What is the real payload capacity of our trucks???

Did the Spartan Race this weekend. 6 males and 2 females in the bed, me(driver) and a passenger. Route was about 25.5 miles one way, and travel time was about an hour. I'm going to guesstimate payload was over 900lbs, and that's not even including bags and cooler.

Off course I was nervous at first because it was the first time the Taco was to carry that heavy of a load. Surprisingly the bed didn't bottom out at all. Funny thing is that it still has the stock Tokico shocks and the 3 leaf pack. And on a side note, 236HP isn't underpowered at all

 

My sticker says 1KG or about 21/2 pounds so after I'm loaded up and ready to leave I just go to the bath room but I'm thinking of calling Toyota and see if they will give me air bags.

 

Hauled 4 12 foot crate myrtles in burlap in the back of the taco today. (approx. 2000 lbs at 500 a piece).

2011 tacoma trd or double cab

 

What is the deal with these yellow "Modifications to this vehicle have reduced the original load carrying capacity" stickers? Mine has one in the door jam. My sticker also says that my load carrying has been reduced by "0" lbs. Who put this sticker there, and why?

 

I would suspect it's done at the factory and has to do with options that were added to the truck above base module to keep the lawyers happy.

 

Lawyers always ruin the fun. I've overloaded pretty much every truck I have had at least once. I hauled a yard of crushed stone in my 05 4 cyl a few times which is probably the worst I've done payload-wise. I would suggest anyone towing close to the capacity invest in a trailer brake controller though. That's about the only time I've been sketched out in mine. A loaded steel car trailer is a bit dicy to stop from highway speed with no trailer brakes.

I do have a friend who used to have his own hardwood flooring business and he had a 1/2 ton chevy. It was fully loaded to the tops of the bedsides at least once a week and he often drove 100 miles or more to the job. He had airbags in it to help deal with the load but he had to put rear wheel bearings in it twice in about 80k miles.

 

Wow, thread revival!

I forgot to report back! It's been a bit over 2 years now and my taco is still running strong. I added the extra OME leaf (

$77 D29XL Leaf Spring

D29XL) since because the ride was too bouncy with the airbags inflated @ 65 psi, it really helped (now I inflate em @ 40 PSI with the aal). I'm now at 30K miles on the truck, with at least 1/3 of the time somewhat overloaded. Still drive it like I stole it on dirt roads and she's holding together! The only thing that I need to change are the ball joints from my LR UCA's but this seems like a common problem.

 

Just my two cents as an engineer... we don't provide ratings that haven't considered everything that could be loaded into the cab prior to giving that rating... that would be straight up foolish and open up the company to a massive amount of risk and litigation. I can guarantee you that the load considers a full cab of five super sized 'Merikans!', plus the roof capacity maxed out and every inch of space within the truck maxed out, i.e. Glove box, under/below seat storage, etc. Only after all that is estimated to be the worst case scenario do we make estimates for what is left over. Engineers aren't just designers, they are risk managers too. Quite simply put, engineers aren't that dumb, and you can trust the ratings put on the truck have a healthy amount of risk assurance built into them.

 

This has been an on going topic and here is my experience, 2013 DCSB 4wd TRD Offroad V6 6spd stock suspension. Going to airport... 4 adults combined weight 600 lbs + 4 suitcases in bed not exceeding 50 lb airline limit so 800 lbs. in total plus maybe 100 lbs misc. equipment in cab for a grand total of about 900 lbs at most. Traveled over normal level paved railroad grade crossing at about 30 mph and bottomed out firmly onto stops. This lead to an experiment upon return. I put 3 32 gallon plastic trash cans in bed and filled with water- 8.34 lbs/gallon x 32=267 lbs x 3 =800 lbs. I then added 2 18 gallon Rubbermaid totes. That would be 18 x 8.34=150 lbs x 2 = 300 lbs. Total weight 1100 lbs. Add to that my 150 lb. son in the bed and that brings us to 1250 lbs and sitting on or effectively on the bump stops. Keep in mind this was a stationary test. This would indicate to me that the door sticker rating of about 1200 lbs or so depending on model is the static load capacity settling to or very near the stops. That would appear to be the story without hairsplitting over cab contents, within reason of course, gas tank contents, factory options and on and on.

 

Same...

I once had approx 1500lbs of stone in the bed and although it wasn't on the bump stops while still, it hit them at every bump in the road. Not ideal, but only did it once and it was a 3 mile trip.

 

Exactly. Everything has Safety Factors built in to it. So if it says max payload is 1000 lbs, you can rest assured it was test to at least 1.5 to 2 times that, maybe more without failure. Mainly because like you mentioned, when something like this is calculated, it is always worst case and then some.

 

The Toyota 8" axle housing is pretty tough. One of the big concerns with over loading is bending the axle housing. My 87 LB mini was overloaded way to many times, no weights, but Oak piled to cab high etc. so way past max (it had an add a leaf in the rear). In almost 300k miles it ate one spring, and one wheel bearing...oh, and a water pump. Other than normal maint. it was running strong when I sold it, so they will take some serious abuse, just not recommended.

 

I have the same dreaded sticker on my 09 Prerunner. Who did what to my truck before I bought it that cost me the weight equivalent of my ex mother in law?

 

How much weight will the five lug 4 cylinder 2wd models hold safely?

 

I have a 2013 Tacoma ,2wd ,extended cab .2.7 4 cylinder went to a truck repair place and had a extra leaf put in the rear springs . I load my 2010 HD street glide in the back weight 750 lb. me 160 ,wife 140 and about 300 lb of luggage and stuff drive from Dartmouth Nova Scotia to Largo Florida about 2300 miles each way the rear sags about a 1 1/2 in from stock , gas miliage is not great but makes it no problem . Only thing in the back of my mind is maybe with the extra weight the brakes might not be as effective . Have done the trip twice and will be leaving in three weeks again .Oh yes my door tag says 1050 carrying capacity .

 

My 07 6' bed access cab bottoms out with my 648 pound 4 wheeler in the bed.
If u r bottoming out while driving you are taking the chance of doing damage.
The gvw ratings are bs. They r not real world.
My truck can not handle my 4 wheeler,a bag & me.

 

I've had 800 to 1000LBS of tree stumps in my DCSB on dirt trails a few times and while you can definitely feel it back there it seemed like the truck was more than capable of it.

 

Just more proof behind the under-rating the trucks are given in order to hedge themselves against a million lawsuits, I just unloaded 900kg of soil and concrete. For those of you that still use the imperial system, that's 1,946 lbs. Drove for about 28km's with it in the mountains. That should put this discussion to rest.

 

Enjoy replacing axle seals

 

We must be driving different trucks.