I asked about the GVW thing a while ago when I was at GM visiting and here is the answer I got.
Outside of mechanical engineering and testing of the vehicle, the manufacture sets the GVW accordingly;
1 – The manufacture has a responsibility to ensure that the vehicle can operate safely within certain operating parameters under all types of conditions.
2 – To give flexibility in the marketing of the vehicle.
3 – To follow federal/state laws and regulations, there are many laws and regulations from many different groups and departments on both levels; I think mentioned were 25 different laws and regulations on the fed level alone.
4 – To ensure that the insurance institute will be able to insure the vehicle and their actuaries and our insurance companies allow the coverage of that vehicle that we place on the market.
Many can say that it is a suggestion but truthfully, it is like many other things in this world, open to interpretation by LEOs but when you get into court, it is an absolute and what it comes down to is safety.
You as the operator are completely responsible for the safety of others, not yours, when you drive down the highway. If you overload the van and break a spring at 75 MPH which makes you lose control and hit a car full of kids, whose fault is it? I bet there would be someone suggestion to them to sue the manufacture because the van should have been able to handle the extra 1000 lbs on it.
I know that there would be a few DOT officers that would look at that sticker and consider that the absolute weight limit of that van without hesitation. They understand the 4 points I made above and they also know that manufacture is not simply looking at the van and saying “yep that has 8 lug nuts, so we can set the GVW at 11,000 lbs†but go through the same process that the drug companies go through to produce that all important insert, they test things.
As pointed out, there is a big liability and insurance companies are pr*cks when it comes to paying out money that they don’t think is have to pay out. They have more investigators than any state/feds have and can use both in-house and external experts (some who actually worked at the manufactures on that specific products that are involved with issue) to disprove any claims you make and you are left holding the bill for the van, the load and even opening up being sued over any damages that you caused. I think that many carriers will protect themselves by just simply saying it was the operator who overloaded the vehicle.
Conclusion is that if you overload your van, truck or what ever, than you should not be on the road. I don’t want to be the one you hit and I don’t want you hitting someone else.
