[sourdough]

Originally Posted by jfk69

I have the word of two very qualified engineers that built them. I trust that. This idea that a truck with a 3500 pound payload will fail at 3501 is silly. That was my only point. I didn’t get on here and say “you’re good to X, Y or Z over the payload listed on your truck. That would be irresponsible and factually incorrect.

I don't think anyone has ever said a truck will fail at 1 lb. over the listed payload. The stress on payload is for a few reasons; liability, the effort to point out that the number is there listed on the door and because it is a printed number, placed there by the manufacturer to give the buyer knowledge of what he can safely carry - no more, no less. If you, or anyone else, decides it's OK to go 50lbs. over or......2000lbs., 1%, 10%, 50% over where then is the safe point? There isn't one and now you have guided a person who has no idea, that just asked what he can safely carry, down a dangerous path - the wrong thing to do. As far as the engineers and their commentary, it's just that. It has no merit and only encourages folks to disregard the numbers they should be adhering to. IMO if the engineers actually knew they would tell you exactly what the "large" tolerance is because they should know. Lacking that it is pure conjecture and hearsay.

Originally Posted by jfk69

Trivial, I know, but my truck GVWR is 11,500. The rest I mostly agree with. I also didn’t condone exceeding payload. My point, indirectly, was that of the several RV boards where I am a member, I haven’t seen one where folks are grilled quite so hard as here. Just an observation. Sometimes, people pull with what they have. We did that with our previous fiver. It got us back into rv’ing after a long hiatus, and we upgraded the truck when the timing was better for us.

I just disagree with some of the “absolute” responses and I’d be happy to kick back at a campfire with most anyone I talk to on all these boards and knock back a drink of your choice while we debate it. The fact is most posts anywhere on the internet have 0-some “fact” and a LOT of “opinion”.

"Sometimes, people pull with what they have". Yes they do; it doesn't make it right or safe. Sort of like turning a 5 year old loose with a loaded semi auto pistol - if they don't have knowledge of what they have and what they are doing it can be deadly which leads to;

"I haven't seen one where folks are grilled quite so hard as here".

I too belong to several boards and most pretty much ignore the issue of weight even when they know one is in over their head. I personally believe that is why we (I) see SO many folks that are clueless about their critical weights. "It pulls it fine; everything's great" is a common response and that is that persons' only criteria for towing that triple axle with their 2500. Not good.

We have new members coming on literally daily. Many have never owned a TV or RV. Many more have never even been told of the weights and how they work even though they should have been at some point in the past. On this forum we take the responsibility of sharing that information and keeping our members safe seriously.

As far as the numbers go - they are "absolute". I've not seen a single limit posted, yes mandated, by the various manufacturers that says "unless you think you know better". They are absolute and meant to be that way, if not just don't use them and do what "feels good". Most of those posted numbers say "must not exceed" - seems pretty clear....and absolute to me.