Calculating Your Truck’s Maximum Payload & Towing Capacity

Calculating your truck's maximum payload & towing capacity

You need to be aware of the load your vehicle can carry, whether you’re towing or moving cargo. The engine, transmission, tires, brakes, and other parts of your truck may experience significant wear if this figure is exceeded. Learn more about payload, towing capacity, and other calculations you must perform to get the most out of your truck.

The truck’s payload capacity will also be reduced if you add any aftermarket accessories. To determine the payload capacity, subtract the weights of any extensions, such as service bodies, towing attachments, enclosed bodies, platforms, or dump bodies, from the GVWR and the curb weight.

WHATS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PAYLOAD & TOWING CAPACITY?

The greatest weight you may securely add to a truck’s cargo space in addition to its empty weight is referred to as payload capacity (or curb weight). The greatest weight that a truck can tow, on the other hand, is referred to as the towing capacity, which takes into account the weight of the truck as well as any cargo.

Truck commercials bombard you with a variety of metrics, including GVWR, curb weight, gross combined vehicle weight, and many more. You need to put some of those other figures into context in order to comprehend the variations between payload and towing capacity.

1. WHAT DOES GVWR MEAN?

To make sure you don’t damage your truck permanently, you must figure out the GVWR, or gross vehicle weight rating. This value doesn’t need to be calculated. Instead, check your owner’s handbook or the plate attached to the sidewall, which may be on the driver’s side door.

This figure represents how many stuff, including the driver, passengers, and cargo, your vehicle can hold internally. Based on the GVWR, the U.S. government divides trucks into different classes. The smallest trucks, weighing 6,000 pounds, are classified as Class 1. Up to class 8, which includes vehicles with GVWRs higher than 33,000 pounds, each category increases in a different manner. The classifications assist you in determining the kind of car you own.

Light duty vehicles include trucks with GVWRs under 10,000 pounds. Medium-duty vehicles are those having a GVWR of more than 10,000 pounds but less than 26,000 pounds. Heavy-duty trucks are those that weigh more than this. The greater the GVWR, the more payload and towing capacity your vehicle has.

2. WHAT IS CURB WEIGHT?

Your truck’s curb weight is how much it weighs when it is completely empty. You need to know the curb weight, which includes a full tank of gas and topped-off fluids but no passengers or baggage, in order to calculate the maximum payload and towing capability. The GVWR is partially determined by the mass of your truck and the load you are hauling. You can determine how much additional weight your trunk can support by subtracting the curb weight from the gross vehicle weight.

3. WHAT IS GCVWR?

Contrast GCWR with GVWR carefully. Whereas the latter denotes the gross vehicle weight, the former stands for gross combined vehicle weight rating. Towing capacity calculations require the GCVWR.

GCVWR displays your loaded truck and trailer’s total cost. This rating typically exceeds the GVWR due to how much more weight your vehicle can tow than its entire weight. The amount of towed goods increases the weight of the trailer and its axles rather than the axles of your truck, allowing you to carry more than the payload allowance.

4. WHAT IS TRAILER TONGUE WEIGHT?

The weight of the trailer tongue contributes to the cargo capacity. This information reveals how much force the towed cargo applies to the truck tongue. It comprises 10 to 15 percent of the trailer’s overall weight. A single-axle, eight-foot trailer, for instance, weighs about 320 pounds when it is empty. The weight of the trailer tongue would be: 320 pounds x 0.1 = 32 pounds

Only an empty trailer is taken into consideration for this tongue weight. If you want to use the trailer for both towing and hauling, don’t forget to add the mass of the load inside or on top of it when determining the tongue weight. The weight of the trailer tongue is one way that what you tow may affect the truck’s payload capability.

5. WHY THESE NUMBERS ARE IMPORTANT

When packing your car, you must decide whether to compare truck payload and towing capabilities. The amount of road debris caused by vehicles is increased by improperly secured trailers and cargo. In an analysis of occurrences from 2001 to 2014, AAA discovered that incidents involving debris were directly responsible for 125 fatalities and 9,805 injuries annually. 163 crashes per 1,000 were caused by falling goods or debris from vehicles.

You run the risk of putting unnecessary strain on your truck’s suspension, transmission, and engine if your load is not secured and is within the truck’s carrying capability. By causing accidents on the road, you could potentially endanger other motorists.

6. WHY YOU CAN'T USE THE ADVERTISED PAYLOAD & TOWING CAPACITIES

The payload and towing capacities of a truck are frequently calculated and advertised by the truck manufacturer. These figures, however, represent the maximums for an empty vehicle with just the driver inside. For most drivers, a situation like this is not likely. Most likely, the truck will be carrying passengers or other cargo, such as work gear. These add-ons make the car heavier, which reduces the actual payload and towing capacities.

Moreover, many truck manufacturers advertise a towing capability for their vehicles that, despite the fact that the engine and tires might theoretically sustain the load, is not actually achievable. Look for a third-party endorsement of the truck manufacturers’ claims to avoid being duped by this kind of information and to ensure that your truck can transport the quoted weight.

A truck’s ability to tow a particular load safely is determined by the SAE J2807 standard, which was developed by the Society of Automotive Engineers. Trucks are put through a variety of tests as part of the rigorous SAE process, including the following:
– Vehicles travel 11.4 miles while climbing 3,000 feet while the air conditioner is turned on. Standard pickups cannot move slower than 40 mph, and dually vehicles must maintain a speed of at least 35 mph.
– A truck’s ability to accelerate affects how successfully it can pass when towing. The three targets for four-wheel vehicles are 30 mph in 12 seconds, 60 mph in 30 seconds, and 40 mph to 60 mph in 18 seconds.
– Launching: At a complete stop, a truck’s ability to move a cargo swiftly is referred to as launching. The test vehicle must climb 16 feet forward and backward five times in under five minutes while traveling up a 12% gradient.

