towing

After the recent discovery  that Ford had been tossing out the spare tire, jack, radio, and console of its F-450 to make it (barely) fit into the weight rating of a class three truck (while increasing its payload slightly but cutting the base weight), Larry Vellequette of Automotive News noted that GM had started playing the same game on its own trucks to boost payload ratings. In GM’s case, a full bumper was actually jettisoned, and lighter wheels were used.

Both companies rationalized their choices based on the fact that companies can choose to delete these items from their orders. However, generally, those who delete the radio, spare, jack, bumper, and such, do so in order to install their own equipment, which presumably has greater than zero mass. The end result is that the advertised payload is not what typical buyers can expect, and in Ford’s case, a class four truck can pretend to be in class three.

Ram and Toyota both use standard curb weight as the basis for their payload and weight ratings, as per the SAE standard. While Ram has only officially announced adherence to SAE standards for the 2015 model year, their 2014 and 2015 figures are nearly identical. Toyota has held to SAE standards for some time, but they only sell class one pickups in the United States, while Ram sells in classes one through three.