I still haven't used my truck for anything unfortunately, but I'm still always thinking about it. One thing that I've been thinking about is GVW. I honestly have no idea what the GVW of the truck is... it's a one-ton chassis cab and the sticker in the door says "for trucks over 10,000 GVW". So it's at least 10,000.

It also has extra leaves in the rear springs, or I'm pretty sure it does... 13 on each side. It has an extended frame and a push bumper, so I'm pretty sure it used to be a rollback tow truck, which means it would've had to hold at LEAST 7,000 pounds back there with a fair-sized car on it. And of course even late-model one tons are very frequently used as rollbacks.

The thing is, I looked it up, and a brand-new factory one ton of any make seemed to have a max GVWR of 12,800, which still isn't that much for a big tow truck. I've got a '71 Dodge RV with the same wheelbase, rear axle, and wheel/tire size as my '91 one-ton, but it's on a medium-duty frame (M400, which is like 1 1/2 or 2-ton rated) and the plates say "GVW 18,000". The frame might be stronger, but I don't think the rest is any stronger...

Basically what I'm wondering is what the actual capacities of the truck are, or could be as far as the government is concerned. Frames can be reinforced, brakes upgraded, suspension upgraded, etc., but who decides what the legal weight limit is?