Safe driving a fully loaded car?

[Wade Lippman]

My son lives 800 miles away and we will be seeing him in the spring.
Our car has a capacity of 1400 pounds.
He wants his weight cage, bench, and weights.
I figure that, and us, will weight about 1300 pounds.

Is driving that far with nearly the maximum capacity a safe thing to do?

I frankly have no idea.

[Jim Becker]

Wade, it's important to understand that the cargo limit for a vehicle includes the driver and any passengers, the gear and any tongue weight if a trailer is attached. So in your stated situation and with just the driver, it's likely that the vehicle limit will be exceeded unless the driver is, um...very tiny. A small utility trailer may be a better idea for transferring this material to your son's location.

[roger wiegand]

Wade indicated he was counting the passengers. The weight limit is the upper limit of safety, so if you are below that you are, from the vehicle manufacturers point of view, safe. There is almost certainly a built-in margin of error, I'g guess in most vehicles you could probably go 1.5 to 2x the limit before you actually start breaking parts. In trucks anyway tires are the weak point, followed, surprisingly, by wheels. Your load is the equivalent of five large people in the car, certainly something the car was designed to do.

That said, as you increase the load handling will change and braking distances will increase. You probably want to understand how your vehicle responds, particularly when you hit a bump at high speed or do a quick maneuver by trying it out on a quiet piece of road before roaring off at 80 mph.

When my truck is fully loaded with camper and trailer I sit right at the GCWR, with both axle weights very close to the max (23,800 lbs last time I weighed it). I relax, set the cruise control at 55-58 mph, settle into the right lane, and try to avoid excitement.

[Alan Rutherford]

The manufacturer thinks it's safe. You can be sure that their legal department built some cushion into that weight limit.

We pulled a double-axle trailer loaded to about 5,000 pounds diagonally all the way across the country a few years ago, with a car rated for 5,000 pounds towing. Going uphill in the mountains was tedious (and you can't use your flashers because they activate the trailer brakes) and we only passed one vehicle that didn't pass us back when it had the chance, but I never felt that it was really unsafe. I had a rear-view camera that was on all the time.

If the snow has melted, you keep your rear view unobstructed and you learn to drive like an old man with survival instincts if you don't do that already, you should be fine. If you're concerned about cutting it that close, remember that 10 gallons of gas weighs 65 pounds. Maybe you should skip breakfast.

Using a trailer is not a bad idea if you are used to pulling one and your car is OK with it (my Prius is not).

PS: and don't put all the weight in the trunk. Keep it balanced and centered in the car as much as possible.

[Ole Anderson]

If you feel comfortable driving with a full complement of large people (as Roger noted), with no significant luggage, then you should be good to go, weight is weight. Just be sure to secure it as well or better as you would any passengers.

[Robert Engel]

Load it up and go for a test ride.

Check status of the struts first. Most cars need replacing after 75K.

[Jim Becker]

Wade indicated he was counting the passengers. T

My bad...'didn't sleep well last night because I had to get up at "oh-dark-too-early" to take my daughter to a coworker's house so they could drive off to a company meeting a couple hours away and my latté hadn't yet kicked in. So yes, on that parameter, they should be fine. But I'd still opt for the trailer for that much stuff!

[Ted Calver]

Make sure your tires are inflated to carry that load.

[Pat Barry]

The weight is one thing but maybe more important is how the weight is distributed. I would want to make sure the weight was spread around between the back (what kind of vehicle?) and the front / passenger side, and back seat areas.

[Jim Becker]

Pat is spot-on about weight distribution...too much in the back and braking/steering gets really squirrelly...

[Matt Day]

Sounds like a good time to rent a trailer.

[roger wiegand]

Watching people on the highway pulling uhauls I would go the other way and say that if you don't have experience towing and a trailer that you personally maintain in top shape you're probably much better off putting the stuff inside the car. Trailers add an order of magnitude of safety issues to driving down the road, ranging from poor visibility to equipment failures. It is rare to drive the Mass Pike across the state and not see a trailer pulled over that has lost a tire or wheel.

I venture to say he probably won't even notice the difference of that much weight in a moderately sized vehicle.

[Jim Koepke]

Have you thought of renting a U-Haul van?

Here in the west they have a fairly good sized one that cost about $20 a day. Just do not tell them you need it to go out of state or long distance. Some are only for local use. Let them know you are going to rack on the miles. It might be better than taking a chance on your own car.

jtk

[Wade Lippman]

It is a Mazda CX9; a reasonably big SUV.
We have no experience with a trailer, and no hitch.

The weight plates are 400 pound; nearly half of the load other than us in the front seats. I can put those on the floor of the 2nd row of seats, which is right in the middle of the car. I can put the rest in the back, so the car should be pretty well balanced.
Do you see any problem with 400 pounds on the floor?

[Bob Leistner]

Only if you are stopped suddenly. Even a minor accident could be fatal.