Toyota Tundra see-saw ad

Motor Trend - June 2007

The New York Times has reported that a senior General Motors executive e-mailed dealers to point out that Toyota may have been a bit too slick with that slick Tundra "see-saw" advertisement

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- The GM guy claims the 10,000-pounds referred to in the voiceover means the combined weight of truck and trailer, not just the trailer, as implied. And he indicates you have to read the fine print to see the trailer is fitted with electric brakes. Wonder how they got any traction on a steel grating in the first place..

Reply to
TT
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Wouldn't any street legal trailer of that size have to be?

Reply to
B A R R Y

Hey, another troll identifies for the killfile.

Since the figure you are referring to is the Gross Combined Weight Rating (vehicle, passengers, cargo, tow) and the gross combined for my Tacoma is 11,100 pounds, I would suspect that the Tundra is far more.

Trailer life lists the tow rating, not the gross combined, at 10K+

Plonk

Frank

Reply to
Frank Boettcher

So don't believe everything someone tells you, even if you saw it on TV.

Reply to
jp2express

But it was on TV it HAS to be right!

Reply to
azwiley1

The trailer hauling the load is required under federal law to have its own brakes, having to state so in the fine print is a formality. Toyota did nothing wrong.

The GVWR is the truck, trailer, and the load -- including any load tht is physically in the truck, not just the load that is on the trailer. Toyota did nothing wrong.

Stopping -- gaining traction -- on grating is perhaps the easiest part of the commercial. The grates are on edge, and this offers a very high coeffecient of friction.

Reply to
Jeff Strickland

GVWR is the Gross Vehicle Weight Rating. It does not include an allowance for trailer weight other than the load the trailer tongue puts on the tow vehicle. Gross /Combined/ Weight Rating (G*C*WR) would include the total weight of the loaded vehicle and trailer.

If you look at the picture of my certification sticker you will see the GVWR listed (8800 lbs) in the top right corner. Certification sticker:

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If you compare this weight ticket to my certification sticker you will see that I was under the weight ratings for the front axle, rear axle, and GVWR. The /combined/ weight was 1,940 lbs beyond the 8800 lb GVWR but still completely legal and under all weight ratings. Weight ticket:
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Reply to
Nosey

But, if it's on TV, or in the paper, or on the news, doesn't it have to be true?

Steve ;-)

Reply to
Steve B

I am still trying to find one of those revolvers that never needs to be reloaded!

Reply to
azwiley1

ha ha ha , thats the best laugh I've had in days. The coeffeciant of friction is next to none on them damn things even when dry and brand new. Wet they are a skating rink.

Whitelightning

Reply to
Whitelightning

Actually you could get better traction on a grating by adding saw teeth on the vertical ends, which are not large enough to be visually detected.

R>

Reply to
Ronald Thompson

While your at it also get one that never misses even when your on a galloping horse 200 yards from your target!

Ron

Reply to
Ron Recer

And remember, if they show a closeup of the bad guy, he'll be the next one to bite the dust...

Reply to
TOM

On the flats side they are slick, but on edge, there are several sharp (not sharp as in knife) edges that are gripping the tire. And, when they make ramps like these, not only are the grates on edge, the edges are spiked to make traction even greater.

I agree completely that a flat metal ramp is slicker than snot, but when the metal is placed on edge, it gains rigidity and traction.

Reply to
Jeff Strickland

They do bridges that way, and untill you have had the pleasure, or pucker up and chew a hole in the seat experiance of a tractor's rear axles kicking out to side pulling 80,000 lbs gross , or the trailer kick to one side or the rear tractor axle kick out to one side when braking, dont yak at me on this. The damn things flat suck for traction. Thank god they dont use steel grating very often for bridge surfaces any more. and before experiancing that joy, I used ramps of that construction to unlaod trailers and trucks in the service at areas that didnt have loading docks. Even with a 4k or 6k lb forklift you had to be damn careful becuase if you hit the brakes to hard coming down, the tires would lock up and slide. Lift operators learned real fast better too slow everytime than one time too fast.

Whitelightning

Reply to
Whitelightning

From a strictly personal perspective, the steel gratings that I have had the "pleasure" of driving on differed greatly depending on age. The new ones had traction galore, those that had been in service for some time and driven on regularly were very slick. It has much to do with how many tires have driven over them and smoothed off the edges of the steel. It also varies greatly depending on the relative hardness of the tire compound, a soft tire on a new grate will have very good traction, to the point that it will try to shred a tire, older grates with hard compound tires will slide at an alarming rate.

YMMV

George

Reply to
George

I found it.

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Reply to
Beryl

Same here. I'll bet cleanliness counts too. Some have a nice oil & grease coating if traffic sits still on them.

I've ridden bicycles over lots of them and seen a wide variety of traction. Think a slippery grate is scary in a truck? Try the slippery, slightly downsloped examples on a 25 MPH bicycle with a car

20-30 feet behind.

On the bike, I can even see a huge difference were the tires usually travel and where they don't.

Reply to
Bonehenge (B A R R Y)

Didn't that become a blond target pistol??? :>))

"Little Moron Jokes" = "Pollack Jokes" = "Blond Jokes"

Reply to
TOM

Reply to
jp2express

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