The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Weight Rating Help Please

Good morning . I have a 1953 Chevrolet 3100 series (1/2 ton) Panel Truck and I need to know the two weight ratings : The gross vehicle weight rating and the the Unladen weight ?? I think that means what is the weight of my truck unloaded and nobody in it ?? What is the GVWR mean ?? and What does GCWR mean ??? Thanks for any help on this.

Look it up here, you will find everything you ever wanted to know about your truck, https://www.gm.com/heritage/archive/vehicle-information-kits

The GVWR is printed on the data plate on your driver side door jamb. It is the maximum weight of the truck, passengers and all cargo that General Motors has determined the truck can carry safely. A lot of that depends on the tires, of course.

GCWR is the Gross Combined Weight Rating. This is the GVWR plus the weight of the trailer and all of its contents.

Do you need this information to register/title the truck or just for personal academic interest?

To title the truck. AAA in Pa. needs that info. on a form they gave me to fill out and for my mechanic to fill his section out and Vin verification.

they AAA also wants to know what the truck weight is empy with no load in it and no person in it. I cant drive it anywhere to a scale to find out. but im rhinking it should be listed somewhere in the factory Assembly manual maybe ??

Go to that website that Joe posted above. The weight is listed in that information. It's about 3500 lbs but you might as well get the official GM number.

Where I live, your annual licence fee is determined by GVWR. The higher the GVWR, the more you pay. My 1980 3/4 ton truck had a factory GVWR of 8600 lbs. I licenced it for a lower GVWR (same as a 1/2 ton) to save money. Owned the truck for 30 years so the savings added up!

According to the Chevrolet Truck Data Book, the 3105's "curb weight" (empty of cargo) is 3,555 lbs -- which would correlate to your "unladen weight." As for Max gross weight, as Otto says, that should be on the data plate. I doubt you will find a max GCVW listed anywhere for that truck as they weren't really intended or designed for pulling trailers ... originally, anyway. But maybe there is such a figure in the source that Joe mentions.

Seems strange that they would even need that info for an antique vehicle. A lot of states put "0" down for GVW and GCVW which is why you don't usually need a CDL to drive antique-registered Class 8 trucks, for example.

Hmmmm.

That’s happened down near Houston, where I live as well. The gal plays 200 questions. I ve found that simply leaving and coming back during her lunch break, I usually find a different lady to help me, and life is so much smoother. I don’t know how it works in other states, but as a general rule here, if you re not stacked up to the hilt with firewood or scrap metal, most officers couldn’t care less what your weight rating is. And yes, I have “fudged” the gross a smidge to get under the 26,000lb limit on so called cdl vehicles being used exclusively in an unloaded manner simply as pleasure craft.

GM REO,

How do you keep gvw under 26,000. If that is stamped on the tag?

Ed

EdPruss

There are a couple of things to talk about here. I ve never had a personal truck that had over 26,000 of GVWR. I have had many that had over 26,000 GVCR.

My vin plate was so weathered that though you could easily see what was stamped on it, unless you knew what the numbers stood for, or had a book or something to tell you, most folk would have no idea what they where anyhow. The VIN was obvious, as it was right on the title. When I had put the truck together I had figured that I would have had to have gotten a conversion plate to derate the GCWR, but it never was an issue. And in all practicality, I had physically derated the truck, as I had pulled a bunch of the springs out of the pack. It was the same for a friend of mine. He had a dump truck that he had made kind of a slide in hunting lodge ( I reckon that s what I would call it). Anyhow, he had went to the trouble to get it classified as an RV to get around the commercial aspects of the truck. It ended up not being necessary. Or at least it wasn t the last that I spoke with him. I spoke with Robbie Thornton at our local PD about it one time. His response was that if I was using the truck for personal use only, and it wasn t obvious that I was operating in a commercial fashion, no one would care. Then I went to Calvin Westcott, my state farm agent at the time to inquire about repercussions in the case of an accident. It was the same fiddle and guitar dance. They all cared about the gross weight of the trailer more than the truck. In other words from what Calvin told me, if I had got into a wreck and weighed over 26,000, i d be in heap big trouble. Under 26,000 (which I always was) and I would be golden. I actually accidentally tested this theory one day. I piled into the back of a feller at a stop light. I was accelerating when the light changed and following too close apparently, and he decided at the last minute to stop and take a left turn. Anyhow, it was a relatively low speed collision. I scratched some paint on mine, and his needed a bumper and tailgate. The question came up in court when he sued me about cdl status. The conclusion came to be that the truck was not operating in a commercial manner, couldn t operation in a commercial manner weight wise even if I wanted to, and the chassis was not a commercial chassis. So though it was my fault, (which I had admitted when the officer showed up at the accident) I was not outside the law in driving it.

Now, I m not a lawyer, and have no idear how things work outside of Texas. At the time of the build I spent hours talking to government type folk, and days researching. It very well may be different in other states. I had looked into farm tags, as that would have been easy to do, but oddly enough, down here they do check into what you re doing with farm tag vehicles quite often, and take it very serious. Robbie had told me that at one time all of the local kids where registering farm tags to save a few bucks, so they cracked down.

Please understand that I wasn t attempting to get folk to cheat txdot. In my particular case, the vehicle parameters fell below what the requirements where to require commercial insurance and licensing. The best I can explain would be this... My 1 ton dodge is capable of higher than 26,000 GCVR, but I dont use it in that manner, so I don t register it that way. My antiques I treat in the same manner.

I had a 1953 half ton panel for a number of years. I had it weighed a number of times at the dump and scrappers. The empty weight of mine was just over 3550 pounds, without me in it.

Here is some 1953 truck information.

Thank You, Keith Hardy

I'm not sure what we're discussing here??

Did we answer the OP's question? If we did, then what the heck are we talking about now?? Or are we just trading pointless anecdotes about how to game the system?

If we're talking about a "Historic" vehicle and historic plates, why does *anyone* care about GVW's?? Most states I am familiar with (or heard anecdotes about) do not put a GVW on a Historic Vehicle registration. My '72 GMC 9500 Class 8 road tractor had a GVW of "0" on the title and registration because it was an antique -- and registered as such.

If we're talking about an historic-eligible vehicle that you are registering for regular use and wondering how *that* works, you are simply not going to get definitive info on this site -- You *must* talk to your state DMV. If you are going to play with trucks, then you need to familiarize yourself with the laws in your state regarding their use and registration.

One thing we will *not* discuss on this site is system gaming. Some states *are* cracking down on Historic and Farm registrations. And for good reasons -- we bring this on ourselves. The low cost farm and historic tags are a good deal -- let's not abuse and lose them!