Dear friends:

Do you have any information regarding the maximum weight a 300SD (W116 or W126) can carry without incurring damages to the suspension parts (coil spring, shock absorbers etc...)?

Thanks.

Eric

Eric,

The manufacturer specifies the MGVW which is the maximum gross vehicle weight. It is stamped on the plate that is probably on the driver's door pillar. From memory, the SD has a MGVW of something like 4550 lbs. Its empty weight is about 3650 thereby giving it a maximum payload of about 900 lbs. Now, if you go over this value will you damage any springs or shocks or suspension components? I highly doubt it. The value is set based upon safe handling and braking of a fully loaded vehicle. It is not set based upon the maximum static load that the suspension components can handle. If you had to move 1500 lbs., I'm sure that you could do it for a short distance at low speeds but you'd never get the manufacturer to tell you.

Dear Brian:

Thanks a lot for your clear explanations. I recently tried to carry around 1200 lbs of bags of concrete mix on my 300SD for a slow 5 miles drive from a HomeDepot store to my home, so I'm just kind of nervous about any potential damages I might have caused to the car. I would rent the HomeDepot truck at that time if it were available (each store has only one rental truck.)

When I was trying to load the bags of concrete mix on my 300SD, some guys on a big Ford truck just stared at me with disbelief. I told them that my 300SD is a tank, and yes it truly is. Thanks.

Best regards,

Eric

Eric,

Kind of reminds me of an old Dodge 1 ton van that I used to have. It was completely empty in the back and I used it to haul debris to the dump. On a major overhaul the crew fully loaded it with quite a bit of an old masonry chimney and some heavy wood.
I got to it later and it certainly looked overloaded. Went to take it to the dump (about 5 miles). Made it about three of those miles and I started to hear a very loud noise coming from one of the front wheels. Tried to get back home with it, but to no avail.
The front wheel bearing exploded in an intersection and I just made it to the side of the road. Had it towed home.

Replaced the bearing and made the trip again the next week.
When the van was finally weighed on the scale, it tipped the scales at about 7500 lbs. The empty van was about 4000 lb. so the payload was 3500 lbs. Fortunately it was a 1 ton van, but, was carrying nearly twice the rated load.

I'm sure that you probably did nothing to the M/B. But, remember that 1200 lb. in the trunk adds about 1400 lb. to the rear axle and unloads the front axle by 200 lbs. M/B has a rating of 900 lb. for the vehicle that is equally distributed.

Now, if you wish to really talk about overloading a vehicle

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Brian,
That picture is at the local lumber yard here in Watsonville. Whether it is urban legend or not, the caption under the picture tells about the owner who was allowed to load his car at Home Depot this way. Not only did the car become a fastback, but the rear struts punched their way right thru the mounting ponts.

Eric,
FWIW we has a 1973 Pontiac Le Mans wagon that had carried on 2 separate occasions,

27 60 lb sacks of ready mix concrete in the back cargo area. Wife said she got air a couple of times--(it had a 400 CID V8 with dual exhausts, passed everything but a gas station.


12 sheets of drywall on the roof rack. Car handled like crud, but no lasting damage was done either time.

Most cars built back then were overbuilt, can't say about the new ones--

__________________
Nate Stanley
(Currently Benzless)
1985 F-250 6.9l 170K
2009 SCION XB 36.5K
2003 LS430 78K
2012 Kubota B 2320

Nate,

You mean that Jetta could not handle a small load (about 3000 lb.) of plywood? I thought those German cars were well built

Dear Brian:

No, I did put the concrete bags in the front passenger seat and back seats as well as in the trunk because I wanted to distribute the load evenly. So far I haven't noticed any difference in the suspension and handling before and after carrying that heavy load.


Dear Nate: You really abused that wagon to the best of its ability


Thanks.

Eric

Eric,
We finally consigned it to the junkyard in 1993 with 170,000 on the original trammy and engine. It had quarter-sized rust holes in the left front door, and the tranny finally slipped so bad it couldn't go anymore. The engine was still strong.

Funny thing about that car. It had the typical GM thin garbage vinyl upholstery, and was shredding in the drivers seat by 1985. We found an upholsterer who redid the whole inside (all 3 seats) in parchment MB tex for $350.00. That part of the car was MINT when it went to the boneyard.

Cheers, Nate

__________________
Nate Stanley
(Currently Benzless)
1985 F-250 6.9l 170K
2009 SCION XB 36.5K
2003 LS430 78K
2012 Kubota B 2320

Want to talk about an overload...towing a 300SD with a 69 bug....

There were hills! I have respect for the 1600cc

How about 6.5 tons in a 91 f250? I was hauling used concrete slabs to the landfill. When I arrived at the scale the operator stared in disbelief for at least 5 minutes. No damage to the truck except the dump bed fell off the frame! Had to stick 4x4s between the frame and the axle so it wouldn't drag the ass end. Believe it or not the truck is still in service at our company!!! Hows that for overbuilt? I had no idea a few slabs of concrete weighed that much! It was my job to repair the damage I had done though, after several hours of welding I learned all about severe metal fatigue….

__________________
1983 Mercedes 300SD
1987 Mercedes 300SDL
2001 VW Passat 2.8 AWD
2007 OM642 Jeep WK 4x4

That's nothing...

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__________________
85 300CD
83 300TD
78 240D (daughter)

some years ago I was at our local Brick yard they wer having a sale - like point and we will load it for 10 bucks! They were clearing out a bunch of odd lots on pallets.

The guy in front of me was demanding the forklift opperator load a pallet of bricke into his Volkswagen bus ( the one with two side doors -60's i think)

"no"
"yes I bought them"
"NO"
" its my bus and my bricks!"
NO!!!" " you will brake it"
"YES!!!
shrug "OK"

two blocks away the Owner was standing staring at his reward. the VW was sitting just the other side of the Railroad treacks
with the bricks on the ground and both ends of the bus in the air!

just beacuse it's free dosen't mean it's a good idea.

Chuck

THose were made to transport people not bricks
Thats why there were called the VW "transporter" not utility truck :-D
Course they also made one of those too

Some of the heavy things I've hauled in my SD:

-Several Bags of Sand, and a bunch of steel pipe and hardware....(probably less than 600 pounds total)
-A fooseball table sticking out of the trunk plus a bunch of other supplies under it, probably about 700-800lbs.....)
-And recently I towed our 83SD home 5.5 miles at 15-20mph when its alternator seized....it pulled it with little effort! I was going up some very large hills with no problem at all, we opted not to use our van to tow it, as it would have probably died, or exploded....or something bad.... (then I'd have had to tow both at once:p) I've also had a whole crowd of people in the car....probably close to 800-900lbs....all I can say is it certainly feels HEAVY driving like that, slow take off and it feels like you're glued to the street....

__________________
-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)