[Rocketscience]

We almost never travel as a full family and are at max 3-4 people at one time and rarely with luggage, i have had in extreme circumstances overloaded my car twice, loaded like 2 extra people (+5) in my i20 (1.2P) exceeding the payload by a 100kg at max, the car couldn't take it and was very very difficult to drive, it stalled many times in that short trip after which i had to send the excess passengers on some other car.
Second instance was recently after covid when we had no help at our godown, no sort of transport was available, me and dad very reluctantly loaded around 500kg of goods in our Creta along with the 2 of us, Total 650kg, the car needless to say sank and i was scared i might break something and was prepared for extreme loss in performance, i usually drive with just 1 passenger most of the times, although i don't plan to repeat this ever again but my creta (1.6D), took it effortlessly, the performance was very strong even after this, the drop would have been hardly 10-15%, it was a small 2-3kms long trip and the suspension never bottomed out.

[Lowflyer23]

Though manufacturers may over engineer their cars but driving even slightly above or at the payload limit comes with a lot of drawbacks.

I remember an incident when I was driving, we were 4 adults in our EcoSport with a lot more luggage than we usually carry and it made a HUGE difference on the car's handling. The braking distance significantly increased and the car felt a lot less nimble at speeds. I spotted one of those speed humps on the state highway a little late and the brake pedal felt so wooden and hard in terms of bite and play both, the car thudded through it slightly.

[Lowflyer23]

Originally Posted by Rocketscience

creta (1.6D), took it effortlessly, the performance was very strong even after this, the drop would have been hardly 10-15%, it was a small 2-3kms long trip and the suspension never bottomed out.

The engine would perform just fine but you won't realise the abuse your car's suspension and brakes would take. Needless to say, the nosedive upon braking would be accentuated a lot more in such conditions in cars with soft suspension like your Creta.

[Rocketscience]

Originally Posted by Lowflyer23

The engine would perform just fine but you won't realise the abuse your car's suspension and brakes would take. Needless to say, the nosedive upon braking would be accentuated a lot more in such conditions in cars with soft suspension like your Creta.

Oh totally, i never plan to repeat this ever again, desperate times caused that instance.

The difference however with respect to i20 petrol was turbo diesel made a world of difference, that torque takes care of anything.

[black_rider]

Overloaded cars are safety hazard on public roads. People sometimes lose life and limb because of them, but without a proper root cause analysis of accidents and subsequent enforcement of GVW limits, overloading will persist. Safety anyways is for the "stupid". Just look at seat-belt adoption in the rear seats. And that is the case for something very obvious. Who looks at weight of a car before driving away!

Overloaded commercial vehicles are a bigger menace. Not only are they a threat to lives, they also damage public roads. The same roads which are built using the taxes we pay. Roads are build to a spec. And vehicles have number of wheels plus GVW rating to comply with that spec. When commercial vehicles exceed it, and then some more, roads crumble under them. Everyone pays for a short term gain to the transporter.

Back to topic, yes I know the GVW rating of my car. It's about 2.6 tons. The car itself weighs some 2.1 tons . Very inefficient, I know

[prajwalmr62]

Any mechanical equipment is designed to handle additional load, sometimes up to 2-3 times the actual load. And for critical machines like lifts it can be up to 8-10 times the actual load.

The problem is when you get an unexpected load like a pothole or a Indian road walls (speed breakers). These type of incidents can increase the load on parts exponentially hence breaking stuff.

[PrasannaDhana]

That's the gross vehicle weight of my Safari Storme - 2570 kg

The kerb weight of the SUV is 2000 kg, which means 570 kg of max payload. That's 80 kg per peson for 7 persons occupancy.

The key word here is "optimal" performance of the vehicle under max payload and not that vehicle can't work with more load.

I myself have transported over 250 kg farm good in my Safari Dicor with 5 people on board. The car did just fine.

It's very common in rural areas to see boleros carrying 8-10 people

[maheshm619]

The term "overloaded car" brings to my mind a certain video I saw on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/_OXmqQLpg8U

But the passengers, most of them, being skinny may not have pushed the car to the brim of breakdown.

[Dr.AD]

The specifications sheet of my 320d gives very detailed information about payload and various other capacities:



As you can see, 550kg is the payload limit. In reality, I don't think I ever exceeded even 300kg. In our typical drives (2 people plus a weekend's luggage), the total load is only around 150kg.

I guess most sedans have around 500kg of payload capacity, and most of them will very rarely (or almost never) reach that limit unless they travel with 5 heavy people and a lot of luggage.

Originally Posted by CARNAMA

Would like to know from this community , how aware/concerned are we on this payload concept.

So to answer the OP's question, yes, I am aware of the payload and never came even remotely close to that limit in my usage of the car.

