Weight limit roads / bridges are exceeded by our Lightnings - how will these EV trucks handle restrictions ?

[metroshot]

As I was driving in my work van, I noticed there were signs around a bridge that had 3T weight limit.

How is this weight limit restriction going to affect EVs that weigh more than 3 tons ?

EVs are going to become more common and the weight is a concern for not only bridges, but older roads that don't support commercial truck weights.

I know my Lightning is around 6500lbs unladen and the GVWR is 8200lbs (4 tons)...

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[Tony Burgh]

What would you do if you were in a 5000 lb vehicle and saw a 2 ton weight limit? Your responsibility or the vehicle’s?

 

[RedLightning86]

That’s life n a truck. Hopefully infrastructure improvements will trickle down.

 

[Tony Burgh]

That’s life n a truck. Hopefully infrastructure improvements will trickle down.

Haha. There was a one lane bridge over a culvert that connected two midsized commercial districts in different municipalities. Cars would barely fit and you had to approach slowly to see if anyone was coming across it. A goober in a coal truck decided to try his luck. Of course, truck destroyed bridge and had to be pulled from ditch.
That was 30 years ago and neither municipal would work with the other to fix the bridge. Now bigger bridges are rusting out and any money will go their way. There ain’t that much trickle available.

 

[Shady]

meh for me I drive over it without a thought.

 

[hturnerfamily]

wow, as though someone in a vehicle that was 6,000.01 lbs would suddenly 'break' the bridge : /

engineers come up with all sorts of ways to baffle us... it's just a guess to them, and maybe an educated on, but that bridge doesn't care what they say.

 

[Tony Burgh]

wow, as though someone in a vehicle that was 6,000.01 lbs would suddenly 'break' the bridge : /

engineers come up with all sorts of ways to baffle us... it's just a guess to them, and maybe an educated on, but that bridge doesn't care what they say.

But the bridge doesn’t speak either, until it does.
Hey Ma, watch this.

 

[RickLightning]

As I was driving in my work van, I noticed there were signs around a bridge that had 3T weight limit.

How is this weight limit restriction going to affect EVs that weigh more than 3 tons ?

EVs are going to become more common and the weight is a concern for not only bridges, but older roads that don't support commercial truck weights.

I know my Lightning is around 6500lbs unladen and the GVWR is 8200lbs (4 tons)...

High end gas F-150s already are that weight. Throw 4 big guys in and all are. Nothing new here.

 

[RedLightning86]

Haha. There was a one lane bridge over a culvert that connected two midsized commercial districts in different municipalities. Cars would barely fit and you had to approach slowly to see if anyone was coming across it. A goober in a coal truck decided to try his luck. Of course, truck destroyed bridge and had to be pulled from ditch.
That was 30 years ago and neither municipal would work with the other to fix the bridge. Now bigger bridges are rusting out and any money will go their way. There ain’t that much trickle available.

Probably right there about our little rural bridges! As it is, in my hybrid F150, I try to go slowly but smoothly across little country bridges. There is the old country joke about safety testing bridges - any time it doesn't collapse when you go over it, it's passed the test up to that weight. What you don't want to do is jam the brakes on, like hitting the bridge with a hammer.

 

[Newton]

The gas F-150 has a GVWR of 8500 pounds with the max tow package. Unladen the gas truck weighs 4705 pounds which is 2.3 tons.

For comparison my Kia EV6 AWD (270 EPA range) weighs 4795 pounds (2.3 tons) so it would have no problem on the bridge — it basically weighs as much as the gas F-150. So EVs are indeed heavier but not by an insane amount given how many people drive big SUVs.

 

[Jseis]

Well, pretty easy to tell what’s not crossing: Fire trucks, school buses, UPS, garbage trucks, concrete trucks, septic tank pump trucks, gas/propane delivery, any contractors-material delivery truck/welders trucks, bigger EMS vans, etc. Dinky wood stringer bridges & RR flat car (steel frame) common in rural areas. Not a problem till your house is on fire, etc.

 

[farmtruck]

Where I live, a sign like that is an axle limit. Sign says 3 ton limit X 2 axles = 6 ton vehicle weight limit. This follow FMCSA rules, California may be different.

 

[hturnerfamily]

do we really think 'any' truck stops and turns around whenever they see one of these? No.

and, the reality is that this is simply a 'guesstimate' by engineers who wanted to CONSERVATIVELY put a 'number' on a weight estimation, whether it makes any real-world sense, or not.

 

[TomB985]

The gas F-150 has a GVWR of 8500 pounds with the max tow package. Unladen the gas truck weighs 4705 pounds which is 2.3 tons.

You haven’t been able to get an F150 with a GVWR over 8,000 lbs since 2015.

.

 

[TomB985]

do we really think 'any' truck stops and turns around whenever they see one of these? No.

It’s been over a decade, but I spent almost three years as a professional truck driver in a past career. We took bridge weight restrictions seriously, and so do the commercial vehicle enforcement officers in most states. Each company I worked for was emphatic about it.

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