I have a 2004 F-150 Super Crew and a C-19 Cruiser Hybrid trailer. Yesterday I loaded it all up with everything we need for camping, with the exception of my wife and kids, and then went to have everything weighed. I have a question about GVWR and GCVWR.

The GCVWR of my truck is listed as 14,500 lbs. When I weighed my entire rig I came in at about 10,000 lbs. I figured great, I have lots of room to spare.

The GVWR of my truck is 7,600 lbs. When I had just my truck on the scale with the trailer hitched up it weighed 6,900 lbs.

My concern is that once I add my wife and three kids to the truck I may be getting pretty close to the 7,600 GVWR. I am sure I would still be under the acceptable limit but it is going to be closer than I would have liked.

So my question is do I need to pay equal attention to the GCVWR and the GVWR or is one more important than the other?

 

I wouldn't pay so much attention to the stickers. If your truck accelerates decent, stops safely, drives good, and the rear axle isn't bottomed out, I think you're fine. Unless your dissatisfied with the performance. I have towed a grain drill before, and it was WAY under the max load capacity for my truck, but it pushed my truck around everywhere(loading issue, had a light tounge weight). It was just too much for my truck. Had to go like 25mph with it.

The stickers are a guideline. It's up to you to make the decision based on how safe you feel.(whether or not you're over the weight ratings)

 

You must pay attention to both of them. What you have "discovered" about the GVWR being close to max is very common. It is good that you had your set up weighed. I have found that most of the time you will max out the GVWR before the GCVWR.

In either case you should not exceed either rating.

Tom

 

Just be glad you are still under your GVWR at all!!

I'm in the boat of not having enough GVWR on my truck to come even close to it's GCWR.

It's been a while since I've weighed my entire rig, but when I first weighed it, I came in at a little over #10,200 GCW and the truck weighed #6200 with it hitched up... My trucks GVWR is only #6250.

I've since added more 'stuff' to the trailer and what I carry along, so I know I'm over by even a larger amount now..... I don't worry about it however... The truck performs great and I'm satisfied with it's performance.

When it's all said and done, most F250's are probably overloaded with some of the 5th wheels I've seen them hauling.... Sure, they have much more HD parts then us, but still.....

Hitch up, head out and ENJOY!

Mitch

 

As far as I've always been taught, the MAJOR issue with the weights they list for you is your stopping ability. Obviously tho, it applies to everything else, but they wanna make sure you can stop your rig in time to avoid that school bus full of children...

I carry a camper with a loaded weight of 1500 lbs, which gives me about 725 lbs left for people in my truck and i have no worries about carrying it.

Also consider that engineers always over build everything, then list its "Max" below what they know it can handle. In a wierd analogy, kinda like the expiration dates on dairy products... they don't go bad the day it turns over to the 1st of july

Good luck and have fun with it

Tanner

 

The printed towing capacities of these trucks is very conservitive. With only a few mods these trucks can handle more than the sticker says. I've been doing it for three years. Pulling a boat and trailer that weighs close to 9000# with no fuel in the boat. I've taken it from Phoenix to LA and back and this year I'm going to San Diego. Sure acceleration isn't great and big hills pull me down but I don't try to force it. Braking is no issue, trailer has good brakes and very little tongue weight so I'm not squishing the back end. So I agree with Chester, as long as it performs o.k. don't worry about it. I do recommend installing a tranny temp gauge, very nice to have.

 

Ok, Ok...I was interested in this post until I saw the pic with the boat and trailer weight of 9k behind a F150.

Obviously ADT has some change in his pockets, and when he gets pulled over and if the cop has half a brain checks his load rating on the hitch, reciever and truck against the trailer GVW in most states the fines that will be issued will be in the thousands.

Fines not with standing, if the boat trailer ever blew a tire or 2 the truck is not heavy enough to maintain alignment and the whole mess will be out of control perhaps killing the driver and hopefully nobody else.

Just this week I was pulling a flat bed car/equipment hauler empty that weighed 3500#'s and the GVW was 14k#'s. I blew a trailer tire and the trailer was fish-tailing into 2 and a half lanes of traffic...almost hitting an oncoming car. There were skid marks from dragging my F150 side to side on the highway.

Here's my long drawn out point...those numbers aren't there because they think they should just assign a number...heck why not assign 20k on all and have a waiver to the warranty if you tow?

Cool boat though ADT.....

 

To best follow the system put your stuff in the trailer and you'll probably still be just within the tow vehicle gvwr, there's no way you'll reach the gcwr, the trailer hasn't the ability to weigh that much. And yes, you should pay attention the the gwvr of the truck, the gvwr of the trailer and the gcwr which as you know, is both loaded max. To determine the trailer gvwr look for a sticker on the front left corner, it is normally there.