GM Adopts SAE J2807 Towing Standards
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Knowing just how much your truck can tow is serious business. Being overloaded on a 30 percent grade might mean you won’t make it up the hill. You’d think there would be an official way to measure this, right? There is no way that automakers like General Motors and Ford could just make up a formula that they didn’t have to disclose, just to sell a few thousand more trucks than the next guy? Right?
Well you’d be wrong until now.
Enter the SAE J2807 towing standard — a full eighty-even years after Ford put a truck bed on a Model T. This standard is designed to finally bring real standards to the sometimes-crazy-sounding towing claims automakers are using to get customers to buy their truck over the competition — claims that have been teased at by critics as nothing more than the addition of magical fairy dust. The standard was first introduced around 2009, but automakers didn’t have to begin adhering to them until 2013.
Until the SAE introduced the J2807, there hasn’t been a standard for formulating GCWR (Gross Combined Weight Rating) and GVWR (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating).
Response to this standard has been a mixed bag across the board. General Motors in particular was ready to readjust their numbers for 2013 in its GMC Sierra and Chevrolet Silverado trucks. That was until Ford turned its nose up to the new standard. Ford is only applying it to an “all-new” vehicle, of which the 2013 Ford F-Series is not a part. As a result, General Motors says it will be ”postponing” its implementation of the standards and test procedures for determining the maximum trailer and gross combined weight ratings on its trucks until everyone is doing it. Despite this, the company released its 2013 towing info according to the J2807 standard in which all the numbers have been recalculated, and subsequently lowered by a few hundred pounds across the board. It seems the fairy dust has run out.
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In some cases (models) those numbers actually came up even higher with GM trucks, now maxium fifth wheel towing capasity will be 23,100.
Ford’s rating’s drop dramatically thats why they are not adapting the SAE J2807 until new models arrive.
That was very nice and professional of GM, and it shows real confidence in their trucks.
Ford refusing to do so almost certainly proves that the GM trucks can tow more than their Ford equivalents.
It certainly appears to me that automotive companies are duping buyers with their so called “improved” vehicle brochures and web sites. They have done nothing more than create situations that could lead the buyer into thinking they can tow any trailer that weighs less than the listed maximum towing capacity. Many are no longer publishing the various certification ratings that are vitally important in choosing the right tow vehicle. In my experience, I have yet to talk to an automotive sales person who knew anything about axle ratings in conjunction with towing capacities. My impression is that automotive companies have no idea their published information may fail to reveal that some vehicles’ rear axle ratings will be exceeded by the pin or tongue weight of some trailers. I really don’t fault the salesperson for this error. The sales people know only what they have been taught.
Excerpt from: http://fifthwheelst.com/before_you_buy.htm
SAE lowered the HD Dualies from 18k down to 14,400
Welcome to the real world, GM!
That explains why Ford is too scared to test their trucks.
There’s more money in lying to your face……
BD
Hasn’t the Toyota Tundra taken, and passed, every year the test has been offered?
Dave I don’t know… has it?
So far I read that Toyota has taken the test every year since it’s inception. They lowered their tow ratings in 2010 due to the test, in some cases up to 1100 lbs. While domestics are waiting for this year supposedly to take the test. From what I’ve read Ford just flat out said no, and GM said well if they’re not gonna were not gonna?
At any rate it seems that this year or next we will be seeing J2807 testing news on all trucks everywhere!