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Member Advice Summary
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Is your SUV overloaded?
by LSMillers | Jan 1, 2001
Did you know that many late-model SUVs are overloaded with five 200 lb.passengers and no extra cargo? Weight load -- or payload -- capacity is perhaps the biggest hidden liability issue in SUV buying today, and helps to explain the Ford...Return to opinion
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Overloading SUV's are very common (Reply to this comment)
by boothill
Take into account that many of the SUV's, including larger ones such as the Excursion, are near or over on GVWR (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating) if every seat is filled with people. Add the fact that they are fairly often used to tow trailers and you have a disaster waiting to happen. The factor of weight capacity to seating capacity in addition to cargo capacity should probably be a factor, too. The X90 listed may only have a payload of 450 pounds, but it only seats two and has a very small trunk. That would rate better than an Excursion diesel with a payload of about 1400 pounds, a seating capacity of 9 and about 46 cu. ft. of storage space. This gives the X90 a payload of 225 pounds per person and the Excursion only 155 pounds per person! Add on a trailer of say only 9000 pounds with a light (10%) 900 pound hitch weight, well below the Excursion's 11000/1500 pound capacity, and you only have 55 pounds per person!
If the people that had the tire failures on the Explorers would have read their manuals and listened to the manufacturer, then many of them could have avoided a problem. I have heard that the tires were under-inflated for the load they were carrying when they had the problem and this epinion supports that theory, and probable fact.
The numbers are available from the manufacturer but most consumers disregard them. Maybe we should have weigh stations on the highways offer a service to allow you to weigh or vehicles for a while, then make it mandatory at times and ticket those overweight. How many people do you know that have weighed their SUVs, either loaded or unloaded?
I believe that ultimately it should be the person having the overloaded vehicle that should be held accountable though, and not be on the government's shoulders to bear the burden. Nor could the tire or SUV manufacturers be held accountable for a non-related individuals actions. Ignorance has never been an excuse when it comes to the law, nor should it be introduced as such.
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Jun 19, 2003
1:39 pm PDT
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Great Review (Reply to this comment)
by gbraun
Clear Concise - including relevant details.
The Consumer Reports link may be outdated - I received an error.
I saw that data here: http://www.consumerreports.org/main/detailv2.jsp?CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_id=21999
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Jul 16, 2002
11:54 am PDT
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