How "safe" to be a little overweight?

[Farmwithjunk]

For the sake of arguement, let's say your truck won't suffer tranny failure. You won't get stopped by the police and scaled. What else can go wrong?

In all likelyhood, you'll survive the trip. Probably 95% chance nothing serious will happen.

Now, let's look at that other 5%; What can happen?

Let's say you're scooting down the road @ 50mph and some kid driving dads mini van, with 4 of his buddies on the way to the skate park, decides to pull out of a driveway in front of you. Does your rig have enough braking to make an emergency stop? Or do you become involved in a multi-fatality accident?

Alright. Let's say you're on the interstate. There's a semi on your right side. There's a sedan with 3 old ladies on your left. The pick-up truck in front of you suddenly bounces through a 6" deep pot hole in the road. You have no choice but to hit it. Does your overloaded truck/trailer have enough margin of saftey in the suspension and tires to absorb the impact? Or do you swerve into the semi when a tire blows?

In a heartbeat, that 5% chance of an accident becomes a 5% chance of surviving.

Is it worth that sort of risk to you? How about to your family? Are you at all concerned about Jr in the van? Or the 3 old ladies in the sedan?

Best advice so far...? Hire a wrecker service with a rollback.

 

[Egon]

I don't expect to trailer the whole rig except to evacuate my equipment from a flood-prone property before hurricanes.

In this situation Skyco has given some very good advice.

 

[LBrown59]

Honda Ridgeline (V6, AWD) with factory Honda hitch ...
So are we in for a long aluminum utility trailer discussion? I believe some of the PJ trailers might weigh only about 1,200 to 1,400 but I'd need at least a 16 foot flat deck and very possibly a dovetail to make loading the fully-"implemented" tractor rig easier.

The Honda and 10' trailer isn't near enough to handle your JD2320 with implements that will weigh about 3,600 pounds all together.
It wouldn't even be enough to transport my 2500 pound BX23 as I need at least a 16' trailer and a full size 3/4 ton pick up for a tow vehicle.

Can't you find a high spot any closer than 90 miles from where you live?

 

[jwstewar]

The Honda and 10' trailer isn't near enough to handle your JD2320 with implements that will weigh about 3,600 pounds all together.
It wouldn't even be enough to transport my 2500 pound BX23 as I need at least a 16' trailer and a full size 3/4 ton pick up for a tow vehicle.

Can't you find a high spot any closer than 90 miles from where you live?

I know everyone is for bigger is better, but LB, you don't need a 3/4 ton truck to tow that little BX on a 16' Trailer. Any 1/2 ton Silverado, F150, RAM, heck or even a Tundra can tow that package and do it safely (with brakes on the trailer). Heck you are only talking 4,000 lbs. I tow our 28' camper weighing in at a little over 8k with my 1/2 ton Silverado and it does it effortlessly. No problem stopping either since the trailer brakes work like they are supposed to. I wouldn't hesitate to tow that BX & trailer with our Trailblazer EXT and its inline 6. Please a 3/4 truck for 4,000 lbs. I don't think so.

 

[George2615]

Here's my 2 cents.
If your tow vehicle is only rated for 5K, that's your limit.
Can you get away with towing more --- probably, is it legal --- NO
Should the trailer have brakes --- YES
If you get stopped overweight and weighed your in for a big fine.
Is it safe towing more than your limit --- NO
Be safe and borrow a bigger truck and trailer.

You're not just towing 3600 lb. Your towing 3600 plus the weight of the trailer and unless you have an aluminum trailer its going to be more than 1400 lb. exceeding your limit.

 

[Dargo]

The Honda Ridgeline is based on the Accord if memory serves me correctly. The transmissions are most definitely not considered weak and statistics back up that statement very well. However, if you frequently tow at the absolute maximum rated capacity or even sometimes over that capacity you very well could be pushing things. If I were to tow 5000 pounds or over, I'd drive as if I was hauling a load of eggs sitting on top of a bed of nails.

You have a very reliable (no insult intended, I own several Hondas and 2 Acura vehicles) pseudo-truck that should serve you very well for a long, long time if not abused or pushed to and past it's limits. Based on those known facts, I'd strongly suggest that you bite the bullet and go with a nice aluminum trailer at least 16' in length to tow your rig. That way you don't need to worry about getting rid of a nice vehicle to buy a pickup you may not need or want. You won't have to worry about tearing up what should prove to be a very reliable vehicle for you, and you won't have to worry about that "what if" scenario of possibilities of running overloaded; if just slightly overloaded.

