help reading my payload sticker

[TB673]

What do you expect? It's a 1/2 ton truck. The payload is 1,150 lbs.

Tim

[JIMNLIN]

Hey folks,
I'm trying to figure out what exactly my truck can and cannot tow- I am not convinced the sticker has all of the information I need - can someone take a look and let me know what I"m missing, or what the sticker is missing?

I see GAWR and GVWR only. I thought I needed more information than that...

The sticker is the truck certification sticker and at this time only fawr/rawr/gvwr is required by the FEDS (FMVSS) for trucks used for commercial or non commercial purposes.
These are all the numbers needed for any class trucks to operate safely/legally on our highways.
gvwr based payloads stickers are not used for any legal purposes and a gcwr placard isn't required for your truck.
Your truck has 3988 lb rawr which will carry all the hitch weight plus other stuff in the bed.
Drop by a set of CAT scales and weigh your trucks front and rear axles with attention to the trucks rear axle weight.
Example : my wife 1500 chevy crew cab 4wd rear axle weighs 2340 lbs and has a 4000 rawr = 1660 lb payload.
GAWRs will be your do not exceed safety limits (tires/wheels/rear suspension/brakes.

You have the truck so get some scaled axle weights. That way you will know the trucks max payloads.
As a max I would stick with whatever your truck mfg tow rating are for your truck (engine/drivetrain).

[Dave Pelletier]

I have an almost identical truck in my fleet.

As was said, payload (GVWR minus the truck's empty weight) will be the choke point so no GCWR or "max trailer tow rating" matters.

Best to weigh the truck to verify available payload but assuming the 1,150 lbs is accurate, you need to deduct for passengers, any accessories added to the truck, anything else carried in the bed or box and the hitch. .....that doesn't leave a heck of a lot left for TW. If we allow 500 lbs for passengers and stuff and 100lbs for a hitch that leaves 550lbs left for TW.......you should plan on 12% of a trailers GVWR (NOT dry weight) for TW unless you have weighed it loaded so that means that to stay within the ratings, you'd be looking for a trailer with a GVWR under 5,000 lbs.

Dave

[SailorSam]

Originally Posted by corn18

Subtract the full truck weight from 6900 lbs (GVWR) and that is your max hitch weight for a trailer. Take that number and divide by 12% and that will give you a good idea of the GVWR of the trailer(s) you should be looking at.

Example:

Truck weight from scales: 6000 lbs
Actual CCC: 900 lbs
Max trailer GVWR: 7500 lbs

When you weigh your truck it should be with everything you plan to have in the truck while towing. Humans, pets, bikes, firewood, etc...

I basically agree with Corn18 with one change. I would use 15%. 15 is the high end recommended tongue weight. You will probably never tow at that weight, but it does give you a bit of cushion and covers you if you overload your trailer, which happens easier than you might think.

So my recommendation is:
Truck CCC *.15 = max trailer GVWR


FWIW, with a sticker CCC of 1190, subtracting two average adults at 325 lb, and some stuff in the truck for another 300 lbs, you have 590 available for the trailer. At that level, you are probably looking for a popup or hybrid trailer...

[Portsider]

Lots of good info, but what can you TOW is different than what you can HAUL. Although they are related when you get into it.

I'm not sure what the dealer told you over the phone is correct, but I don't know your truck. There's a few towing calculators online but they're not accurate. If the dealer asked you for the VIN or RPO codes listed on another sticker (glove box or one of those codes you scan with your phone) they would be able to tell you. I would GO to the dealer and they should be able to punch up your VIN and print out a list of RPO codes and tell you which one means you can tow how much. "What you can tow" is ONLY the weight of the trailer that you can connect to the hitch of your truck. For example, last time we had my wife's truck at the dealer, they did exactly that and said the truck can tow 6,000 lbs. GO to the dealer. The guy answering the phone at the dealer could pull a number out of somewhere, there's no accountability to them, and you don't know where that number came from.

