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Posted by D. Sherman on Monday, April 07, 2008 at 17:41:54 :
In Reply to: GVW question posted by OleManIdaho on Monday, April 07, 2008 at 15:12:14 :
As far as I know, in most jurisdictions, 6000 lbs GVW is the most you can have without having to register as a commercial vehicle or pay gross weight fees. I suspect that's why manufacturers rated them that way. Most 1/2-ton, 3/4-ton, and 1-ton pickups are registered at under 6000 lbs. There was a time when you were required to put a sticker on the side of a pickup that said "6000 GROSS". Obviously lots of people routinely loaded their pickups up to a lot more than that, and, at least with the 1-tons, were probably safe with it. As for what your water truck is good for, the safe answer, of course, is "less than 6000 GVW". My practical answer, if it was mine, is that so long as the springs didn't bottom out on bumpy roads, it'd be okay as a farm truck. Brakes shouldn't matter much because you always use engine braking on long downgrades and you're not driving in traffic. Beyond that, too much weight just means more wear on bearings and gears, more chance of blowing a U-joint, and things like that that aren't fatal, but you wouldn't want to do them to a nice truck.
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