# Can a half ton haul this much?



## ron schenker (Dec 11, 2005)

Took a heavy load of smashed up marble and mortar flooring to the dump yesterday. Back end was pretty low but drove fine. Go to pay the lady and she was surprised at the steep amount on the bill. She asked me what I dumped so I told her and she said brace yourself, $104 
My 1/2 ton F150 8ft. box with 185,00 miles hauled 2314 lbs. 40 miles without a care in the world! She double checked and said it was right:blink: Have you ever had a questionable experience "at the dump"


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## mdshunk (Mar 13, 2005)

I hauled a 1.3 tons of cold patch in a Ranger. That was no fun at all. I could hardly steer the thing. I'm surprised they even loaded it at the asphalt plant.


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## Teetorbilt (Feb 12, 2004)

I once hauled an entire Hickory tree (about 24" dia.), cut and split in an '82 Chevy C 10. It was sitting on the jounce bumpers, I was really worried about going over 35 MPH and the front wheels were coming off of the ground going over hills. Weight, unknown.

In '04, Frances and Jeanne, I hauled more wet ply for shutter material than ever before mostly in Chevy Express 1500's. Anybody know what 30 sheets of wet 5/8" ply weighs? Most of my trucks are already pretty well loaded with tools and supplies and we didn't unload.

Not too long ago we hauled 66 bags of concrete for a small slab. It took a van and a P/U to make it in one trip. Both were pretty well loaded.

BTW, vehicle abuse does not pan out in the end. I know of guys that have bent chassis' by hitting a pothole or RR tracks.


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## ch0mpie (Nov 30, 2005)

Check your payload capacity. It may be a "half ton" pick up but the capacity is proably more. The capacity on my tacoma is 1300lb, I would think a 150 would be more than that.


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## mattp (Apr 5, 2006)

This week my guts overloaded my 16' trailer with shingles. Went 30 miles to the dump and dumped 5.3 ton. The bill was 294.00 it bent all the cross braces on my trailer and I drive a 01 ford f150. I think it's about time to step up to a f250 and maybe a new trailer. Any donations would help.


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## jmic (Dec 10, 2005)

mdshunk said:


> I hauled a 1.3 tons of cold patch in a Ranger. That was no fun at all. I could hardly steer the thing. I'm surprised they even loaded it at the asphalt plant.


Why would they care? It's not their truck, they'd put down 5 tons if someone asked for it.


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## RobertF (Jan 20, 2006)

I watched a guy have Home Depot load two pallets of used red brick onto an old Toyota. The rear bumper was practically touching the ground.

My Ranger gets pissy with 4 bags of cement and a half skip of sand.


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## RobertCDF (Aug 18, 2005)

RobertF said:


> I watched a guy have Home Depot load two pallets of used red brick onto an old Toyota. The rear bumper was practically touching the ground.
> 
> My Ranger gets pissy with 4 bags of cement and a half skip of sand.


I have put 17 80# bags in my 2wd ranger. It was dragging a little bit (about 5" lower than normal)


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## Tscarborough (Feb 25, 2006)

"1/2 ton" is the axle designation, not payload capacity.


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## stacker (Jan 31, 2006)

*mother in law*

took my ex mother in law for a ride once.


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## Cole (Aug 27, 2004)

:laughing::laughing:


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## fastg60 (Feb 20, 2006)

ron schenker said:


> Took a heavy load of smashed up marble and mortar flooring to the dump yesterday. Back end was pretty low but drove fine. Go to pay the lady and she was surprised at the steep amount on the bill. She asked me what I dumped so I told her and she said brace yourself, $104
> My 1/2 ton F150 8ft. box with 185,00 miles hauled 2314 lbs. 40 miles without a care in the world! She double checked and said it was right:blink: Have you ever had a questionable experience "at the dump"



You pay almost $100/ton!!!! Wow! It's $38/ton here!


