How much weight are you pulling?

[gchest44]

Hi everyone,

I'm a new member to the forums however I've been reading for a while now. I wanted to chime in and ask you guys how much weight you are pulling with your duramax.

We've got several d/a K-3500 chasis cab duallys. All of our trucks carry apportioned plates and are registered for 40,000 lbs. Our trucks average 33,000 to 35,000 lbs and occassionaly we run up to 38,000 to 40,000. We've got over 70,000 on each of our trucks with very few problems so far. One is an 02 and we blew out the injectors. We had an 03 that just blew out an injector last week at 83,000. Other than that we've been running fine.

The last month I've been running at 33,000 lbs. and the egt's are steady at 1200 and peaking at 1300. I average 7.5 mpg with this type of load at 65 mph. When the speed limit is down to 55 mph I average 8.3 mpg. All the trucks are completely stock. Once you hit 35,000 we are starting to reach the limits of the duramax.

And before I get flamed by people who say we are illegal, we all carry CDL licenses, federal medical cards, log books, IFTA stickers with quarterly reports, apportioned plates and trip permits where required, and all other federal laws pertaining to towing this much weight. We travel all over the country and DOT has not had a problem with what we are doing. We pull in to all weigh stations and are frequently looked at by DOT to check on log books and proper credentials.

[marlinsdmax]

...Sound legal to me. I have my truck reg. at 26000 lbs GCWR. I tow up to 16000 lbs and frequintely travel out of state. I'm under CDL but have a Medical card and keep a log. I know there is a lot of confusion about what you can or cannot do. marlin

[cos]

gchest....


What kind of cargo are you hauling that weighs so much? Just curious....

Also, sounds like you have all your ducks in a row, and its good that you haven't had any problems at weigh stations, but I hate to bust your bubble, and tell you that you are running illegal (dont worry, i wont tell) None of the 3500 models have a GCVWR that will legally conduct a 38000 weight. Just a note....

[gchest44]

Cos: I'm hauling farm equipment made out of steel. We use gooseneck trailers up to 34' in length. As per the GCWR, that is a number I don't understand very well. The 3500's are rated for roughly 22,000 and the 4500's and 5500's are both rated for 26,000. This means that although the 4500 and 5500 are much larger vehicles with more weight they technically can't haul any more weight than a 3500. I don't understand Chevy's logic on this one. I've looked at the ford 550's and you can get a GCWR up to 36,000 lbs. which makes more sense. I think Chevy needs to figure out the GCWR's on their trucks.

[RVC]

I haul hay about 20 times a year with GCVW @ 30k

How is the rear suspension standing up to the 33k+ weights?

[Reggie Turnage]

I pull 16000lb 5th wheel with my 02 2500HD. Have 63,000 no problems. Stock except for the 265 tires.

[Dannyboy]

I only hook up around 8,500 LBS. when tow my boat. Towed it for the first time last Sunday and what a difference compared to my 02 Avalanche 2500.

[MartyB]

He is running legal, all the wiegh stations care about is being uner federal bridge law wts, and axel wts of the vehicles, ie the truck and trailer. So if all the above is OK, then he can be above the manufactures warenty GCWR/GVWR all he wants.

I pull upwards of 12K with a 6.5, and my GCWR 12,500! Have not been bothered by the the local DOT either.

[Craig M]

Marty, you are correct that in general the main thing the scales check (when you drive by the scale house) is axle weights. 20,000# for a single rear axle, 34,000# for a set of duall axles, and 12,000# for the steer axle. A pickup with a trailer will almost never exceed these axle weights. If they pull you in for an inspection then they might have issues with you. If you have an axle load of 6500# and tires capacity of 3050#, then you are out of spec. Brakes, axle capacity, hitch capacity, load securement can all be checked. I believe they could also right you up for exceeding GVWR. Once they pull you in for an inspection all bets are off.

[gchest44]

RVC:
The rear suspension is holding up well. We drive chasis cab units which I believe ups the number of springs in the rear end. We typically run 9,000 to 10,000 lbs. on the rear axle with 5,000 lbs. on the front. The front axle weight is maxing out the tire capacity and at 10,000 in the rear those tires are maxed out as well. Everyone in the company has been through at least one Level One Inspection at a weigh station. It usually takes an hour and up to three hours to complete. Generally all they find to complain about is the log book. There is always something more we could put in the book.

CraigM:

We make sure that the tires are never overloaded on the vehicles. All of our trailers are running the Goodyear G614, 14 ply tires rated at 3,450 lbs. each. The unisteel tires are great, no sidewall flex and less rolling resistance in our opinion. Overloading axles is generally a bad idea since bent axles are never good. We generally have the axles alligned every two years or so.

What amazes me is the ability of the Alison Tranny to stand up to this size of load. That tranny is simply amazing. I assume that chipping these trucks or running a programmer would probably destroy the tranny, but who knows. We do a lot of maintenance as well. The rear-ends get changed out every 15,000, fuel filter every 10,000 - 15,000, external tranny filter every 15,000 with full fluid replacement and internal filter replacement every 50,000. Other than that we change the oil every 5,000 and use Wix filters with Rotella oil. We are very pleased with the d/a combination.

[techprof1]

Originally posted by gchest44:
Cos: I'm hauling farm equipment made out of steel. We use gooseneck trailers up to 34' in length. As per the GCWR, that is a number I don't understand very well. The 3500's are rated for roughly 22,000 and the 4500's and 5500's are both rated for 26,000. This means that although the 4500 and 5500 are much larger vehicles with more weight they technically can't haul any more weight than a 3500. I don't understand Chevy's logic on this one. I've looked at the ford 550's and you can get a GCWR up to 36,000 lbs. which makes more sense. I think Chevy needs to figure out the GCWR's on their trucks. I have a 4500 4x4 and my gvcw is 32,080. I spoke with a GM engineer regarding the GVCW and he said it was Allison that won't allow them to rate the vehicle higher. They were coming through town with 8 5500's going up to the ski area to do a "high altitude cold start" test.

The 4500 handles the load really nice. Pulling some of the larger hills however, I am running 40-45 with the big trucks. One of these days I'll add the Juice to it.

Those are some heavy hauls.

[JD Diesel]

just had it all wieght 23700 empty hope to stay under 26000 but you know how weman love to stuff ever hole in a trailer. told her she needs to go on a major storage diet . ya alll no what i mean :eek: redface.gif :confused:

[cos]

Marty,

I dont know where you are getting your info, but you are most definetely wrong. Just because you havent been caught, doesnt mean you are running legal. Any time you exceed the vehicle manufacturers recommended gross vehicle weight rating, you are indeed illegal.

[dmaxcattle]

I regularly pull 15,000 to 20,000 total trailer wieght. This is a 8 X 24 livestock trailer. Sometimes you just have to haul more then your suppose to to get the job done before the sun goes down. Pretty regular in the ag industry