Silverado 3500HD vs Silverado 5500HD. How much can they haul and tow?

hello everybody welcome back to the channel this is truck guy joe thanks for your time today and thank you for joining me on today's video we're going to talk just in general some commercial math basic commercial math when you're speccing out a truck a lot of times i get phone calls i'll get emails text messages commercial customers asking exactly what the capabilities of certain trucks are certain models whether it be a a one ton dump 3500 or something like this a medium duty of 5500 and we talk about differences like two wheel drive versus four wheel drive the size of the dump bed also we have to look at the math of how the manufacturer rates the truck as far as gross vehicle weight rating and even the axle weights there's variables that come into play when we order these trucks to help spec the truck for maximum capability so the end user or the consumer who's gonna buy it they know they can confidently buy a truck that is gonna do what they need it to do because if you're gonna make the investment if you're gonna spend the money make sure you don't settle and buy the right truck and there's math involved and you got to have a sales consultant who can help you work through that process and not guess and i'm going to show you how i do that without guessing [Music] looks good [Music] looks good so we've got the one ton dump on the scales steer axle on one set of plates and then the drive axle on a separate set so we can get a nice weight distribution on the truck empty with myself in it and a full tank of fuel thank you i'm at the travel centers of america in harbor creek harbor creek pa right off of interstate 90. they do have an app for the phone so you could actually get yourself set up that it would actually show up right on your smartphone and set up a billing account so you don't have to do what i do which is hit the button and then go inside pay and get the slip i don't weigh enough things to do that if you're an over-the-road trucker that's one thing but this works good for me here are the two trucks we're going to be looking at today we're going to dig into the numbers on both of these and i picked these two trucks because they are a common spec of truck that we sell a very popular truck is this right here this is a one ton 3500 it has the gas engine and it's four wheel drive the gross vehicle weight rating gvwr is 14 000 pounds so in basic terms what that means this truck itself if i am behind the wheel of the truck both of the full fuel tanks are full and let's say i've got some sand or gravel in the back if we put this truck on the scale the entire truck cannot exceed 14 000 pounds but it goes a little a little bit farther than that also keep in mind that the manufacturer gives you a weight a weight rating for the front axle as well as the rear and i'll show you where to find those ratings on these trucks from the manufacturer the other part of the balancing act when it comes to gvwr and payload so payload being what is the amount of weight that you can carry so once we know the empty weight of this truck we will take it to the scale with the empty weight that'll help us calculate what can be put in the bed but keeping in mind when you add weight to the bed whatever you're going to carry maybe cinder block etc you do not exceed the rear axle rating the other part of the equation sorry if i keep repeating myself here but towing is also very important if you add a trailer to this truck an empty trailer or a trailer with a piece of equipment keep in mind that your tongue weight the amount of force that's pushing down on the hitch is also subtracting from the available payload so there is math involved and it's a balancing act to keep customers safe and legal so i can help them pick the right truck and get them set up if they want to maybe pull a 20-foot deck over trailer with maybe a skid steer and also have something in the back of the truck maybe some gravel or topsoil whatever the case may be and it's not as easy as you think and safe and legal is what i always stress and i use the scales and manufacture ratings to help me help the customers now looking at these two trucks side by side they're both single cab they're both what you would call a 60 inch cab to axle so they both have nine foot dub dump beds so the wheel base on the truck allows for a nine foot dump in so the one ton compared to this other spec here this is a 5500 medium duty two-wheel drive this is four-wheel drive but you can see the medium duty does sit a little bit higher if you look at the cab protector but more importantly not so much the cab protector you can actually look at the dump beds themselves look at where the top of this part of the dump bed is in this rail they're actually pretty close how they sit height wise as far as the beds go i have a lot of customers they like the low profile bed so if you take your wood wood sides out your side boards you can actually reach into the back of this truck you can touch the floor it's easy to get things in and out this truck has the optional drop down sides so there's latches on both ends on both sides of this truck these sides do fold down now briefly on this truck it's a 5500 but there was some math that went into how we spec this truck when we ordered it just because it's