The "weight" debate

WilliamA

yeah.....I know....I'm just a glutton for punishment.
Disclaimer: I'm not an engineer. Never have been. I know my own way around a vehicle with a wrench in my hand. That's the only claim I've EVER made. Your results may vary.
My DW is a potter. That means a lot of different things around the supper table. Lots of discussions about art and philosophy. But for this particular discussion, it means weight in pounds. Clay is heavy and comes in 50# boxes and she uses a lot of it. She sent me off into the twin cities (mpls/st paul) last week to pick up some clay. She wanted me to get 1,300 lbs. I cut her off at 800 lbs. I told her that was the "per trip" limit.
I have a new-ish Jeep Gladiator with the 3.6 ltr gas engi e and auto trans. It's a Rubicon, hence heavier axles and bits. I don't actually know the max capacity of the bed but have read wild claims in the range of up to 1,200 lbs.
Okay. That is the basic outline of the story. I picked up the clay, had it loaded mostly in front of the rear axle in the bed and headed for home. To say it drove differently is to be disingenuous to the word "different". It was a complete beast. The back was heavy, steering was light and it was sluggish to settle in on the road. I know exactly why it was driving the way it was. The front end was comparatively lighter, the rear end was much heavier and the rear track bar was flexing like crazy trying to keep that weight centered over the axle.
I post to a lot of forums and it's common....no.... "normal" to read great advice from internet geniuses about ignoring weight ratings. Same thing for trailer frontal cross-section ratings. The easiest way to get flamed off of the Jeep forums is to post the owner's manual page about trailer frontal cross-section.
My advice? No....scratch that....My own "procedure"? Use the manufacturers rating information for weight, tongue weight and cross section. Assume, just for kicks, that they didn't post those numbers because they were the only numbers on the keyboard that worked. There were sound, technical reasons. It's the same with trailer brakes. (I know....I know.....) But think about something g for a minute: Some states require trailer brakes on any trailer over 1,500 lbs. So do you assume that your trailer is perfectly safe because it only weighs 1,450 lbs? Really? The difference between "perfectly safe" and "deadly" is 50 lbs? Or 2 lbs, for that matter?
That's all up to you. This is America, where we demand all the rights with none of the responsibility. But for me, and only me, I am responsible for my rig. What it weighs. How it's loaded. How I drive it. Not Jeep, or FCA, or Geico. Just me. I am responsible to the other folks on the road to be safe.
When I got my drivers license, I already knew how to drive. It's ironic that in order to get permission to drive from the government, you already have to know how to drive. That tells me the drivers license isn't FOR me. It's for the other guy on the road. It's so folks have a reasonable expectation that I won't kill them. I do my best to respect that.
WilliamA

zgfiredude

Well said, and so true when it comes to Jeeps. I bought a JKUR last summer as a part of a plan to walk away for adventure motorcycling and into a "similar" activity that I could enjoy with my wife. I have a "build plan" for MY Jeep that does not follow the norm...getting sound advice and sticking to MY vision for how I want to use and enjoy MY Jeep. If you've read any Jeep forums you'll understand what I mean.....

I subscribe to the notion that the engineering recommendations just might be more informed than some random internet expert from "southern New Jersey" (randomly selected state, sorry) ;-)