Airbags WILL increase the cargo capacity. The question IS, is it is a LEGAL cargo capacity?!!! Probably not.
Correct.
Air bags/higher rated springs and a host of other aftermarket suspension products WILL increase the suspension ability to carry more load which is the point being made. No one has said it increases a gawr or a gvwr number.
All commercial or non commercial vehicles on the road come under axle/tire load limits.
Some seem obsessed with a GVWR number which can be any number the vehicle maker wants up to the sum of the GAWRs. Points to think about;
GVWR is not a drop dead number. In fact dot does not use a trucks gvwr for how much load it can carry....nor is it used in any civil court case for a overload condition.
In some cases our newer trucks with high gvwr based payloads are over loading the trucks rear axle/tires when placed in the bed. Fords F150 with a 3200 lb gvwr based payload is a good example. Their is no F150 that can carry 3200 lbs in the bed such as our truck campers/GN hitch weight or 5th wheel pin weights/bumper pull trailers/load of RR ties from the farm store/etc.
Another example of the fallacy of using a gvwr as some sort of holy grail is a Ford F350 SRW trucks which several can come with a 10000 gvwr or a 11200 gvwr....one being a crew cab 6.7 diesel 4x4 172" wheelbase 5600 fawr and 6290 rawr. These truck are the same truck ....just a different gvwr. Ford fleet specs says one comes with a 2200 lb gvwr payload and the other a 3400 lb payload.
Brakes ?? Their a function of the gawrs....which is another reason dot doesn't enforce a truck makers gvwr.
...anyways lots of blather about what air bags do
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All vehicles on the road........We may safely/legally carry weight up to the vehicle gawrs/tire load rating. Example in the one ton DRW pulling a heavy GN trailer with a declared 35k-40k gcw we see and drive next to every day. Some with or without a dot number.
Were safe in doing so and pose no danger to others on the road. If you feel unsafe driving around us either speed up or slow down and get away from us or simply don't drive on the road with us as just about 100 percent of us operating with a dot # are operating above the mfg gvwr or up to the sum of the axle/tire load ratings.