a 5500 you don't have to build it to the maximum 19500 gvwr this truck could go up to 19.5 we ordered this truck at 17500 gvw because we wanted to help customers with towing this truck has a gross combination weight rating gcwr of 37 000 pounds it has the 488 gears with the allison transmission so from a d.o.t standpoint if they're going to stop you they're going to add the gvwr of the truck 17.5 right to your trailer so by knowing what the combination rating is 37 000 you have to deduct that from the maximum capability of the truck they're gonna assume even empty if you're driving down the road by yourself in this truck with just your lunch box and some fuel they assume max capability this truck is 17.5 so 37 000 gross combination truck and trailer minus 17.5 this truck can pull 19 500 pounds according to the math so by lowering the gvwr to 17.5 versus 19.5 we gain towing capability if you subtract the gross combination from the gvwr that's going to tell you what the dot is going to basically look at you at if they do pull you over now the flip side by going with 17.5 we limited some of the payload the truck itself right now can weigh 17.5 if it was a 19.5 truck that's an extra ton that's 2 000 pounds so again it is a balancing act the silverado medium duties were awesome for payload built well for payload you can get the good gbws but their combination ratings they're lacking a little bit so we made a decision when we ordered this truck let's allow it to tow more than a truck that was say 19.5 so this wasn't geared so much as a heavy payload truck but more of a payload plus towing situation we're also going to weigh this truck because again as i mentioned on the one ton we have to watch the rear axle weight rating and if you do want to put a big trailer on here it is possible to have enough tongue weight to really limit your payload if the trailer is heavy enough and has enough tongue weight and again it's always a balancing act with weight distribution it's very important so next let's take a look inside the doors of these trucks to look at the manufacturer's ratings for gvwr and your front rear axle so anybody who has a truck that wants to go to the scale you can weigh yourself and know exactly where you're at and keep your slip with you got to be safe and legal let's start with the one ton there it is 14 000 gross vehicle weight rating gvwr your front axle 5600 this truck does have snowplow prep if they have the factory plow prep you have a heavier front axle rating to carry the weight of that plow rear axle 10 400 that's the gross so let's talk about that let's talk about these gross numbers and what they mean let's say you want to hang a snow plow on this truck this axle is allowed to be 5600 when it's fully loaded so when we put this truck on the scale with an empty weight it's gonna give us a value right now so of the 5600 how much does the engine the transmission fluids axles the tire the wheel all that stuff the hood the fender that's all sitting on that front axle so we're going to get an empty weight and that'll tell us the reserve how much room do we have to add if you want to put a snow plow on and also keep in mind from a physics standpoint your snow plow does not sit on top of the axle the snow plow is mounted right at the end of the frame and it sits beyond the bumper so think about how the weight gets amplified you know think back to your physics and science classes the way think of a wheelbarrow and fulcrum all those terms i'm not gonna get too much into it but by having the snow plow out here it amplifies the amount of force pulling on the axle because the weight is all the way out here it's not on the axle now to the back axle same principle [Music] we'll get an empty weight can't exceed 10-4 so right now we already know we've got some significant weight on this axle so you got 10 400 but you got to start subtracting 10 400 minus the tire the wheel the poly fender the dump bed you know the tarp comes into play the frame the fuel cells right here the hitch that all comes into play so let's get these weighed and that way we can just quickly decipher the numbers and show you the balancing act some of the manufacturers that we deal with for the upfits they provide their own weight slip and they're typically pretty close but to be safe i do like to check their math i don't know if they actually are necessarily going to a scale but they do give us a second stage certification where they tell us what the body weight is added to the chassis for a combined weight not all body companies do this but for example unicel up in buffalo who built this airflow bed for us put this together they do give us a weight slip and so we'll check our math at the scales at the truck stop compared to what unicel came in with their weight slip and we'll get to that in a minute here also wanted to share with you the ratings for the 5500 so here's your front axle 7000 pounds gross rear axle is 13 500 gross vehicle weight rating gvwr 17 hundred pounds i just wanna share a few thoughts on what i call backyard builders i do have a lot of customers that wanna buy a cabin chassis incomplete vehicle they don't want any upfit on they wanna do their own body they wanna build their own bed their own flatbed whatever the case may be and that's all well and good until you actually get stopped