how much can an 87 S15 trailor tow?

[fish]

Just out of curiousity, I was wondering what the most you can safely (legally) tow with an 87 S15. I have access to a bigger truck but I have to borrow so I'd rather be able to use mine if I can. O, and I am looking at using a tow dolly with brakes if that helps.

The only thing I could find on it was in the owners manual was that with an auto (mines a 5spd though) that when trailering over 3,000 to not use overdrive.

-Brandon

[fastr68]

the door sticker will tell you the CGVWR rating

it will be the maximum weight of the truck with load combined

around 5500lbs or so

in this state the class B truck plates are good for up to 8000 combined gross weight and depending on who pulls you over to check your weight you can be ok up to 8,000lbs even if the truck is rated less on the sticker, and technically overloaded


as you can see 5000 or 5500 rating on the sticker leaves you with only around half a ton of weight you can haul without being overloaded per the rating on the truck

1/2 ton truck roughly

and 3/4 ton trucks are usually around 8000 to 8600 lb combined weight rating and 1 ton trucks start out at 10k lbs

almost 2 tons you can haul with a 3/4 ton legally per the sticker

and around 2.5 tons with a 1 ton


pulling a trailer changes things though because it has its own weight rating as well, like the truck does

it can get complicated and alot of times it depends on the official and how well he knows the laws or how much he cares either

and each state differs on this

so..

but technically if you weigh more than what the rating says on the door sticker then you are overloaded per the factory specifications and by law you would be in trouble weighing more than that amount of weight total combined

a buddy of mine recently got busted on the freeway hauling a car trailer load to the shredder with a 1/2 ton chevy 1995 c1500 pickup and they checked his weight and he was at 8600lbs total

well they let him off easy and went by his b truck plate rating of 8,000lbs and fined him for being 600lbs over, even though the 1/2 ton truck is rated around 5500 max loaded combined

they somehow took into account the trailer and its max combined weight rating and i dunno how they figuered the truck weight by itself unloaded... maybe thats why they just went with the B truck registration plate rating of 8000 instead since they had no number to subtract from his total loaded weight

he got really lucky there..



i would call the DMV office and ask how it works there exactly




good luck

[dimerunner88]

i've towed 3000lb and 5000lb loads with my different s-10's. the biggest thing you have to worry about is your brakes and not going too fast for the load and the road. what are you planning on towing? if your in the 5000lb range i would make sure the trailer has trailer brakes and that they work along with the trailer brake controller in the truck.

[fish]

I should bring up a few key points.

I know about the GCVWR, however, my trucks is gone. I also know that a truck can tow a LOT more than you can load in the bed.

I don't know how much yet I plan on pulling with it. for starters I know I just got back with a 3000lb car and was using a 250ish lb tow dolly. I would say I probably won't pull more than a 4K car, and it will be on a tow dolly with brakes equppied.

I just know I move a lot of cars around and would rather not have to borrow my fathers truck, for the most part, I don't drive too far with these cars but as an example I pulled that 3K car home over 600 miles, so I will probably have a few long trips in there.

I do also know, on the newer 4.3 4x4 ext cab trucks they are rated to pull a trailor up to 5500 lbs. I would imagine the older ones wouldn't be too much lower.

Two more things, one, just so we know, power won't be a problem, I am swapping in a bigger engine. I need to know what the suspension and brakes can handle (and like I said, I plan on buying a tow dolly with brakes on it to help). Lastly, I am a truck driver by profession, I drive an international 4900 with which I can load over 21000lbs of fuel onto (which makes me massively illegal BTW) Legally I think I can load 16000lbs. Point is, I know how to drive with a lot of weight, easy on the brakes, big following distance and slow is fast.