Can you ever have too much truck?

Denny16

So the short answer to the OP’s Quesrion is — Yes!
cheers

BrianZ

And below is an example with the numbers for the heavy duty Chevy Silverado 2500, which far exceeds NüCamp's 3/4 ton truck limit for a T@B TV.  

This would be a 2-ton truck, right? 
Not quite as massive as the US Army's 2-1/2 ton truck, but close in carrying capacity & presumably very stiff in the suspension.
The vehicle rating & math supports the adverse T@B experience reported above by @dragonsdofly.  So, if you know the GVWR and the curb weight of the TV, then you can easily determine the load limit capacity for comparison to NüCamp's "3/4 ton" vehicle limit.

1968Healey

BrianZ, You’re looking into the numbers too logically.  As a few of us have pointed out, Truck ‘ton rating’ is a historical metric which doesn’t really align to real world numbers in 2020.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truck_classification#Notes_on_weight_classes

Denny16

And, you picked a HD (Heavy Duty) model which has oversized and stiffer suspension than a normal 2500 (3/4 metric tonne) truck.  Cargo capacity is based more on volume, than actual payload weight rating.  So a 2 ton truck is going to be larger in size and weight.  

The 2.5 ton was a 6x6 military truck, the size of a commercial medium duty dump truck.  If you choose a new “big truck”, (2-ton, medium duty) choices range from Ford F650, F750 to Freightliner M2, International 4700, Peterbuilt T-330 and Kenworth T-300.  So you see these are considerably bigger.  The main issue in commercial and HD Medium duty trucks is the rear axle rating, this is where your towing ability is based on, along with engine size and vehicle total weight.

This is a 2 to 3-ton medium duty truck:

And this:

Much larger than a F250 or Ram 2500

cheers

BrianZ

1968Healey said:

BrianZ, You’re looking into the numbers too logically...
Truck ‘ton rating’ is a historical metric which doesn’t really align to real world numbers in 2020.  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truck_classification#Notes_on_weight_classes

I would agree about the 'ton rating' being obsolete for other than comparing relative truck sizes in the various classes.  Sorry, I wasn't trying to suggest that the truck in my example should actually be reclassified as a "2 ton" truck; rather I was trying to show how far off I found the true weight carrying capacity of this particular model to be from the historical metric. 

As the article states, using the "now-imprecise ton rating ...has led to categorizing trucks similarly, even if their payload capacities are different."  So, I was merely trying to illustrate how one might instead be able to use known values of the commonly published specs, GVWR & curb weight, to determine the actual weight-carrying capacity.  I would expect this to provide a better indicator of the stiffness of the suspension that would correlate with increased risk of damage to the T@B being towed.

@Denny16, I only chose that example, because it was known to have caused problems when towing a T@B, so wanted to see if the weight calculations could have had some predictive value.  

Thanks for all the additional insights. 

Denny16

OK, got it.  I agree, in that assigning the “old” payload rating to the model numbers, like 1500, 2500, etc is not relevant any more, and the US Table of GVWR classification (Class 1, 2a and 2C) would be a better reference, than using the old 1/2 or 3/4 ton ratings.  So a TaB300 series could be towed by a class 1 or 2a, while the TaB400 would be good with these plums class 2b (2500/250 series, which is still more truck than you need for the TaB 400)

Perhaps nuCamp should change the frame sticker to Tow with Class 2a or smaller TV, rated to tow a minimum 400lbs, or use the actual GVWR weights.
cheers

hamrx

Would an articulating hitch, on one of these, take some of the twisting forces off the trailer?