if dot stops you in a commercial vehicle so keep in mind anything that's ten thousand one gbw or heavier is considered a commercial vehicle and you could be subject to a dot inspection check local listings but basically state to state you got to play the game you got to play it right safe and legal so if you are a backyard builder want to do your own bed you will not have hey there's tony a tony issue tony issue sold on that silverado right there you put a nice little lift in it bigger tires looks good nice kid hard worker um sorry about that back to this truck there's an outfit sticker so if you get stopped by d.o.t they want to see that some reputable company who certified to do it properly mated the bed to the chassis that way when you go over some train tracks or whatever the case may be you hit a bump the bed just doesn't all of a sudden fall off because it was held on by you know a couple of loose u-bolts and next thing you know you know the guy next to you the dump that lands on his car whatever the case may be or if you hit the brakes too hard to get an accident these have to be dot compliant certified by somebody so let me show you the sticker that shows that we had a third party certified this installation as a final stage and it's safe and legal let's take a look at that sticker [Music] so on the medium duty you can see we had keith's truck service they did the installation they also list the size of the wheel they also give you the gross weights for the axles that's also on this sticker for the front rear axle you know gives you the tire pressures so this way if enforced dot enforcement stops you they want to see this sticker they want to make sure that when this vehicle was completed these start as an incomplete vehicle based on the vin number they know it was not a complete unit it was just the cabin chassis somebody had to finish this install and it has to be done right like i mentioned before you slam on the brakes you get you know maybe a impact from the side or you jump some train tracks the bed's not gonna fall off i've got the weight slip for the one ton dump on the hood let's take a look at the numbers to see how it came out on the scales so there you have it this truck empty with myself in the truck and uh full tank of fuel so you got two tanks coming in at 63 gallons 92.80 keep in mind the gvwr gross vehicle weight rating is 14 000 pounds so you know off the top my head here you've got about 4 700 pounds of payload 4 700 pounds so it's safe to say two and a half tons is what this truck can legally haul two and a half tons but keep in mind depending on how you distribute that weight if you're pulling a trailer you might not be able to do that much there's that drive axle empty right now it's allowed to be 10 400 right now it's sitting at 5240 and then there's your steer axle front axle this is allowed to be 5600 for hanging that snow plow on there so you've got some reserve left for a snowplow got some reserve left here for some payload in the bed of the truck so about two and a half tons what you can put in this truck legally but again depends on how you position that weight in the bed of the truck and if you put a trailer on if you put on a trailer with tongue weight it will deduct from what this truck can legally haul let's take a look at the slip for the medium duty here's the numbers on the medium duty we came in at almost 11 000 pounds empty but that's with me behind the wheel of the truck and the fuel tank is full got a full tank of diesel this truck is allowed to be 17 500 pounds so doing this math here this truck has about 6 500 pounds of total payload capability the drive axle came in at 6140 it's allowed to be 13 500 remember that sticker i showed you in the door steer axle can be 7 000 so does that mean you could put 6 500 pounds in the back of this truck well you just you have to watch how you do it because if you don't distribute the weight properly you could be overweight on the rear axle or you could be on the front it really depends on a lot of it is weight distribution you have to be careful and towing comes into play if you're going to hook a trailer to this truck you got to keep in mind your tongue weight tongue weight will subtract from payload this is a 5500 as i said we could have spec this truck at a 19.5 gvw now if that was the case this truck would weigh the same if this was a 19 500 gbw we would have had a higher rating on the rear axle in the springs but in general this truck would have still came in at about 11 000 pounds so yes we could have gained some payload with going with a 19.5 but you would have sacrificed some towing so this was a situation where we ordered this truck as i mentioned kind of the best of both worlds you can haul some weight but also you can put 19 500 pounds behind this truck and then towing on the one time let's talk about that this little guy can't tow that much and i know a lot of people question my math so you guys can chime in give me your thoughts but these are commercial trucks anything over 10 000 or 1 10 01 gvw or heavier is considered a commercial vehicle you're subject to d.o.t united states department of transportation that's why all these trucks have a u.s d.o.t number it doesn't say p-a-d-o-t or new york d-o-t it's usdot so you gotta look at usdot guidelines if those enforcement