the specs on both trucks seem identical, yet the 3500 is rated a little higher for wieght capacity. Why is this? the 3500 doesnt have bigger brakes or anything, I'm not sure what the advantage would be to getting a 3500 would be unless getting a dually.

 

With Dodge anyway, the only thing different between the 2500 and SRW 3500 is a set of overload springs on the rear, and an increase in gross vehicle weight rating and in payload capacity. Up until recently the 3500's also had to have cab lights, but I think there was a change in federal lighting requirements. Price difference between the two is insignificant, but the increase in weight rating makes a significant difference in what campers and 5th wheels you can have and still be legal.

I suspect Chevy is similar. I would guess that the reason for these is that some states have higher registration fees for vehicles with heavier gross weight ratings...

Funny the big 3 also seem to try to keep SRW 3500's under 10,000 pounds GVWR. Dually trucks are wide/heavy enough that they fall under the requirements for center lights in the rear (on the tailgate).

 

I have a 04 GMC 3500SRW, the only difference is an extra overload spring and higher rated tires. It does give you 700 lbs more capacity than the 2500hd. 9200 gvwr vs 9900 gvwr. I chose the 3500 becauase it gives me a little more margin for payload when I bought my trailer without going to a dually.

I thought the cab lights only had to be on certain width vehicles ie: dually or the quadrasteer with slightly wider fenders..

 

I don't know what the deal with cab lights is. I know they were required on SRW 3500's when I bought mine, but now they aren't. The trucks didn't change, so I presume the rules did. I think the tail gate light is a width thing.

Well, it looks like you get a big bump in payload for very little extra price, so I guess the question I would ask is what would the advantage be to get a 2500? (Unless you live in one of the places that have much higher registration for heavier GVWR vehicles).

Jeff

 

As for why people go with the 250/2500s over the 350/3500s (esp. SRWs) around here is they don't want to pay the extra cost of the weight fee. Of course that doesn't mean they don't just load them up the same. The weight fees are there to pay for the wear and tear on the roads. Of course they belly ache about the conditions of the roads...

IIRC Ford's price is like $1,000 for the bump from 250 to 350SRW while gaining 1000lb GVWR. I think some states must have a deviding line at 10,000lb GVWR as Ford has an option on a couple of the 250s to limit the GVWR to 10,000lb. I know that Cali. kicks in with the Motor Carrier of Property (commonly referred to as a "CA Number" as it's required on the vehicles as "CA XXXXXX") at 10K, unless it's a pickup.

As far as lighting, that is at a minimum is under the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 108 and 49 CFR 571.108. Any state can make it more stringent. It also appears that Canada follows the same rules, in their Section 108 of the Motor Vehicle Safety Regulations.

The information I found was in a chart here.

The three center lights do denote a wide vehicle. These are referred to as the ID lamps. Clearance markers (at the sides) are required on vehicles over 2032mm (80") which then would trigger the 3 center group.

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I am always amazed by the amount of info. on this site.....[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

It sure is nice[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] and B&RW is a walking encyclopedia on this stuff[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

Thanks for the complement. It's not that I know all this stuff, it's that I know enough of where to look for the right answers. Usually it involves google. You just have to know which results are good to parse.

It usually starts out either someone just asking like this, WHY? Or there are times where I have to prove someone wrong. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

Funny thing is, I hardly venture out of Towing, Other (mainly Spin Zone...yes...I'm one of the Adjust Spiinners...but I'm the socially adjusted ones j/k guys) and sometimes drop into the Where to Ride and Environment. LOL

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I'll second the complement. That was a good post, and good information.

I knew some states require higher fees or don't allow vehicles over a specific GVWR to be personal vehicles, but didn't know the specifics.

Also, I was a bit surprised that F250 and F350SRW's have that big of a difference in price. When I ordered my Dodge, you had to spec 3500 which bumped the price like $1100 or something, then you selected a dual wheel delete option that reduced the price. When it was said and done, I think there was like $170 difference (invoice) over a 2500 to get a 3500 SRW.

My little 5th wheel has a pin weight of 1900 dry, so for my purpose the 3500 made sense, but it sounds like I'm lucky I don't have to register it in California...

 

Thanks again. Some people don't appreciate it. A member of my local quad riding club tends to get in a tissy over stuff like this. I'm suprised they didn't go off over me giving in depth explanation on some air compressor issues...but the day isn't over yet. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

CA is kinda funny. You can have a regular plate or commercial plates. Nearly every pickup gets commercial plates. These plates are numbered like such: 8N12345. They are going to have to come up with a new scheme for commercial plates. They are in the 8s now. The 9 series are HD (Class 8) trucks. Non-Commercial plates are 5ABC123. You can get a non-comm plate for a pick-up, but can't put anything in the bed. So it's useless.

That's the price I was told. But haven't investigated it. But this is CA, where unless you go to a dealer in the sticks you're gonna pay an extra $5K for the pleasure of doing business with a chain dealer.

Sit down. For our '94 F-450 flat bed:

Registration Fee (same for every regular vehicle (not OHVs): $40
License Fee (this was the big broohaah back in the late Davis Admin.: $24 This is in-leu of paying property tax to the county. It's down like 1.5% of the value. Or something like that.
Weight Fee (hold on to your hat, 15K GVWR) $257
County/District Fee: $10

Total is 331.

There's also the CVRA fee. But I don't see that we paid that or did anything with it. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/img] It's your max operating weight (GVW or GCW). This was created when they changed from registering a trailer every year to every 5 years for like $25 or something. We have 40' old reefer trailers that were $900+ a year because of weight fees. We didn't register them (on the road 2-4x per year). LOL Just got moving permits. Though CVRA doesn't apply to pickups. Only stuff with work bodies (even if it's a 250 or 350 w/ a non-pickup style bed, it falls under CVRA when over 10K GVWR), flat beds, etc.

Anyways:
10,001-15,000 $332
15,001-20,000 $447
20,001-26,000 $546

An F-150 (6500 GVWR) has a weight fee of like $24-$80. Why the one was only 24, don't ask. LOL All the others were 80.

It's an utter mess looking through our DMV file. 2 vehicle in the same class, or close enough, with diff. stuff. An older van with the same weight, was even more. And it's driven 1/10 the miles!

Some places, I think Canada, you can get the over 10K GVWR trucks cheaper because comm. truck registration is cheaper than non-commercial.

It's good to see someone actually get the right truck for the job. The people I know here who go 250 over 350 to save on weight fees just tweak me. Just be lucky they don't have to put down some of these CVRAs. 80K is 2064. Plus $6 for a stupid 3" square sticker!

Well, I can't think anymore. It's like over 90 in my office. The lovely power that PG&E has been sending us fried the speed controller for the fan in the A/C. This then fried the fan. $1K. We should be able to bill those morons for it! The A/C tech was getting like 60V at his house in Coursegold last week! 2 weeks ago we were down to about 104V here. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img] Wore out 2 UPSes correcting for that.

[ed]
My bad, it cooled off to 89. I'm still sweating like a ... yeah. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

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