What is Gross Combined Weight Rating GCWR?

How do you calculate the Gross Combined Weight Rating GCWR?

Is it Dangerous to go over your Gross Combined Weight Rating?

This topic is important, and it applies to both towable and motorized RVs, so if you are an RV owner Gross Combined Weight Rating or GCWR applies to you.

There are so many RV weights and RV weight ratings that it’s easy to get bogged down in the weeds. I will try to avoid that as I discuss one RV weight rating I feel is crucial, the Gross Combined Weight Rating or GCWR.

Here we go!

I mentioned there are RV weights and RV weight ratings. This is the first thing I want to explain. RV weights are actual weights, not weight ratings. If I say the Gross Vehicle Weight of my truck was 7,000 pounds when I crossed the scales, that means based on a snapshot in time my truck weighed 7,000 pounds. Now let’s say I put a half-ton of dirt in the bed of my truck and weigh the truck again. Now the Gross Vehicle Weight of my truck is 8,000 pounds. So, these are real weights based on what is loaded in or on my truck at a particular moment in time.

Now, let’s discuss weight ratings. A weight rating lets us know the maximum amount of weight a particular item can safely handle. For example, if the Gross Vehicle Weight Rating of my truck is 10,000 pounds that means I can load it up to 10,000 pounds total and on paper safely drive it. So, the brakes can stop the load, and the engine and transmission can handle the load. Weight ratings, as I like to say, are based on the weakest link in the chain. If the brakes on my truck can only safely stop 9,000 pounds my truck cannot have an 10,000-pound GVWR. This applies to the brakes, suspension components, tires and everything else used to manufacture my truck.

Do you see how easy it is to get in the weeds talking about RV weights and weight ratings?

With that said, let’s move on to today’s topic, the Gross Combined Weight Rating or GCWR. This, in opinion is one of the most, if not the most important weight rating there is. And it’s one of the most difficult weight ratings to find for a vehicle. You can locate a vehicle’s curb weight, the GVWR, the axle ratings, and the payload, but good luck finding the GCWR for some vehicles.

So, what exactly is the gross combined weight rating or GCWR for a vehicle? Let’s start with a truck towing a trailer. Back to my fictitious truck for a minute. I said my truck weighed 7,000 pounds at a particular moment in time, and it has a GVWR of 8,500 pounds. Now let’s say I have a fictitious travel trailer that weighs 6,500 pounds empty with a GVWR of 7,500 pounds. So, on paper I could load 1,500 pounds to my truck and 1,000 pounds to my trailer before exceeding either of the gross vehicle weight ratings. We’ll come back to this in a minute.

The Gross Combined Weight Rating for a vehicle means the fully loaded weight of the truck and the fully loaded weight of the travel trailer when combined cannot exceed the vehicle’s published GCWR.

So, let’s say the GCWR for my truck is 15,000 pounds. If my truck was loaded to its max GVWR of 8,500 pounds and my trailer was loaded to its max GVWR of 7,500 pounds my combined weight is 16,000 pounds. This puts me 1,000 pounds over my truck’s published GCWR of 15,000 pounds.

The same applies to a motorhome towing a car. The motorhome might have a tow rating of 5,000 pounds and the car you are towing only weighs 4,000 pounds empty, but when you weigh the fully loaded motorhome and the fully loaded car it exceeds the motorhome’s GCWR.

This happens every day to RV owners and it is unsafe. Any time you go over the published GCWR of any vehicle you exceed a weight rating for the weakest link in the chain. It might be the tires, the brakes, or several other components used to manufacture the vehicle. You do not want to find out which component weight rating is overloaded as you are traveling down the interstate at 70 miles per hour. In many cases this is why owners have tire failures and don’t understand why.

If we venture into the weeds just a bit here it is good to understand this about tires. Let’s say you have a dual axle travel trailer, and each of the tires are rated for a maximum of 2,200 pounds when they are properly inflated. Four tires at 2,200 pounds equals a GVWR 8,800 pounds. Now let’s say when you weigh the loaded trailer it weighs 8,600 pounds. You get a false sense of security because it is below the trailer’s GVWR. Then you have a blowout traveling down the interstate. You contribute this to a faulty tire, or that you hit something in the road.

Let’s go back to weighing the trailer. The weight of the trailer sitting on its two axles is 8,600 pounds. But if you weigh each individual tire position by itself you discover two tires on one axle have 2,200 pounds each resting on them, and one tire on the other axle has 1,800 and the other tire has 2,400 pounds on it. Even though you were under the trailer’s 8800 pound GVWR, one of the tires was overloaded and that is the tire that failed.

I am a firm believer that less is always better. I look at it like weight ratings are established for a new vehicle with a new engine, new transmission, new brakes, new springs ETC, I think you see where I’m going with this. Purchase a tow vehicle with a much higher tow capacity than the trailer’s GVWR and you shouldn’t have concerns, but always check the fully loaded vehicle and fully loaded trailer weight to make sure you don’t exceed the vehicle’s GCWR.

Happy Camping,
Mark Polk
RV Education 101
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