Bed Capacity as far as weight

Capacity depends on which configuration. Some Tacoma configurations are over 3/4 ton. Current 4-cyl 4x2 is 1620 pounds, so a bonerack 16 year old girl driver and a half gallon of fuel, and it still has a full 3/4 ton available payload capacity.

 

payload is right around 1300 lbs. People, accessories, misc cargo all eat that up.

 

Here is a before and after of my '06 4x4. It usually carries the topper shell and a coupe hundred pounds of tools , photo 1. Photo 2, loaded across the scales with 1580# from a bathroom demo. Photo 3, is the TSB springs with an added original spring as an add-a leaf under 1580#.

 

Most weight I've hauled was 2220lbs. of pea gravel in my short bed, 15 loaded miles through foothills, sitting loaded overnight. Tare 4400, Gross 6620. I air up my air bags and tires, and drive accordingly, staying in 3rd or 4th gear. No damage to the bed so far.
I also made a removable tailgate cover from 3/4" plywood for protection. Fits perfect, provides a flat surface, distributes weight better, great field workbench. I keep it under the bed mat.

 

1500 with sumo springs. Wouldn’t do this everyday though.

 

There is a sticker on the drivers door jamb with "payload" written on it. You may have to read carefully to find it because it has other info on there. My truck is rated for 1200 lbs. There is also a GVWR on another sticker. My truck is rated for 5450 The total weight of my truck, any passengers and cargo should never exceed 5450 lbs. That means that my truck weighed 4250 lbs when it left the factory. 5450-1200= 4250.

But my truck no longer weighs 4250. With me, my wife, the cap on the truck it weighed 4800 recently at the landfill meaning I had 650 lbs of usable payload. Leave my wife at home and I'm closer to 800 lbs. Take the cap off and I gain another 180 lbs.

Every truck is somewhat different so the numbers won't be in the owners manual. Most all of them have a GVWR of 5450, but every trucks weight is somewhat different depending on the cab style and options. That is why you have to look at the sticker on each truck. And if you've modified the truck in any way you really need to actually weigh it.

Do people overload their trucks, you bet they do. And so have I. For short hauls, driven carefully and occasionally I'd not have a problem overloading it by 200-400 lbs. But not more than that, and I wouldn't make a habit of it. If you do, you need a bigger truck.

 

I frequently haul 35 cases of milk (roughly 1300 lbs) with no problem...just drive gently.

 

Its called payload.
It is probably not in the manual as its different for each of the configurations.
Put your configuration in google and add payload. It should tell you.

 

I heard a story once about a guy who maybe put a pallet of northern Idaho energy logs in his four-cylinder access cab bed. Maybe he drove 10 miles with it to get home...the pallet of logs weighs 2000 pounds. He had them place it in the back of the truck very slowly, ratchet strapped it down and took the back roads very slowly. It was definitely bump stopping. The springs didn't look like they were destroyed afterwards it still had bed lift, but it might have been sitting an inch or 2 lower. He has since had the leafspring TSB so there's no sag to the truck and he probably would never do that again...

 

"I heard a story".
Common beginning to a story that never happened. Somebody made it up to pretend that doing something like this would permanently bend a truck's springs, which it won't.

I have MANY times, carried 2000+ pounds in the bed, with no ill-effects. In fact, they drive REALLY smooth with that much weight in them.

 

Can we all agree that what's in the manual is calculated by a bunch of engineers with a built in factor of safety. You can put as much weight in your truck as you'd like, but you assume some risk once you go over the what's in the manual. Apply common sense and reduce speeds and increase braking distance accordingly.

Enjoy your truck...I'm a huge proponent of air bags. They have been night and day when hauling.

 

Bingo!