Haul limit

How much weight can my 2002 Toyota Tacoma 2.7 standard transmission carry in the bed

 

Around 350 pounds is a good place to stop.

 

really I actually had a little over half a ton in the bed of my truck and it towed it fine

Everybody keeps telling me my trucks made to haul about 1,800 pounds and I put 1000 pounds in there and it drove just fine but I'm not putting any more than that in and I would really like to know the exact weight limit

 

1100 lbs at the most with 2 or 3 occupants.

 

It says right on your driver's door jamb. GVWR is gross vehicle weight rating, which is the most the truck can weight when you drive it on a scale.

You subtract from that its factory curb weight, passengers, a tank of gas, replacement bumper, sliders, LED light bars and the hula girl on the dash board.

That leaves you with payload. That's how much you can bring with you, in the cab, in the bed and on the roof.

It generally works out to about what @SkunkMan17 said, a few hundred lbs.

 

Yeah I’ve hauled over half a ton of sand no problem. Also hauled about a yard and a half of mulch many times no problem.

 

Exactly. GVWR minus factory stated tare equals 1,110 lbs (e.g. a 1/2 ton truck). That's what it's supposed to weight when rolls off the line with no one in it.

In the real world you start subtracting. Right off the top around 200 lbs for the meat bag behind the wheel, 150 lbs for a tank of gas, probably the weight of the optional tow hitch, etc. When all is said and done that's the payload you can carry with you.

The way to know for sure is to drive on the CAT scales at a truck stop with what you normally carry. They'll give you a ticket, subtract that number from GVWR and you're 100% sure.



ETA:

The 2004 brochure says this. So to get 1,100 lbs your passengers, fuel, tools, etc. are assumed to weigh in the 400 to 500 lbs range depending on which truck and engine you have.

 

Yeah your method is more accurate and what the law would do.


What gets me is Notes 9 and 10 in the manual. The way I read it, its 1100 pounds plus 3 occupants, 700 if you've got 5 occupants. So, that 400lb difference is 2 people, so they're assuming each person is 200 lb. So the truck in theory, with nothing in it, good for 1500 lbs with a single occupant.

But, they don't go as far as to say that.

 

I'm always in my truck by myself and I weigh about 215
Another thing I want to mention is it's a small pickup I have.
Not a full size

 

It's higher than I thought it was on the 1st gens, so I learned two new things today!

 

Interesting that the 4x4 reg cab can haul 310lbs more than the 5-lug. Usually its the other way around.

 

That is interesting. GVWR should take into account vehicle handling so perhaps lower CoG from the extra weight of the t-case and front axle offsets the increased ride height more in the super short wheelbase.

 

Regular cab ftw

 

2lbs of man meat

 

6 lug trucks have a higher GVWR. Comparing a 6 lug 4X4 to a 5 lug 2wd truck is comparing apples to oranges.

The GVWR on all 2nd gen 6 lug trucks is the same and I assume all 5 lugs are too. But every truck will weigh somewhat different depending on cab style, bed length 4X4 vs 4X2, and options. The difference between the GVWR and the trucks actual weight is payload. It is going to vary depending on the truck and is printed on a sticker on the drivers door jamb. A regular cab 4X2 with very few options will have the most payload. A DCLB 4X4 loaded up will have the least.

Of course you have to take into account any modifications to the truck and any tools or gear that stay in there all the time. My 2007 DCSB 4X4 has a payload of 1200 lbs, but I have a 180 lb cap on mine reducing payload to 1020. I've actually weighed the truck and that is pretty accurate. I weigh 220 and if I'm in the truck alone I have about 800 lbs available payload. That would include tongue weight of a trailer as well.

Surprisingly 1/2 ton trucks are often no better. Payloads as low as 1100 lbs are out there and a lot of them are only 1400-1500. Not really that much more than Tacoma's, but if you choose carefully you can get 1/2 ton trucks with over 2000 lbs payload, some of them quite a bit over 2000 and will overlap some 3/4 ton trucks.

 

There is no real answer depends on your reason for hauling and How far .

It comes down to stopping and turning so many Overloaded Trucks like to lay down and take naps on hard corners and exit ramps

Bed on the rear wheels is a tad heavy front end off the ground is another

The most I hauled was 2000 pounds a pallet of wood bricks not something I would advise your first time. about 40 miles on roads I knew real well all 2 lane state roads

 

Kind of a good illustration of just because you can doesn't mean you should. I put 2,000 lbs (a bed full of landscape gravel) in my old 1991 Pickup/Hilux and drove it a few miles home on surface street. Ended up with a fractured spring by doing it but the fully boxed frame on them didn't show such an obvious indication of overloading like our Tacoma do. It just squatted a lot. Those bricks could have been collapsing the rear of the box on the body mounts but I kind of doubt it. :-/

 

WHen I had my 96 xtracab, I had some work being done on the house, and the contractors said they need a "half a yard" of sand. If I didn't get it in my truck, it would have been a delay of about a week, so I said I would get it. I thought, "how much can half a yard be?". I went to the place, paid for it, and they told me to back my truck up to the pile and a loader would load it for me. I backed up there, and this front end loader then dumped a whole bucket of sand onto the back of my truck. I didn't realize until I read the ticket that it was about 1200lbs! I had to go about 10 miles home, and the truck was CLEARLY pretty much bottomed out, but I actually did make it home. I was SO glad when they had unloaded all the sand from the back of my truck, and it didn't seem to be any worse for the wear, that is, until I drove it for the first time afterwards. I could tell that it was handling slightly different, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I took it to my mechanic, and he confirmed that I had damaged the two rear NEW shocks that I had just put on, only a couple of months earlier! But he said that my leaf springs were ok. I had the shocks replaced again, and the truck was just fine. I later looked on my door jamb and I seem to recall that it said the load limit was 800lbs. But still, all in all, I was dang proud of that truck for making it home and for nothing else having gone wrong with the severely overloaded truck!

 

In this case any damage to the Truck even if the frame broke in half would have been cheap compared to all the frozen water damage The winter the firewood was buried under a foot of ice Electric was out more then on it seems.