The stickers you're showing seems like they show axle weights, but also shows GVWR which is how much the TRUCK can weigh with cargo, passengers, and trailer (6,900 lbs). Note this is lower than the sum of what the axles can carry (7,800 lbs). The axle weights are how much weight each axle and their tires are rated for. So if you had a 6,000 pound trailer (and if that was within the tow limit of your truck) and you had 12% of that weight on the tongue of the trailer, that would put 720 pounds on your hitch. That weight gets distributed unequally along your chassis, although weight distributing hitches help alleviate that. With that trailer connected, fresh water tank full, fuel tank full, and your family piled into the truck, you can pull onto a CAT scale and have each axle (or axle group if you have tandem axles on your trailer) on a separate scale pad. That will give you the axle weights. From there you can do math and determine how much more stuff you can fit in your truck/trailer, or how much weight you need to ditch.

Then there's the combined weight GCVW/GCVWR or gross combined vehicle weight rating that the truck, cargo, and trailer can be. That means you should keep the whole kit and kaboodle below that. That would be the sum of all those axle weights if you weighed your truck/trailer on a CAT scale. You'll find that one of these ratings (trailer weight, axle weight, combined weight) will be your limiting factor. If it weren't for the combined rating, one could theoretically load their truck to just under the max gross vehicle weight rating and then attach a 6,000 lb trailer with the load balanced so that it only adds 50 lbs to the rear axle weight (this of course is very unwise).

Attached is an example of a CAT scale weigh ticket. This doesn't show the trailer weight itself, which is technically what you're asking (how much can I TOW). This is a 5th wheel trailer connected to a truck. With the truck and trailer coupled, this is how much weight is on each axle of the combined vehicle (truck and trailer), so the combined vehicle weight of the truck and trailer is 22,300 lbs. So say this trailer's axles can only hold 10,500 pounds and it had 100 gallons of water in a tank directly above the trailer axles, dumping out 70-80 gallons of that water would bring the weight on the trailers axles more in line with what they're rated for, but would do very little for the weight on the steer and drive axles. If everything was within specs except for the gross combined vehicle weight rating was only 22,000 lbs, then the operator would want to shed 300 pounds from somewhere/anywhere (such as dumping 40 gallons of water out, or pulling the generator, 5 gallon gas can, and wife out of the truck and going fishing without them. The dog needed more leg room anyway, right?).

Uncoupling the trailer on the CAT scale, and having the wheels on one pad, and the tongue jack on another, with the trailer level, will give you the weight of the trailer broken down by axle weight and tongue weight (so using the 6,000 lb trailer example with 12% on the tongue would give you 5,820 lbs for the pad the axles were on, and 720 lbs for the pad where the tongue jack was sitting on). CAT scales cost about $15-$25 (been a few years so I'm guessing) per weigh at truck stops, so you'd be looking at $30-$50 and a great piece of mind that you're not shortening the life of your truck or be found liable in the event you can't stop when some idiot cuts you off and slams on their brakes. Doing it once with your typical load will give you an idea of how much more weight you can pack in for longer trips.

Other places you may be able to weigh your truck without certified printouts could be recycling or dump stations, certain distributors that spent the money on their own scale so their driver's don't risk tickets on their way to a scale, etc. Unlike truck stop scales, these other places you may have to interface with the scale operator if you want to weigh each axle if there's only one "pad" for the scale. If you're in Oregon, a lot of weigh stations leave their scales powered on, so pulling into a closed weigh station you can get your axle weights for free which is something I wish more states would do.

So you need to know the max trailer weight your truck can tow, max axle weights which it looks like you have, the max gross combined vehicle weight rating, and then the trailer weight and tongue weight of that trailer. I know it's a lot, hope this helps. Also, since you asked the question, and several people answered, you no longer have plausible deniability.

If you're in the market for a trailer and want to know what you can tow, weigh the truck, cargo, and passengers. Then with the additional information you can get from the dealer using the VIN and RPO codes, you have an idea of how heavy of a trailer you can get (don't forget all the stuff you'll carry in the trailer, forks/knives, fresh and waste water, propane, etc all add up). Get the information from the dealer in writing (printouts). This way you won't forget and have written documentation if you or anyone else has a question.