officers stop you they will look at the gvwr of the truck 14 000 and they're going to ask you what the combination is for this truck you got to show them what the manufacturer rates for the combination because they're literally going to take the combination which on this truck is 24 000 and the gvwr is 14 you better not have more than 10 000 pounds behind this trucker you're going to be illegal so just keep that in mind with these little one-ton dumps with the gas motor can't tow that much if this was a diesel totally different story if this was a diesel duramax it would have a combination of 40 000 pounds 40 000 pounds with a 14 000 gvwr so it's crazy to think that the one tons can tow more than the medium duties and that is the case you go to a chevy dealer and talk to a commercial sales rep who knows what they're talking about and a one-ton dually pickup truck can tow more than what a medium duty can the way they are rated and that's why you see a lot of guys with silverado 3500 one tons on the road and not so many of these medium duties so general motors if you're listening there's a reason why more guys go with the ram 5500 or the ford f550 is because they have a higher combination rating a higher combination rating rate matched with the gvwr those guys can tow more i can admit that it's a it's a weak point with the truck and i wish somehow we can improve that funny how things work how timing works out as i was filming across the street this truck that i ordered showed up on the carrier and i was just mentioning how one tons are very prominent in the towing world versus our medium duties because of the way that they are set up so i ordered this for a customer in town here this is a four-wheel drive dually regular cab you do not see a lot of these trucks extremely rare but this is the best of both worlds this truck has a ton of payload for what you can carry in the bed it's got a ton of hitch weight rear axle rating is exceptional and it has a gross combination of 40 000 pounds this truck right here so it's going to allow them to do what they need to do haul a heavy trailer or if you want to haul some cinder block or brick whatever the case may be and they didn't need the double cab or the crew cab it's gonna be one guy with a truck with maximum capability so here it is just a work truck package with some extra so let me show you how we set this one up for him so you got your standard vehicle price that would be with a gasoline engine but we got to add in the duramax we did the work truck convenience package also did the the upgraded mirrors so in order to get the mirrors with the actual led backup lights you have to order the upgraded mirror package and these also do power fold the other mirrors that you see that are like this this piece is just blacked out this this you know there's just a plastic piece in here so this has the upgraded power folding mirrors with the led backup lights uh brake controllers there we also added the 120 outlet all-terrain tires we did put the chrome bumpers on it has the snow plow prep uh all said and done with destination 55 505. so this truck we ordered accessories it's getting front and rear uh the mud flaps the chevy accessory ones they're made by laverne they're the big wide ones it's getting assist steps we're going to do a spray in bed liner and that's actually one way we save time we got this truck here faster by not doing the spray and bed liner i can get them done locally by line x with a lifetime warranty and if you want my opinion the linex guy does a better job on the prep and the finish than chevy does so if you order a truck with factory snow i'm sorry with a factory spring bed liner they have to move it to another location to another plant to get sprayed it slows down getting the truck physically here so just a little hint tell your dealer to speed things up if possible do not order the truck with a spray and liner now if you want the factory puck system the factory fifth wheel gooseneck prep that automatically forces the spray and bed liner so in that case you're kind of stuck it's gonna delay shipping if you remember i mentioned earlier in the video i would show you the second stage the weight slip for the one ton dump from unicel to compare numbers remember our our weight slip came in at 92.80 they came in at 95.40 so they're a little heavier which it's probably safer to be a little on the heavier side you know that way you're not telling the customer to go ahead and overload the thing so uh truck stop with me in the truck full tank of fuel came in 9280 unicel came in at 95 40. so there is always a little bit of a discrepancy uh but but that's close and that's a margin of error that i can live with and i'm actually glad to see that they're a little bit on the heavier side i'd rather tell the customer trucks a little heavier than what it is to keep them from overloading the truck you

Channel: truckguyjoe

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Keywords: Towing, Drag Race, MPG, L5P, L5P Duramax, 1/4 Mile, GMC, GMC Syclone, Syclone, 8.1, Vortec, 8100, 496, Big Block, 0-60, Diesel, L5P vs, Acceleration, Moritz, Morton Buildings, Boost Launch, Brake Torque, Boost, Banks, Derringer, iDash, Tuned L5P, 6.2, 3.5, 2.7, Ecooboost, 10 speed

Id: GevrWWxUwD0

Length: 19min 53sec (1193 seconds)

Published: Thu May 20 2021