I agree. Truckers like to use the 125%-150% rule it seems.
I am amazed at the people posting on this forum that are just repeating what they read in the last post and do not have a clue on the subject.
It would have ever been nice if the RV industry had applied the 80% rule when buying tires and wheels for these things instead of doing like the truckers and using a 100%+ rule.
We tow in the Rockies quite often, in fact we live there. We are under our maximum tow rating by 200#, and have no trouble. Have over 150,000 on our 3.2 liter V6 SUV, half of that towing. TV tow rating = 5000#, TT loaded and on the road, 4800#.
Lets see, 80% of 5000 = 4800, hmmmm.
Chuck
Wonderful Wife
Lovely German Shepherd.
1999 Mercedes ML320 TV
2003 Wanderer 187TB Toybox (3620# UVW, 4800# loaded) Not yet camped in Hawaii, 2 Canada Provinces, & 2 Territories. I can't be lost because I don't care where this lovely road is going
I have a 2000 model 2500 series Chevy truck, 2wd, 350 engine (255hp, 330 pds of torque), 4l80E transmission, 3.73 gears, rated to tow 7100 pds. 10 mpg towing
I tow a 24 Dutchman and with all of mama's stuff, it weights in at around 6000 pds.
Old truck handles it fine and never gets hot, but pulling up a long steep hill went you had to stop at the bottom of the hill, the little 350 will scream. Over the years I have blown a transmission torque converter and water pump.
Truck is kept in excellent mechnical condition and trailer brakes/bearings are in good order.
I never tow, nor plan on towing, near my TV max tow rating. What am I saying, you can not have too much power or too much braking capacity when towing.
Keep the puppy's on the porch let the big dog's hunt.
My concern has always been stopping: You never know when some fool is going to pull out in front of you or decide to emergency stop and turn left as you are going down hill.
Went I tow I want a truck big enough to handle an emergency stop with all brakes locked down, if necessary. The brakes on my 2500 series are much bigger than a 1500 series and I hope will serve me well, if I every need them to operate at max capacity.
If you remember the old episode of Chips where a guy with a little pick up which was pulling a boat ran a stop sign, it's not how much you can pull up the hill, it's how much you can keep in control going down the other side. He smoked the brakes and could not stop. Runaway train!
As for steep, try this hill: Monitor Pass, Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, Hwy 89 in eastern California between Topaz and Markleeville. You will use first gear. You will drive right up very steep cliffs. You will drive so slow that you could walk faster. On the way down you will use first gear because second gear is too high to control your speed.
The steepest part is between hwy 395 and Virgil Connell Spring, 3,000 feet in 7.5 miles. If I calculated the grade right it's over 13%. I only saw three vehicles on this road during the whole distance up to hwy 4: A Caltrans dump truck which was ahead of me driving really slowly but faster than us, a small convertible sports car stopped at the top of the pass and a box van going the other way.
JIMNLIN, you are correct about the difference between recreational and commercial. You can drive a real big RV without a CDL and I think it is better to be on the conservative side. Load limits on class 8 trucks are based more on what highways are designed to carry than on what a truck can haul. If you get much over 80,000, depending on the number of axles, you start causing more damage to the highway. I worked for a short time in the log truck business in the northwest in the 70's. In British Columbia I saw triple framed Kenworths regularly hauling 120,000 but they were on dirt from the landing to the mill. Hardly ever on pavement.
I have pulled several rigs in the past right at the max or even a little over. And I agree totally with the OP--I now go with the 80% because at max you creep up hills or mountains. And I live in mountainous country. I never had a problem towing at max. Everything performed as expected--it was just slow.
2008 Keystone Springdale 252
2004 Chevy Silverado, 5.3 L V8
Prodigy brake control and Equal-i-zer
Retired and traveling all we can!
Boy I can remember driving for summer jobs when I was in college. My truck was a 1957 Mac 6 cylinder 250 HP with 500 rpm power range hauling 2 trailers @130k lbs over 2 lane roads and hills and valleys, through every town, traffic light and stop sign's, and the only air on it was for brakes. And your asking if a 350 hp what ever, can haul a 15000 lbs trailer down the supper modern 4 lane with out being overloaded? I know the engine could not be, that's why God made gears.
Here's a clue -- My Ford Ranger owner's manual, in the towing section, states that the towing capacity was found at sea level. It further says to reduce GCWR by 2% for every 1,000 ft of altitude.
So, if I am towing in Colorado at 10,000 ft, I should reduce the TC by 10x2%=20%. Obviously, someone with a turbo will suffer a lot less.
I personally believe that sort of thing is where the 80% rule comes from. The tow capacities were set using good conditions, like sea level, level roads, good weather, etc.
Personally, I don't think it's a good idea to push the equipment to the maximum limits and prefer to have some spare capacity. I drove one rig over its limits for a while until I downsized the trailer and the drive train suffered for it.
As for the European-Australian limits, being higher than US, I don't think that will help much when the Accident Team weighs your rig after a fatal accident that initially wasn't your fault. They'll find a way to stick you with some kind of contributory negligence.
Now granted, many folks operate on the better safe then sorry, but that's a personal decision.
I think that is a very wise and good decision.
TV: Mint 1972 Ford F-250 XLT
TT: 1969 19' Excel; entertains 6, feeds 4, sleeps 2 You don't shoot to kill, you shoot to stay alive.
I don't carry because I have to, I carry because I get to. My pictures
Here's a clue -- My Ford Ranger owner's manual, in the towing section, states that the towing capacity was found at sea level. It further says to reduce GCWR by 2% for every 1,000 ft of altitude.
So, if I am towing in Colorado at 10,000 ft, I should reduce the TC by 10x2%=20%. Obviously, someone with a turbo will suffer a lot less.
I personally believe that sort of thing is where the 80% rule comes from. The tow capacities were set using good conditions, like sea level, level roads, good weather, etc.
Personally, I don't think it's a good idea to push the equipment to the maximum limits and prefer to have some spare capacity. I drove one rig over its limits for a while until I downsized the trailer and the drive train suffered for it.
As for the European-Australian limits, being higher than US, I don't think that will help much when the Accident Team weighs your rig after a fatal accident that initially wasn't your fault. They'll find a way to stick you with some kind of contributory negligence.
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