Vehicle Gross Weight on Registration

[ZeeOSix]

The Department of Licensing (DOL) here tells me they will sell me any maximum gross weight rating I want to pay for, so apparently they think it's "OK" to overload my factory stock truck as long as I've paid for the max gross wight - ?

I spoke to the DOL and they make is sound like I can carry 2 tons of load in my 1/2 ton pickup truck if I pay to register the truck with a gross vehicle weight that would account for 2 tons of load on top of the weight of the truck. Example: if the truck weighed 4,000 lbs unloaded, and I loaded it with 4,000 lbs of passengers and cargo, then it would be OK and supposedly "legal" if I paid for it to be registered as "8000 lbs GVW" on the registration, even though the maximum gross vehicle weight from the manufacturer on the door VIN label says the max loaded weight is only 5,800 lbs.

Seems like a loop-hole that would allow people to driver on the roads with grossly overloaded and unsafe vehicles. I'm wondering what the State Patrol would have to say about that? Anyone know if your state allows this to happen?

 

[eljefino]

My state lets me pick any weight in multiples of 3k lbs, starting at 6000.

Going over the design limits can't be legal and would just be a waste of money. Going under is a good way to get in trouble with the commercial vehicle inspection unit.

The tax-arm of the state only cares about what the tires are doing to the pavement. The public safety arm cares that your vehicle is operating under design limits.

 

[JimPghPA]

I heard of someone years ago who worked at a dealer and bought a new truck with a heavy rating and had it registered as having a light rating to save on registration, ( and now that I think of it, probably also on insurance ). I guess that he figured that he would never take it on any highways with weigh stations when he had it loaded beyond the lower rating. Probably the kind of thing you could only pull off if you worked at a dealer. But that person use to get away with way worse than that. He was a darn good mechanic, but I would never ride in a car with him because of the speeds he drove at.

 

[ZeeOSix]

The tax-arm of the state only cares about what the tires are doing to the pavement. The public safety arm cares that your vehicle is operating under design limits.

That's where there seems to be a disconnect IMO. There seems to be no public safety arm in this case. So if someone got pulled over by the State Patrol and had the truck way over loaded and the rear shocks were bottomed out, I guess just whip out the registration and show that you are "legal" because the 1/2 ton pickup is registered for a 2 ton load 1.5 tons more than the GVWR by the manufacturer). I doubt the State Patrol would just go "Yeah you're good ... get back on the road with that unsafely loaded truck."

 

[Skippy722]

I think it’s a “less than or equal to” type of thing, but isn’t a green light to overload the vehicle.
For instance, Illinois has B (<8,000lbs), C (8,001-10,000), and D (10,001+) truck plates while Indiana will let you put 11,000lb truck plates on a Dodge Journey if you want.

 

[mrsilv04]

I think it’s a “less than or equal to” type of thing, but isn’t a green light to overload the vehicle.
For instance, Illinois has B (

You know there's a problem when you see Illinois "B" plates on a F-350 Super Duty dually pickups. And no one in the Secretary of State's office is smart enough to notice the problem, or care.

 

[XCIDMigs]

Probably the kind of thing you could only pull off if you worked at a dealer.

Not correct, any truck plated vehicle registered in PA you can change the "weight" catagory of the registration any time you want, they will also do it the same time as you renew you regular license plates, I had no idea what any of that was until I bought a new 2500HD truck which was for very occasional pulling and drove around empty otherwise, the dealer put it in for a class 3 and then I got the renew for tags at like $200 compared to the standard cars like $30 at the time. I called a tags store and they explained it all, said I had to come in and they filled out a form to drop me down to #2 which was something less than half price wise. There was a small note on my registration card about GVW and nothing else changed. Saved me over $1000k while I owned the truck. YRMV

 

[ZeeOSix]

I think it’s a “less than or equal to” type of thing, but isn’t a green light to overload the vehicle.
For instance, Illinois has B (QUOTE]

Not here apparently - I even looked at the official state laws and couldn't find any gross weight loading restrictions on cars and trucks. There were pretty explicit laws on commercial truck weight limits, etc.

I talked to someone in the Department of Licensing and he said they will "sell you any weight rating you want to pay for". I said "isn't there any restriction on how much weight you can carry in a pickup truck" ... he said "no". I'm thinking, so if I pay to carry 4 tons in my 1/2 ton pickup nobody can say I'm going something dangerous or illegal. I wonder what the State Patrol would think about that. Just seems like an oversight to me.

The whole thing that got me looking into this is when I bought my Tacoma new they registerd it for 8,000 lbs gross weight, when in fact Toyota's max gross vehicle weight rating is listed as 5,800 lbs. Of course I was being overcharged when ever I renewed my license tabs each year until I caught the error.

 

[opus1]

You know there's a problem when you see Illinois "B" plates on a F-350 Super Duty dually pickups. And no one in the Secretary of State's office is smart enough to notice the problem, or care.

Not to mention the abuse of RV plates on a pickup that doesn't have any of the required items to qualify for the plate, and normal passenger car plates on a standard-cab pickup...