She came out unscathed, never again though.
Payload and overloading of half ton trucks for work
- Thread starter 350Rocket
- Start date
But you're claiming something you've seen? You say this happened but there is no proof? Please show us the photo's of the ram modification if you know something the rest of us don't.
It’s right around 1500lbs for a 4x4 crew cab ram with the 5.7 HEMI.
I completely forgot about fuel. I had just filled it up full.
That's definitely true from a liability point. I'll be doing my best to get the weight down, just to cover my butt.
I'm sure the truck was fine to carry the load. But in the event of any accident, even if unrelated to the load, it could be something to blame.
One of the geniuses at work thought it would be a good idea to get a used Dodge half tonner and equip it as a service truck for building maintenance. Thing was scary to drive, turns out after all was said and done the truck was close to 1,000 lbs OVER its GVW. All of the time. Now it becomes my problem to keep it on the road. Weak link you ask? Brakes. Went through lots of brakes. Differential failed spectacularly necessitating a replacement from a wrecking yard. This one failed in short order but this time it didn't blow a hole in the housing and was rebuildable. 10 ply tires all around, front suspension got load bearing bump stops, rear had bolt on overloads and the shocks with added coil springs. Luckily it is off the road now and I am retired from that operation.
I sell helper springs for a living. Load 'em up boys, there still room in the bed!
From a mechanical perspective, the truck should be fine yes.
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2022
- Messages
- 151
My half ton came with P tires, just upgrading to an LT tire dramatically improved towing stability.
The payload of my transit connect van is 1600 lbs and I’ve had it loaded down a bit. I have never worried about the handling or brakes but have wondered if the little 2.0 na engine could pull it lol.
Yeah, it stiffens the ride up a bit but it's worth it when hauling a lot of weight. I do occasionally tow with this (nothing anywhere close to capacity) but I can barely tell the trailer is back there.
Have to wonder what that vehicle would be like after 240k miles and 10,500 hours.
I remember when I worked at the Goodyear shop, we had a lot of Cogeco or Bell transits would come in with the front tires bald, because they were so heavy in the back they would spin all the time trying to pull away from a stop apparently. The driver's I talked to hated them.
Well I have 202,000 miles on mine and it runs every day. The only unplanned mechanical event was the original water pump gave up at 175k miles. It was down for one day.
Loading all my tools/tool boxes/carts in my 2500HD Duramax overloads the payload by thousands of pounds, With helper leaf springs it didn't feel overloaded, But still drove very cautiously.
Hopefully I'll never have to move my tools again.
Back when I had a 1969 CST/10......Had to swap-in 3/4 Ton coil springs in the rear before moving my tools which was way easier than swapping leaf's or even adding helper leaf's. While still way overweight & the 2x11" drum brakes all around made stopping a planned event......I never ran into anyone/anything.
Be careful in todays litigious culture/society, People are looking to cash-in anyway they can!!!!
Hopefully I'll never have to move my tools again.
Back when I had a 1969 CST/10......Had to swap-in 3/4 Ton coil springs in the rear before moving my tools which was way easier than swapping leaf's or even adding helper leaf's. While still way overweight & the 2x11" drum brakes all around made stopping a planned event......I never ran into anyone/anything.
Be careful in todays litigious culture/society, People are looking to cash-in anyway they can!!!!
Spent a decade in trucking. The plate on the door jamb gives the weight figure. Over that figure is overloaded. Someone mentioned a King Ranch truck. I'm getting more than just the truck when that overloaded vehicle hits me. I made them take freight off more than once when they overloaded. Guess that makes me the payload police and I'm fine with that because anything else is stupid. How many times did little Bobby jump off the roof without breaking his leg before he was seen in his cast? "Your truck will handle it fine" until it doesn't.
Those bent because they were overloaded. They could be hundreds of pounds under GVW and still be overloaded. That pesky thing called CG. And when the plate on the door says GVW x,xxx and the crash vehicle weighs x,xxx + 183 pounds my lawyer is making both he and I rich because people have these foolish and incorrect notions.
Don't forget the overloaded / maxed out of spec axles, axle bearings, brakes and differentials. 1/2 ton truck is just that. A 1/2 ton truck.
Back in highschool days I sometimes rode in (and got to drive once) my friends 71 c10. At the time I didn't know about the coil springs but I remember thinking how nice it rode for a truck.
Similar threads
