I’m suddenly fascinated by truck weighing, weights and seeing how things add up. I was “lucky” that I got to take 1,500 pounds of yard waste to the dump today. The fun part is that I got to go across the dump’s scales.
On my way in, loaded – I weighed 10,020 pounds.
On my way out, without the load in the bed – I weighed 8,500 pounds right on the nose.
First, that’s a lot of yard waste. No wonder my back hurts. Baby boy better appreciate the back breaking work we’re doing getting ready for his 1st birthday!
- Me in the driver’s seat + no passengers
- Car and booster seats in the back seat
- The B&W Turnover Ball Gooseneck hitch (note, the Companion Fifth Wheel Hitch was not installed)
- A full tank of fuel
- RetraxPro truck bed cover
- Minor truck upgrades (lock actuator, TailGate Assist)
- Random crap in the truck (umbrellas, couple of books, random baby stuff, etc.)
What’s now fun about this is playing the “let’s compare this against what’s advertised”:
- Advertised dry weight of the truck, 7,872 pounds (from Ram Body Builder Guide)
- Taking my weight out of play, that means I have 363 pounds of “add-ons and stuff” that are always there (truck weight – advertised dry weight)
- Yellow/white sticker advertised payload, 4,297 pounds
- Interestingly and showing how factory options matter: my yellow/white sticker is less than the Ram Body Builder Guide advertised payload capacity of 4,430 pounds (we opted for just about everything – heavy duty alternator, bed liner are the two that come to mind right out of the gate)
- Available payload capacity with just me and some stuff, 3,800 pounds (GVWR of 12,300 – truck weight of 8,500)
- Proving that the yellow/white sticker includes a 150 driver — 3,800 pounds of available payload + 115 pounds of my weight that is over 150 pounds + 363 pounds of “stuff” equals 4,278 which is awfully close to the printed payload of 4,297 pounds
I think what all of this reaffirms is – you never really know what stuff weighs until you get out to a scale and get weighed. Quarry, dump, bulk landscape company, or CAT scales are all possible places to get weighed.