I've gotten by running overloaded several times. Still, I was constantly worried and drove so slowly I may as well have driven my tractor there. I agree with the previous poster who stated that even driving at a vehicles upper limit certainly changes the handling characteristics in a major way. I strongly prefer to have too a margin for error when hauling. Good luck and be safe.

 

[wushaw]

Besides your tow rating, trailer brakes, hitch...etc, Look at your tires you probably have P rated tires, if you go with Lt tires that will help with the handeling charasterics of your truck.

 

[Reg]

What is traffic like during said evacuations ?
If it is "Every man for himself" I'd guess lane switchers will be cutting you off frequently, so brakes are a MUST HAVE and MUST WORK WELL.
Running up the back of another vehicle is generally the fault of the driver in back, being overloaded is NOT a good situation to be in if you have an accident, in eyes of insurance co or uniformed officer.
Whether or not you would be ticketed during an emergency situation ? dunno.
BTW, get a bigger truck might be the best solution.

 

[jk96]

Craig,

While I don't normally reccommend exceeding your vehicles tow rating, in your situation given the following statement

I don't expect to trailer the whole rig except to evacuate my equipment from a flood-prone property before hurricanes.

I would get a reputable trailer with electric brakes on both axles and add a brake controller to your vehicle. A good brake controller should run $120 or less installed. The combination of tandem brakes and a good brake controller would serve you just fine for the limited trips. I don't think the weight difference between a standard trailer and aluminum trailer is going to be significant enough to change your vehicles handling characteristics. Also, keep your hwy speed slower than you normally drive, and way slower if you normally drive 80 Judging by the news feeds from some of the recent hurricane evacuations I'm assuming you'll be well below the speed limit.

 

[Crash101]

Hello everybody --

Not a trick question, but I need some advice from people with experience!

I will be getting a JD2320 with implements that will weigh about 3,600 pounds all together. I will need to upgrade my existing utility trailer to carry anything more than the tractor and MMM alone. I don't expect to trailer the whole rig except to evacuate my equipment from a flood-prone property before hurricanes.

My problem is that my tow vehicle has a stated towing capacity of only 5,000 pounds. Naturally I thought I should restrict myself to a 1,400 pound (or less) trailer. My trailer dealer says that I can still use a trailer weighing1,500-2,000 pounds empty and that I shouldn't worry about being 100 to 600 pounds over my towing capacity since it would be a short (90 mile) haul in the flat coastal plain.

How I answer this question may make the difference between looking hard at aluminum trailers ($$$) or considering the PJ utility (dual axle, with brakes of course) or carhauler trailers that my dealer is recommending.

It doesn't feel right to "plan" to use my fully loaded trailer at 10% overweight for the vehicle. How worried should I be?

Craig;
You've received a lot of advice, some of it quite good. You are buying a tractor/equipment that will weigh around 3600 pounds and you will be pulling it with a honda Ridgeline. No problem there. You wish to know which trailer to buy. You could save a few hundred pounds and spend several hundred dollars more for an aluminum trailer. I wouldn't do it. A basic dual (3500 pound) axle 18 foot trailer with brakes on at least one axle will carry your load fine, will not cost much at all and can easily be pulled by a Rigeline with no handling or reliability consequences at all. If the 5000 pound's the ridgeline is rated for were a travel trailer with around 80 square feet of frontal area that Ridgeline would be working overtime to pull it at highway speeds. A landscape or carhauler type trailer with a small tractor on it at the same speeds will be a lot easier to pull and I guartantee the honda will do that work just fine.
three things to make sure of.
Never overload the trailer's or tow vehicle's axle, wheel or tire weight limits.
Never exceed the vehicle hitch tongue weight limit.
Always have working trailer brakes if the loaded trailer weighs 50% (or more) of the tow vehicle or is over 3500 pounds (this means using surge brakes or having a brake controller, such as a Prodigy, installed).
Honda's tow limit is a recommendation and should be considered, but a few hundred pounds over with a less wind resistant trailer towed a few times a year for a reasonable distance will be fine. provided the trailer is licensed for the weight. There are no legal or reliability reasons not to do it.