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## Dustball (Jul 7, 2006)

I went to a local place to get some river rock, asked for a yard of rock. Their front end loader put some rock in the bed of my '88 F-350 and it seemed to sit awfully low once the rock was in. I was figuring a yard of rock would've been 3,000 lbs or so. I weighed in and the loader put in 5500 lbs of rock! If I'd known he was going to put in that much, I would've brought my trailer.


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## ron schenker (Dec 11, 2005)

> You pay almost $100/ton!!!! Wow! It's $38/ton here!


LUCKY!!!


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## kapena (Aug 20, 2004)

I managed to break a leaf spring when carrying too much weight in a 1/2 ton Chevy truck with the heavy duty suspension. I sort of knew it happened when I heard a loud snap while driving down a freeway and making a slight turn at the bottom of a hill. It wasn't until two years later that the piece of leaf spring fell onto the road while I made a turn out of a driveway. It was a good thing that the main leaf didn't break, because it was an overhead load of steel I-beams and tubing, and the freeway was crowded. You don't have to believe me, but the load weighed more than 3,800 lbs. I realize now how stupid and dangerous that haul was for me and the other drivers near me.

My whole point is that overloaded trucks can and do break. I remember seeing an old pickup full of rocks bend in half after hitting a pothole. I think a half-ton truck can safely haul about a ton, but it's not smart to get into the habit of hauling loads that you know are way too much. That broken spring cured my bad habit.


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## wolffhomerepair (Jan 27, 2006)

During my high school years I worked in a lumber yard. Guy came in for concrete bags with a 1/2 ton pickup. He wanted a whole pallet loaded with the forktruck into the back. I refused as it was over 3800lbs. He insisted but I still refused. It finally came to the General Manager of the store had the guy sign a waiver and the guy had to load anything above the trucks payload himself. Well he did and as soon as he left the parking lot he hit the small dip in the road and snapped a spring. We told you so seemed like not enough.


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## IHI (Dec 25, 2004)

Dustball said:


> I went to a local place to get some river rock, asked for a yard of rock. Their front end loader put some rock in the bed of my '88 F-350 and it seemed to sit awfully low once the rock was in. I was figuring a yard of rock would've been 3,000 lbs or so. I weighed in and the loader put in 5500 lbs of rock! If I'd known he was going to put in that much, I would've brought my trailer.


I know all the quarries around here have drivers with a chip oin their shoulders, you ask for X amount and they intentionally load the bucket with more material on the one side, and then drive around the truck to make sure most of the weight is behind the axles, and then they always dump in 1.5-2X's as much as you wanted anyways. I guess they have a running bet as to who can break a truck, or at least send a guy out dragging the bumper:furious: Worst part is my guys could give a crap less since they think it's cool to see how much weight they can haul. 2 records to date for the F-150 with 2 seperate kinds of load handlers installed is 3860lbs, it was severly squated and both my coil spring helpers and leaf spring helpers were begging for mercy....only had about an 1" from bumstop to axle. Then they picked up 3 pallets of landscape bricks totalling 12K, my trailer just has 3500lb axles, so minus the 2500 trailer weight they were 7500lbs over weight, and I have the bend axles to prove it....all 4 tires were bend out like a baja truck's front end:furious:


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## locofoco (Dec 15, 2005)

It's unbelievable what these old Chevys and Fords and Dodges will handle, sometimes the steering gets a little light, if you know what I mean. But they keep going.


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## all vinyl (Apr 2, 2004)

*pop up trailer*

we remodeled a bathroom i had my foreman and one other man pull up the mud floor .I built the trailer out of plywood for carrying siding and garbage under 1 ton . I get a call from my foreman he tells me the trailer is all over the road at 65 I told him slow down well at 35 he gets to the dumps she weight 2 tons when they put the floor down they poured the Crete through the joist right down to the sand about 2 foot thick . I had a felling about that floor and left an open ended contract based on what we found after it was oppened .


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## Dave-Raleigh (Jun 12, 2006)

Overloaded/cracked springs are the least of anybody's worries. Its when the axle flange breaks off on those semi floater axles and the wheel assembly is jambed up in the wheel housing that the fun starts.

