DavesTractor
Elite Member
I agree with your post. In CA when you get pulled into the scales or you get pulled over by a commercial officer to be inspected/weighed, they weigh each axle to make sure you are not over on any axle or any tire rating. They do not care about the manufacturers GCWR. I think that operators should care about GCWR for the sake of braking ability and such, but you can pull some mighty big loads with a 1 ton pickup if you balance everything. If you have a tandem dually 1 ton and a tandem dually gooseneck trailer, you can have 20k on the rear tandem dually trailer axles on the typical newer gooseneck. Then if your rear axle is rated at 7k and your front axle at 5k, in theory if you could actually place the load to maximize all axles, you could have 32k on that one ton gross combined and not be over an axle or tire rating.
Now the disclaimers...I don't think the brakes on a one ton are made for that sort of load, and surely the transmission and engine cooling are not designed for that kind of load, hence the manufacturers GCWR of much less. The manufacturer is concerned about safety, but also they need to warranty the truck, and a one ton truck with a 20k loaded trailer is a risk they do not want to take. Also keep in mind duty cycles, there is a reason they rate the Duramax at a much higher HP in a pickup than they do in a medium duty...because they know a pickup will seldom see consistently large loads. And a medium duty will see it daily.
But my experience is that the commercial officers look at axle and tire ratings. If it is not a pickup, they also look at registered weight. And I suppose you can get in a bind if you are over max GVWR since that is a posted on the truck and trailer.
If varies by state, but in California if your equipment trailer has a GVWR of over 10k lbs, you need a CDL even if is unloaded. Other states differ.
Legal vs prudent, are two different things.