Originally Posted by GTO

99.99% of private car owners will never exceed the payload rating. If your car is rated for 5 onboard + luggage, you could even load it up with a heavy passenger or two and you'll be okay.

100% agree, and my usage pattern mentioned above falls in that 99.99% category :-)

[viXit]

Normally, NO. I wouldn't have known


But because of teamBHP, I do. The payload capacity of safari is around 600 kgs, and I didn't know that until a discussion about the Army spec Safari Storme GS800 with BHPian Parth (1.2TSI7DSG).

The safari has been loaded with farming supplies and people several times and I enjoyed driving it with load. The weight damped all the vibrations and made the car feel SMOOTH as heck.

We had to overload the car beyond the rated capacity once. I never bothered calculating by how much. I just did the calc and it was around 620 kgs. 7 seats occupied + 150Kgs in luggage(may or may not include 3 humans). And thanks to the OEMs giving us a margin of error, we made a good trip of 600kms without much trouble.

[carthick1000]

Yes, I am aware of payload and towing capacity of my cars.

I leave it to the Germans to explain the adverse effects of overloading and loosely held cargo within passenger cabin.

https://youtu.be/b1IwbqnvDAo

And in the case of trailers, not only the load but also the location of load affects the whole car’s handling behaviour shown nicely here :

https://youtu.be/6mW_gzdh6to

[subhro1988]

No, I was not aware of my car's payload and I checked the owner's manual to confirm. I have a Dzire ZDI+ and the Curb Weight is 985Kg while the Gross Vehicle Weight is 1405Kg (Maximum permissible being 770Kg on front axle and 740 Kg on rear axle).

This means I can put luggage+people weighing 420Kg in the car. Each suitcase weighs 15-20Kg and Dzire's boot can take upto 3 such suitcase means I can have 5 passengers weighing 72 Kgs each or 4 passengers weighing 90Kg each in the car. This is quite generous IMO.

[Aravind_M92]

I didn't quite mind the fact about payload of my car until this thread popped up! The manual for my Honda City doens't give out the payload directly, instead it gives out other measurements, like kerb weight, total weight permissible and axle weight limits leaving me to calculate the payload!
Total permissible weight - 1500kg
Total kerb weight - 1085 kg
Thus permissible payload - 415 kg
Given I have a full tank of petrol (40L) - ~40kg
My car can carry - 375 kg!
Quite the math here! That means the as per limits even 5 well built adults weighing 80kgs each would exceed the limits as per the manufacturer!
That makes it quite evident, a car built for 5 should be officially used for 3 adults and luggage for a safe and confident drive.
I believe we should no longer complaint that the rear bench is suited for 2 rather than 3. It's the manufacturers way of saying, limit the payload

P.S. College days were different! We had a '02 City Vtec and ours was a group of 11. Well the car did carry all of us gracefully and that too over a distance of about 20k kms in a span of 4 years.

[ron_9191]

Being an avgeek, I am one of those who use many of what pilots use in aviation straight to my car. Might sound a bit overkill, but believe me, it works wonders for me and I get some sort of weird sense of satisfaction once I am done with my ritual. One of them is a sound understanding of my car's capabilities and limitations. So before every long drive, and depending on the total distance I have traveled wheels and tyres and aligned, balanced, and rotated. I have a secret pre-drive checklist of things I check for. And I have the same after the drive too. Before I turn her off and put her off to sleep for a much-needed rest.

One of the most important things I have always kept in mind was what is in the car and how much of it. I never go to a petrol station and ask the attendant to fill her up, instead, I keep it at half tank all the time. And years of this practice have saved me a lot in many ways. The brakes and tyres have lasted longer, the suspension is still what came from the factory after 14 years of nothing but long drives and still ready for more. Never ever overload your cars, no matter what, particularly for long trips. It isn't safe, and can really become a pain in the neck if your spare tyre is under all that you have crammed into the boot when you have a puncture.

[spoth001]

Originally Posted by CARNAMA

I realized that I've travelled with lot of luggage, people, for thousands of miles without knowing how it affects vehicles performance & safety aspects.

Would like to know from this community, how aware/concerned are we on this payload concept.

Mods ~ Please merge with existing thread if appropriate.

Good thread. I did the same thing last year, back and forth few trips between Mum-HYD on my ground kissing Civic. My car was stuffed and trust me I put it to the test. My old suspensions busted even though the highways were smooth except for Pune stretch. They say the real test of the car is not on streets but when you drive it on smooth highways. You have to be careful and keep a watch on the juice left with suspension because that part is most prone to damage once you load your car. Then comes the wheels and adjoining parts. On a lighter note, this weight concept does not exist with most Indian vehicle owners, if we find space in a vehicle then we ensure that we choke the life out of it by stuffing !!