What's the payload of a Chevy 3500?

[David and Jo-Anna]

The answer to this quesiotn may have surfaced in some of the recent posts about weight--if so, I apologize for asking it but I'm feeling buried in weights and ratings and having a hard time remembering what specific info has and has not surfaced.

Following advice I received on this forum, I went to the Chevy dealer today to try to find out, among other things, just what the actual payload capacity of the Chevy 3500 was by looking at the "tire pressure" sticker on the door frame. Unfortunately, the dealer didn't have a 3500 with the options I was looking for. But he did have a 2500 with those options and what I read there has caused me to raise my question on this thread.

I looked at a 2006 Chevy 2500 crew cab with diesel engine, Allison trans, 4x4 SRW longbed. The GVWR was 9200#. The "tire sticker" said that the weight of occupants and cargo was not to exceed 2272#. When I inquired about the payload of a 3500 similarly equipped, the dealer said it's GVWR was 700# higher (9900#) and that it's payload was therefore probably about 500# above the 2500, which would be a payload of 2772#. That gave me pause since people have reported pin weights of 2600#-2800# for the 3400RL, to say nothing of adding occupant weights and other cargo. So my questions:

Does anyone know what is the actual payload (from the tire sticker) of a Chevy 3500 CC, diesel, 4x4 SRW LB with the standard options? And does the tire sticker number include the 150# allowance for a driver or the weight of a full tank of fuel, or do those weights have to be deducted from the 2272# for the 2500?

Sorry to keep harping on weights, but this payload number from the Chevy 2500 sticker was a whole bunch lower than what I expected it to be based on the payload numbers in the brochure. I know the brochure numbers can't be relied on, but this was a bigger discrepancy than I expected.

David and Jo-Anna Kikel

[Montana Sky]

David,
According to the Chevy brochure the maxium payload for a crew cab 4x4 longbed 3500 SRW is 3578 lbs. There is the following disclaimer on that number

* Maxium payload capacity includes weight of driver, passengers, optional equipment and cargo. Cargo and load capacity limited by weight and distribution.

My suggestions is to go w/ the 1 ton crew cab long bed, this will give you a larger cc for the current 3400RL you are looking at. It will also allow you to go to a different size/weight of coach in the future. I can tell you that, I am within all specs of my 2500HD w/ my 3400RL, so it can be done. But you really have to pay attention to what you put where. Also if you go with the long bed, you get the larger fuel tank standard, which is a nice feature when out here in the midwest and west coast.


2004 Chevy Silverado LT 2500HD CrewCab Duramax
2004 Montana 3400RL

[David and Jo-Anna]

Dave:

I'm afraid what we have here is yet another example of auto manufacturers' failure to tell us about the actual weights of various options and features on their trucks, leaving us to guess what will be the actual weight, and actual payload capacity, of the trucks we order.

The 2006 Chevy brochure you cite lists the payload for the 2500 4x4 CC LB SRW as 3163#, 415# less than the 3578# payload they list for the 3500 model you reference. That does not include the weight to be deducted for the diesel engine, Allison transmission, and the other standard and trailering options we all end up getting. And of course Chevy doesn't tell us what are the weights of those options and features or how big an effect they will have on payload. I assumed we were talking about an actual payload of several hundred pounds less than the brochure payload, but not almost 900# difference. But if you compare the brochure payload of 3163# for the 2500 CC LB 4x4 SRW with the actual payload of 2272# on the sticker on the 2500 I saw yesterday, that's a difference of 891#. That's what shocked me.

I'm hoping that a big part of that difference is that the actual payload sticker on the truck includes a deduction of 150# for the driver and 283# for a full fuel tank. Does anyone know for sure?????

As for your suggestion that I get the Chevy 3500 rather than the 2500, I'd certainly for myself go with the 3500 over the 2500--just my personal choice due to my hangup on weights and capacities. The only reason I even mentioned the 2500 in my post last night is that was the only diesel 4x4 CC SRW model my dealer had on the lot. That's why I posted my inquiry to see if anyone has looked at the "tire sticker" on a 3500 CC LB SRW 4x4 diesel and can tell me what the actual payload listed there really is. Otherwise, since the brochure payloads of the 2500 and 3500 are only 415# apart, I'd have to assume the tire sticker number for the 3500 version of this truck is at most only 415# higher, which would only be 2687#--a number so low I can't believe it's true. But why don't the manufacturers tell us what's going on instead of making us guess like this?

David and Jo-Anna Kikel

[BillE]

Hi,

Hopefully here is some info that MAY help ya out...

http:/eogld.ecomm.gm.com...

Just follow the onscreen boxes and you will get to a 'weight calculator' that has all the weights of various 'stuff' on GM trucks.

Hope it'll work for you.

Bill

Bill and Karen with Mischief (THE dog)
MOC2594
2004 Chev 2500HD 8.1Ally
2005 2950RK

[Cat320]

David...you HAVE figured it out. The 'tire' sticker as you call it, is the true cargo capacity of the truck, period. All the brochure weights and GM mumbo jumbo is just that...you have broken the code. The only way to get the true weight for that truck is to look at the sticker.

I looked thru my reams of notes and found one truck similar to what you are trying to find: 2006 1 ton srw, D/A, cc, 4x4, LT2 package, max cargo capacity from the sticker 2661. As I have noted before, you'll only get about 350 more capacity with a srw over a 3/4 with GM. Bottom line, a srw 1 ton (GM) won't work for you.