Wow, you pointed out the fact that I "liked" a post. Far cry from you acting like I argued with you in the other thread and wouldn't learn....
You aren't worth the time to spend googling and linking. You can do that, and if you have I am sure you have also found contradicting information.
Saying I’m not worth the time equates to you know it isn’t out there or those sources are no different than random people. Yes, there are a lot of contradicting things, on the internet. Vetting sources is important.
I really wish manufactures didn't assign a gvwr on trailers at all. List let us know what the axles are.
Since the Federal regulations go by GVWR, I don’t think it’s optional.
You insist that some LEOs make you unhook and some don't. So it seems even law enforcement cannot agree on best method....or better yet....it ain't about what is safe or what isn't....it's about an easy money grab.
I’m saying every investigation is different. There are best practices, but rarely a best one method. Most laws started as a safety issue. Some are still just that.
As far as a money grab….a lot of the DOT crap is a money grab, in my opinion. So is seatbelts for adults. If it was really about safety, we wouldn’t allow motorcycles. On the other hand, putting 15k pounds of equipment on a trailer with a 2 5/16” coupler and a GVWR of 10k is a safety issue. Especially, when they use a 2” ball only rated for 8,000 pounds.
If every axle and every weight is within capacity.....yet an Leo makes you unhook and now trailer is over so you are busted......ponder this: if your truck is over gvwr....will the LEO let you unhook the trailer to shed the tongue weight and all of the sudden call it good?
Seems what you are saying is that amongst LEOs....they have no standardization other that whatever suits them best at the time. Either the hitch load is part of the trailer GVW or it is part of the truck GVW...but it CANNOT be both.
Standardization, among LEO’s isn’t a thing, when it comes to how individual enforcement actions are taken. Two people could get stopped, for speeding the same amount, in the same place. It‘s not automatic one gets a warning, the other a citation. Same can be said, at every level; LEO’s, prosecutors, juries, judges, etc. The totality of the situation and the induvidual circumstances are all applied by people. From one jurisdiction, to another, things are very different. Shooting a home invader, here, is no big deal. Shoot a home invader in some places, the victim is more likely to go to prison than the person who broke in.
When dealing with semitrailers (in my jurisdiction, that means that some part of the trailer weight is vertically supported by the tow vehicle, during transport; essentially, not a wagon) the GVWR of the truck should be higher than the total weight of the truck and tongue weight, on the truck tires.
The trailer GVWR is of the trailer, by itself, on a jack, if necessary. The reason for this is because the limiting factor of the trailer is assumed to be the same, connected or not. Unless you are the engineer that designed the trailer, you don’t know the limiting factor. If the limiting factor is the I-beam frame, it doesn’t matter how much weight is transferred to the truck or the jack, that part is still holding the same amount. Same can be said for many individual parts of a trailer that aren’t independently rated.
Think of it like a backpack. If a backpack is rated to hold 50 pounds (like a GVWR), we can assume that all components are capable of holding their share of up to that 50 pounds. If the backpack and all of its components weighs 5 pounds (empty weight), that leaves 45 pounds of payload capacity. When you put the backpack on, some of that weight transfers to the person carrying it (like a trailer on a tow vehicle). That weight adds to the person’s weight, which they have to carry. We don’t know the limiting factors of the backpack. Is it the straps? The zipper? The sewing or material the bottom/floor is made if? As long as we keep the total weight at or under 50 pounds, we have a reasonable expectation the backpack will perform, as expected. If we put 100 pounds in it, because the person carrying it is strong enough to carry a 100 pound backpack, that doesn’t make the 50 pound-rated backpack any more capable.