Truck manufacturers with vehicles that can reliably and safely tow the specified weights have earned this group’s endorsement. The towing weights are maximums even with the SAE J2807 standard, though. For towing, do not go over these numbers. Calculate how the actual weights of your cab, bed, and towing equipment compare to the predicted weights

how to calculate payload capacity

You can compute payload capacity yourself, however most manufacturers will do so. Prior to doing the math, you must comprehend how manufacturers have previously used payload capacity values and why those may not be applicable to today’s cars.

The figure denotes an approximation of the payload capacity when a vehicle is advertised as a half-ton truck, when it did so in the 1960s. Today’s trucks are far more capable of carrying than that, and a half-ton truck is considered a light-duty vehicle.

You need to know the GVWR as well as the curb weight in order to calculate the cargo capacity. To determine the cargo capacity, deduct the curb weight from the GVWR. For instance, the payload capacity of a light-duty vehicle with a GVWR of 9,000 pounds and a curb weight of 6,000 pounds is 3,000 pounds:
– curb weight minus GVWR equals payload capacity
– 3,0 pounds when divided by 6,0 pounds.
Without any additional towing, its payload consists of both persons and cargo.

The tongue weight must be subtracted from the GVWR if you had a trailer. The tongue weight for the identical example would be 200 pounds if the trailer weighed 2,000 pounds. Now, the maximum cargo will only weigh 2,800 pounds.

While towing, the formula for payload capacity is: GVWR – curb weight – tongue weight = 9,000 pounds – 6,000 pounds – 200 pounds = 2,800 pounds.

Keep the material’s density in mind when transporting freight in the bed of your vehicle. One-half cubic yard of sand, for instance, can weigh up to 1,500 pounds, yet the same volume of mulch only weighs 400 pounds. They both occupy the same space but weigh drastically different amounts because of the disparity in their densities. The key takeaway from these materials is that just because something fits into your truck bed, it does not necessarily guarantee that it will fit inside your truck’s payload capacity, especially when you take into account the weights of passengers and other cargo.

Payload capacity calculations solely provide information on how much weight the truck can accommodate. It displays the suspension system of the truck’s limitations. Yet, when towing, the axles of the vehicle bear less of the weight. Instead, you may transport heavier things with the trailer than you can in the truck’s bed or cab.

how to calculate truck towing capacity

Manufacturers also compute a product’s towing capability in addition to its payload capacity. But they presumptively have an empty car with a driver who weighs just 150 pounds. You can arrive at a more accurate estimate of towing capacity by factoring in all the occupants of the cab and any cargo when you calculate towing capacity on your own. You need to know the GCVWR and the curb weight in order to make a custom towing capacity calculator. To get the maximum towing capacity, subtraction the latter sum from the first:

GCVWR – curb weight = maximum towing capacity

Other than full fluid levels, nothing within your truck is taken into account in this computation. Passengers and cargo are not taken into account. You must take the weight of the passengers and cargo into account when calculating how much you can haul in a practical manner. The GCVWR comprises both the contents of the truck and the load it pulls behind it.

Use the formula to see if a truck with a curb weight of 6,000 pounds and a GCVWR of 15,000 pounds can accommodate the equipment and personnel listed below:

Three 150-pound passengers
A quarter-cord of firewood at 1,250 pounds
Tow a 2,800-pound car
With a 2,000-pound car trailer

You must remove everything the truck moved from the curb weight and the GCVWR in order to calculate the towing capacity for a truck carrying the aforementioned equipment:

GCVWR – curb weight – cargo – passengers ≥ total towing weight
15,000 pounds – 6,000 pounds – 1,250 pounds – (3 people x 150 pounds each) = 7,300 pounds towing capacity
Car + trailer = total towing weight
2,800 pounds + 2,000 pounds = 4,800 pounds total towed weight

You may safely transport everything listed while still towing the automobile because the entire towing weight of 4,800 pounds is less than the overall towing capacity of 7,300 pounds.

The added truck body additions will also have an impact on the towing weight. Calculate the GCVWR, curb weight, cargo, and passenger weights after deducting the body additions. The value ought to be greater than the weight being towed:

GCVWR – curb weight – cargo – passengers – body additions ≥ total towing weight
15,000 pounds – 6,000 pounds – 1,240 pounds – (3 people x 150 pounds each) – 1,190 pounds = 6,110 pounds towing capacity with body additions

You can have this type of service body on your truck while transporting the specified freight and people as well as towing a car on a trailer because the combined towing weight still exceeds the combined weight of the vehicle and trailer of 4,800 pounds.

customize your truck for greater productivity

Your truck’s payload or towing capacity will give you an indication of how much weight it can support. To get the most out of anything you do bring, though, you must keep it safe and secure. Instead of stuffing everything into your truck bed, modify your vehicle with service truck bodies to transport your equipment.

When determining the payload and towing capacity of your truck, don’t forget to take the weight of any additional service bodies into account. To assist you with this computation, ask us about a variety of our service bodies. For a range of industries, including construction, landscaping, transportation services, and utility, Mongoose Industry offers service bodies. To discuss a unique design, call us. You may maximize the space you have in your truck by including a service body.

You can purchase our bodies installed or we can deliver them to you. We also have new trucks from dealerships that are ready for your next job.