Unified tow testing standards expected this fall
After nearly four years of deliberation and negotiation, truck manufacturers and the Society of Automotive Engineers are expected to agree to the industry's first tow testing standards for pickups by late this year.
The standard, known as J2807, establishes tow-vehicle performance requirements against the following criteria to establish max ratings: timed acceleration on level ground and up a 12 percent incline; maintaining speed on a real-world grade; understeer; trailer-sway response; braking and park brake at gross combined weight; and tow-vehicle hitch/attachment structure. To minimize test variations, it provides standard test trailer specifications and requirements for their use in these tests.
"According to the committee chair, the revision of J2807 is about three-quarters complete," said Shawn Andreassi, an SAE spokesman. "A meeting is scheduled for mid-August, and the draft should go out to ballot in early September. They are anticipating the publication around Thanksgiving, barring any delays."
The industry alliance includes Ford, GM, Chrysler, Toyota and Honda, along with several leading trailer and hitch makers. Until now, each manufacturer was free to test using proprietary conditions ideally suited to a truck's towing strengths and decide their own maximum trailering rating.
Once J2807 is implemented, truck buyers will finally have an apples-to-apples way to compare the trailer-towing capacity of all light-duty pickups. All manufacturers are expected to follow it starting with the 2013 model year.
PickupTrucks.com is already using parts of the standard for testing. As part of our Heavy-Duty Hurt Locker comparison, we're testing at Davis Dam in Arizona, the site of J2807's standardized hill-climb test.
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