Another Tacoma/ATC GVWR report

[takesiteasy]

I stopped at the truck scale at the start of my last trip. I was curious. My camper is a modified ATC shell model- shorter and narrower than a normal Bobcat. It has a furnace and propane tank and two small storage boxes built out of plywood (you can see the details here). I have a Dometic CF50 fridge bolted in under the cab-forward window. I have a 10 gal. Frontrunner footwell water tank that was empty. I was carrying 2 gallons of water in the camper. At the time of weighing, the camper was fully loaded with 200 lbs of food, gear and clothing, the dog was in the truck but no people. The gas tank was 5 gallons shy of full. I have D-rated tires that I figure add about 50 pounds total over OEM tires and an extra battery that adds another 50 lbs.

Here are the results (sorry for the poor formatting- couldn't figure out how to do tabs):

Axle-- Actual-- Toyota Spec Limit-- Difference
Front Axle-- 2560 lbs-- GAWR 2755-- 195 under limit
Rear Axle-- 2920-- GAWR 3110-- 190 under
Total-- 5480-- GVWR 5350*-- 130 over
*(not sure why the GVWR is 515 lbs less than the total GAWR for the two axles).

I figure adding two people (350 lbs ), 8 more gallons of water (64 lbs) and 5 gallons of gas (30 lbs) would put me at an additional 444 lbs for a total fully loaded weight of 5924 lbs (ignoring the two empty fuel cans hanging on the back). This is 574 lbs over the GVWR, or 10.7% high. I was surprised since my camper is bare bones. We carry pretty minimal gear. I don't know how I would get the weight down to the GVWR. At least we are close to the individual axle ratings. The truck handles fine and doesn't seem overloaded. There is still capacity in the stock suspension with the TSB rear springs. Braking, acceleration and cornering are all good.

I am curious about others' experiences and observations.

 

[Overland Hadley]

If you get a chance weigh your Tacoma without the camper on it. I found with mine, and then researching found that others have come up with their Tacoma being 200-300 pounds heavier than it should be. Not sure why this is, and it is not a full tank of fuel as all liquids should be full for the factory weight.

Anyway, no matter how you cut it, it is very hard to stay under GVWR.

 

[takesiteasy]

If you get a chance weigh your Tacoma without the camper on it. I found with mine, and then researching found that others have come up with their Tacoma being 200-300 pounds heavier than it should be. Not sure why this is, and it is not a full tank of fuel as all liquids should be full for the factory weight.

Anyway, no matter how you cut it, it is very hard to stay under GVWR.


I intend to weigh the truck next time I have the camper off. That is interesting what you found about trucks being heavier than the specified curb weight. I guess the question is how much above GVWR is ok. As pointed out in a similar thread over on ExPo, the GCWR is 8100 lbs so I guess there is some capacity and safety factor there. But I would rather be within all the margins if possible. As you point out, I'm just not sure it is possible.

 

[takesiteasy]

Okay, so I finally got to the truck scale with my truck empty. Here are the results:

front axle: 2525 lbs
rear axle: 1880 lbs
total: 4400 lbs

I had the gas tank full, the tailgate off and the dog in the cab (and forgotten snow chains on the floor behind the seats- oops). I was not in the truck.

The factory spec for Gross Weight is 4070, so somewhere I picked up 330 pounds (a similar experience was reported by Overland Hadley). I'm thinking 50 pounds for D-rated tires, 50 pounds for the chains, 50 pounds for the extra battery, 60 pounds for the dog, but the tailgate was not on so that subtracts about 50 pounds. That leaves about 150 pounds unaccounted for. What am I forgetting?

With the camper on last summer, the weight was 5480 and I need to adjust for 5 gallons of gas (30 lbs). So let's call it 5510. With the empty weight at 4400 lbs, that leaves the camper and gear at 1110 lbs. I think my gear at the time was 350-400 lbs or less (including clothes, food, water, the fridge, tools and whatnot) so that leaves the camper weight at about 700-750 lbs for a shell camper. That seems about right. Not as exact as I would like but that's what I know now. I may try to get a weight with an empty camper to have a better sense of the camper weight.

The moral of the story is that the Tacoma is a great truck but the GVWR is quite limiting. I am happy to live within the limits- keeps our desire to bring every little thing along with us in check.

 

[Hittheroad]

Could be dark matter or gas, oil and water.

 

[Overland Hadley]

Thanks for the weigh in.

Sounds like you have the extra mystery weight, as most do. Is your Tacoma a TRD? There must be some "options" that add a lot of weight.

 

[takesiteasy]

Could be dark matter or gas, oil and water.

That's it- dark matter! I knew I was forgetting something.

Thanks for the weigh in.

Sounds like you have the extra mystery weight, as most do. Is your Tacoma a TRD? There must be some "options" that add a lot of weight.

Yeah, TRD. I'm thinking maybe the tow package isn't included in the spec curb weight but who knows.

 

[takesiteasy]

June, 2014 update:

I got to the truck scale with an empty camper today. Here's the results:

Front axle: 2560 lbs.
Rear axle: 2740 lbs.
Total: 5300 lbs.

Subtracting the weight of the truck (and the fridge in the camper) leaves the camper weight at around 800 lbs, heavier than I thought. It is interesting that virtually all the weight of the camper sits on the rear axle. I updated my blog post with the new information.

http://travelswithrockythedog.blogspot.com/2013/07/truck-and-camper-weight.html

 

[ETAV8R]

FYI
At some point those Toyota TSB springs will be overloaded and take on a bend that is not natural. With my flippac on I was also able to melt the plastic shroud for one of my rear bilsteins.

 

[takesiteasy]

FYI
At some point those Toyota TSB springs will be overloaded and take on a bend that is not natural. With my flippac on I was also able to melt the plastic shroud for one of my rear bilsteins.

Yes, I expect to get new springs some day. So far, though the OEM springs are ok. There is still some travel left with the camper loaded. We haven't done much extreme off-road yet, so they haven't been severely tested.

 

[Kodachrome]

Based on what I am seeing here, I suspect we could be pushing 6K when fully loaded. I have never weighed it because I am not sure where to do that where I live. In any case, I have heavy duty front breaks, a *very* beefed up suspension and a supercharger making the truck handle like a dream even when full.