[TimboInOK]

Originally Posted by corn18

The only number that really matters is your CCC which is 1150 lbs. from the factory. You'll hit that limit long before whatever the max tow rating is. Have you weighed your truck?

What is CCC?

[corn18]

Originally Posted by TimboInOK

What is CCC?

Cargo carrying capacity

[bigb56]

Originally Posted by JIMNLIN

gvwr based payloads stickers are not used for any legal purposes and a gcwr placard isn't required for your truck.
Your truck has 3988 lb rawr which will carry all the hitch weight plus other stuff in the bed.
Drop by a set of CAT scales and weigh your trucks front and rear axles with attention to the trucks rear axle weight.
Example : my wife 1500 chevy crew cab 4wd rear axle weighs 2340 lbs and has a 4000 rawr = 1660 lb payload.
GAWRs will be your do not exceed safety limits (tires/wheels/rear suspension/brakes.

.

Depending on load distribution this doesn't work out too well on the front axle for trucks with heavy diesel engines and 4X4, my FAWR is 5,200 but as you can see I am within 120 lbs of that lightly loaded and with two passengers and full tank of fuel. A bumper pull would not add to the front but a fiver or a slide in camper would. I'd love to have a 2,000 lb slide in camper but looking at my numbers I don't see how, although the PO of my truck towed a fiver with it, no idea how his weights worked out though....

[Portsider]

BigB56 - You comment got me to digging into old files looking for a weight ticket for my empty truck out of curiosity, and I found it from 3 years prior to the ticket I posted above. This one isn't from a CAT brand scale, but it came from a certified scale at a truck stop. I'm not saying the two scales are super-accurate within 20 pounds of each other, and who knows if the manufacturer of my hitch somehow designed it so the king pin weight is distributed 2" behind the axle, or maybe I loaded my truck/5ver in some dangerous unconventional way, I have no idea. But my empty truck's front axle weight weighed in at 4,240 lbs on this ticket, but with wife, dog, portable generator, 5th wheel, and I'm guessing I probably had a full fuel tank, the front axle only weighed in 300 pounds more at 4,540 lbs 3 years later (on a different scale) with the same truck. Seems odd, but there it is.

[Guinness]

I wanted to thank everyone for their responses and great information. Supremely helpful as I navigate the world of towing.

I have decided that no matter how small and light it is, that a fifth wheel is out of the question with my current truck. Most of those half ton towable fifth's are pushing or stomping all over the limits of my truck. Which is all fine and good, until it's not... And that can cost heartbeats... permanently.

A properly loaded and balanced bumper pull gives a lot more options and there are some seriously nice towables in the sub 7000 pound range with less than 800 pounds of tongue weight.

Thanks folks - I'll be back for more advice as needed!!

[Dave Pelletier]

Originally Posted by Guinness

there are some seriously nice towables in the sub 7000 pound range with less than 800 pounds of tongue weight.

Just be careful to avoid relying on the published dry trailer weight or dry tongue weight as those are numbers you will never tow at. I recommend using the trailer's GVWR and at least 12% for TW. As an example the dry TW of my trailer is advertised at 720 lbs and dry trailer weight at 7,100 lbs. GVWR is 9,995 and my actual, loaded TW is 1,275 lbs. .....propane, batteries and the fact that most trailers have the only outside storage right at the tongue means it's common for loaded TW to be far more than you may think. If you just looked at the dry weights, you may think you could tow my trailer with your 1500, but in reality, it would be well over it's capacity.

Cheers and happy shopping,

Dave

[hohenwald48]

Tongue weights listed in manufacturers brochure are meaningless. For instance, the brochure for my 2023 Grand Design Imagine 2600RB lists the tongue weight as 594 pounds. The actual tongue weight according to my Sherline tongue weight scale all loaded and ready to go is 925 pounds. Not double but pretty darn near. I do use a Propride Hitch and it's a little heavier than the average hitch so that's part of it.

When I picked up the trailer new, before putting anything in it, the totally empty trailer tongue weight was a little over 700 pounds. Don't believe the brochure dry weight or tongue weights.