ryanO
Well-Known Member
You are spot on! Staying within the payload is something a lot of people don't look at. They throw a 5K lb trailer on the back with 3 people and a bed of gear and take off.Agreed. Just to add to the "wrong octane" aspect, "wrong" is often situational.
I do a fair bit of towing. The weights range from 1000 to 5000 pounds, so I'm always well within the ratings, and I'm never over my payload rating. When I'm dragging a light load over flat terrain, I don't fill up with premium. But I sometimes tow a camper in the mountains whole loaded almost to my payload limit. In those cases, I use the highest available octane. It's easy to see from the boost gauge that the engine is operating at high compression.
My rule is that if you're gonna tow you put everything on the truck (including humans), go to a LOVES truck stop and fill up. Go over to their weigh station and get it weighed. Unless you have at least 25 lbs of payload left, you're over weight and something has to go. The other part is to look at the breakdown of weight on each axle. It should be within the axel limits.
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