when fully loaded.


I had a co-worked who ignored all warnings of going way over the specs of his truck; He rolled his truck and trailer. Scared to death [no-one was badly hurt] he will never tow a trailer again and that is good for the rest of us.

adaycj

Where I work we often tow. The comments about being clueless are right on. One trailer was towed with a very heavy load in the rear. The incorrect loading (negative tongue weight) induced sway and the trailer and truck rolled at almost 70 mph on the expressway. It is nothing but luck that no one was killed.

A few years later I inspected a trailer on a "walk around" before it left a customer site. I noticed the hitch ball was at an odd angle. After more questions and a more specific look underneath I discovered the frame was bent where the hitch attached to the frame and it was coming off. The truck (an F150) was towing nearly 9000# with a 5000# rated aftermarket hitch (without load bars). It had traveled nearly 50 miles mostly on an expressway to arrive in that location.

If the flamboyant title of this thread brings more attention to the topic so that more people will learn how to determine proper towing, and proper towing weights... I'm all for it. I am not the towing police, and I am appalled in the year 2017 it is as hard as it is to determine proper towing capacities as it is.

WXman

Um, 1/100th is 1%. I'm betting the cost of the payload package is a lot more than 1% extra.

Ricktwuhk

For the mathematically challenged:

Going from 0.10 to 0.11 is a 10% increase. The difference between the two is 1 one-hundredth of an inch.

Going from .11 to .10 is a 9.09% decrease. Bigger number, smaller change going down than up.

The normal frame is 9.09% thinner. The heavier frame is 10% thicker.

acdii

I am pretty sure we are all aware that the differences between HDPP and non HDPP is the frame and springs. I did that research a while back and came to the conclusion that the rear axles are identical between all versions of 9.75 as far as case and bearings, the parts that take the load, and wheels, frame and springs dictate the actual capacity.

That's no big new, but purposely going over and beyond your truck payload rating, IE that Legal Yellow Tag on the drivers door or pillar isn't there for show and tell, but there for the owners knowledge so they will know the limits of the vehicle and to not exceed it. Exceeding it by more than a small margin, say 100#, knowingly, puts the owner into that special bracket known as your *** is mine by the lawyers community.

As others stated, exceed that limit, have a crash, whether it is your fault or not, and cause excessive property damage, or worse, take a life, and you will never own anything nice again! Insurance won't protect you at that point, and if you do take a life by being arrogant, you have to live with that the rest of your life knowing that you could have prevented it by NOT overloading your truck.

The jist of the OP's post basically says, Go ahead, overload your truck, it can handle it, I do it all the time!

I hold a Class A CDL, have had it nearly 30 years now, and Weight Police, coming from someone who apparently has never had to deal with them, really has no clue. A good trooper, and there are a LOT of them, can take one look at a vehicle and within 100# tell if they are over weight or not. Catch one of them on a bad day, and you are stuck there until you can remove the over weight, and pay a large fine, or spend some time in jail until you pay the fine. I have seen too many crashes by people being stupid, have seen many a wreck caused by overloaded vehicles, and cringe when I see someone towing a trailer with the improper equipment, front end sticking in the air, tail dragging, going 70+ MPH on the Interstate. I stay back hoping I can catch something for YouTube on my dash cam. Wish I had one back in the early 90's when a biker doing at least 120MPH slammed into the back of a car and did a beautiful swan dive into the light pole. It was sick and spectacular all at the same time.

thrifty biil

Yes, people actually have been held liable for damages related to overloading their pickups.

Myself, I would not do it, and if I ever did, I would certainly not post that I knowingly overloaded my truck by 40%! And yes, insurance companies will gladly wash their hands of any liability if they find out you were significantly overloaded.

IMHO, newbies here want to know what they should reasonably expect towing wise. Getting guidance on the approved limits of their vehicle is helpful. Now if some want to exceed those limits, its a personal decision. When that decision affects others, it is no longer personal.

Many accidents are founded in complacency. "I've done it hundreds of times before." People don't realize its more like "I've gotten away with it hundreds of times before."

http://www.hardworkingtrucks.com/imp...-in-lawsuits/#

http://www.totallandscapecare.com/gr...stly-lawsuits/


Here's a law firm searching for accident victims struck by RVs, note the section on overloads:

http://www.edwardslawok.com/rv-collision.html

msgtord

Good post. Thanks for the research. I'm a bit concerned that a first time pickup owner gets talked into pulling a big load for his buddy. And because of his reading this thread, he thinks it's ok to to be overloaded as the truck is over engineered and tested for heavier loads than officially certified for. But who has certified this 19 year old young man driving his first pickup with an overloaded trailer.

I'll stick to the "legal" numbers. It helps me sleep better at night. I've seen enough blood, heard the screams and the crying, and the silence of death.

It's my recommendation that anyone that has read this entire thread, go and weigh you rig, know your gvwr, hitch rating, and axle ratings. And take to heart the maximum payload and trailer weights as provided by Ford.

photomankc

Actually I rather appreciate the weight police. In buying my first truck I had some VERY wrong ideas about what it would be able to tow just by throwing a hitch on it and slapping a trailer on.

I did that as a noob with an old 2002 F-150 and carried a 28' construction trailer to my hunting place on the word of the auction guy that it was probably 2.5 tons. When I put that sucker on the hitch ball I knew that was way heavier than anything I had ever towed before but didn't really know much more. Get 'r Done right? By 1/2 through that trip I knew I was over what the truck was good for and by the end I was grateful that nothing went wrong on the road and just wanted off of it. On one steep hill I had it floored and it was still loosing steam as my butt puckered at the concept of being 300ft up a grade with a truck that won't go. I hoped I was not going to puke transmission parts on the road. 5hrs of being loved tenderly from behind by that bucking, lumbering beast was enough.

God smiled on my stupid butt, but I will not ever do that again. I want to be able to tow some big things but I also want to stay within specs and do it with as much safety margin as possible.

Yeah the manufacturer generally doesn't give you a max spec that results in instant failure if it is exceeded by 1. But they do that so small miscalculations don't result in failure. Designing for electronics one learns quickly the folly of planning design into the safety margin of unknown percent. I want the margin there to protect me from miscalculation and slight overage so I won't plan on exploiting the margins.

I actually appreciate people that have explained the details of towing well. Then if I decide to push things at least I do it knowing what might be the consequences. I just wish Ford had not made it such a spaghetti mess to make sense of what you can REALLY tow.