I think here in NC the fine for being overweight is something like $1/pound and they give you a 1000# overload leeway. I don't see how those overloaded pickup trucks with passenger plates get away with it.

I used to live on a sidestreet off a 2 lane county road where 10 wheel dumps ran over the limit as a matter of course. It was interesting when about twice a year the DMV set up portable scales on my sidestreet flagged down all the trucks and weighed them. 

My biggest concern was always not being able to stop easily with a heavily loaded truck.


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## Musicman402 (Nov 18, 2006)

My personal record happened while hauling crushed stone in a 8x16 dump trailer. I asked for 4 ton of stone and they loaded me with 5 ton. I rolled across the scales at 19,800lb! All being pulled by my 88 K1500 Chevy With a 5.7 v8. With weight its a matter of how you load your equipment with most of the weight being over the axles of the trailer I was able to increase the intensity of the trailer brakes and tow that weight the SHORT DISTANCE I needed to go, Never exceeding 35 mph. Also, my other secret is Firestone "helper springs". They are actually air bags placed between the axle and the frame and increase the capacity of the suspension to 5000lb. However you have to keep in mind that this does not do anything for your rear axle you still have to use your head! As with everything in our trade, it seems we use our equipment to it's max. You use it, and when it breaks, you fix it!


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## ARCS (Nov 29, 2006)

I seen the menards guys load 3 pallets of shingles on a single axle double snowmobile trailer once. The guy made it about 3 miles and lost the axle. I could not believe anyone could be that stupid.


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## cbreer (Dec 1, 2006)

One time I hauled 2 1/2 ton of rock in an 80' Toyota (the really tiny trucks) and trailor. We were loading by hand and just didn't realize how full it was getting. All was fine till I was coming to a stop sign, there was a cement truck coming from the right and my brakes went out!!! I turned the ignition off, gammed in it 2nd gear and let out of the clutch! (poor truck) we got stoped 2' past the crosswalk, it was pretty close. Ever since then I've watched the load limits pretty carfully


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## pinnacle1 (Dec 4, 2006)

Im in bad need of a 2 axle dump trailer. I just have single axle landscape trailer and one time I put 4-6 yards on it and thought I could make it to the job a few miles away going nice and slow but when I made my first turn the tires nearly came off the rims. Had to turn around and take some off and come back for the rest.


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## TimNJ (Sep 7, 2005)

Once a concrete guy told me story about a guy in Phila. They were doing a commercial job and the guy comes over in a beat up old p'up and asks the concrete driver if he has any extra on the truck can he have it so he can repair his steps. The driver said sure, and the guy backs his truck up to the chute. He dumps a little in the bed and the bed drops. The guy tells him to keep dumping since he only lives a few blocks away. The driver filled his bed half way up and the thing was sitting on the axles. The guy turns the truck around and drives about 100yds and blows the rear out of the truck. Then he gets out, looks at the concrete in the bed, looks at his truck, and proceeds to take the plates off and leave the truck on the side of the street and walk off!:laughing: :laughing:


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## Bigbricklayer (May 14, 2006)

This is what my Half Ton hauled today. 246,000 miles.


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## thom (Nov 3, 2006)

.... and so I wonder why construction companies buy 1/2 ton trucks. The likelihood that they will be overloaded is great. The likelihood that the higher maintenance/repair costs will outweigh any savings over buying a one ton is great. 

Why not buy a 1 ton to start with. Probably cheaper in the long run. Safer for you. Safer for other people on the road. Less downtime. If you're gonna be a contractor get a contractors truck. If you want to look like a handyman or diy'er get a 1/2 ton.


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## Guest (Dec 23, 2006)

My f 150 1/2ton with a stright 6 4.9L 200,000 miles I got 1 ton on there before and had no problems at all.


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## Bigbricklayer (May 14, 2006)

WOW I hope I don't look like a handyman


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