Eyeballing weight

Since I'm in the process of breaking in a new vehicle I thought I had come up with a pretty sharp idea. I'd fill the bed with dirt/pea gravel and drive it loaded for the duration of the first 12k miles. Sound good?

Next, I just happened to look out the window and see a construction site digging out basements and loading into dump truck. I so humbly asked the front end loader driver if I could get a bucket full and he said, 'no prob'. This story leads to my question of-Is there some way of judging when the weight is too much/not enough? Is it when the aux springs contact? or come within X inches etc. etc.



Brian



ps. I know, I know, when the back tires don't turn because they're rubbing is one way to know it's too much... ...

 

p.p.s.

This comes up only because I'm such a lousy judge of weight..... just ask my wife.



Brian

 

About the only things you can do are run down to the truckstop and have it weighed for comparison to an empty truck like yours, or weigh some quantity of what you have in the bed (a cubic foot or two) on a scale that you already have in the bathroom and multiply that figure by the calculated cubic feet in the bed. Now you have the weight of what is in the bed, but how much is too much?

I have had about 3600# in the bed of mine right up against the tailgate, all of the weight was behind the axle, and it was nowhere near flattening the springs. I was blown away by how high it sat with that kind of weight on it, and no it would not pull a wheelie . I took the overloads off of mine so I don't know how close it would have been to them, but I can tell you that when a 4x4 sits down visibly in the rear you have a ton in the back literally. If you make one squat you have some serious weight on it. Personally I would not leave more than 1500# in the bed for any period of time, I really don't know if it will hurt anything or not.

Is it worth having the weight in to help break-in? I really don't think so, my truck seems to ignore weight for the most part. 2500# is hard to tell is even there. Weight on flat ground is nearly non-existant to the engine so you have to be going uphill or accelerating for it to make a difference. If you want to work it a trailer with a lot of wind resistance is a lot better. The faster you go the harder it is to pull, and the resistance is there even on flat ground. One of those fivers with a stand up bedroom up front is ideal If I were you I would call everyone I know and offer to tow anything they have, and just drive it the way you want it to run through its life. If you want a sally truck drive it like a sally, if you want a worker make it work. MHO, hope it helps.

 

I am always trying to figure out how much stuff I can haul. Here is a list of what stuff weighs per cubic foot. If you measure the bed of your truck and calculate how many cubic feet it takes to fill it and then use the list here to figure out how heavy it is.





Brick ... ... ... 125 lbs per cubic foot

Portland Cement 193

Coal ... ... ..... 94

Gravel ... ..... 109

Cast Iron ..... 447

Salt ... ... ..... 48

Sand ... ... ... . 100

Water ... ... ... . 62

Gold ... ... ... 1091 <-- this is what I haul

 

When I hook up my 5er loaded, I am just over the truck's GVWR, and the overload springs are still not touching.

 

WHOOPS!

Well, that was an interesting learning experience :-O



Based on those amounts (thanks Dave!) I had right around 6037lbs in there!!!!!!!!!! The helper springs were just making contact enough to be annoying going down the road (coming off bumpstops and hitting again). Engine didn't even think twice about it. Only difference (other than bumpstop clunks) was the trany shifted higher and more often (OD off). It's no wonder now that I was getting slack jaw stares from a couple dorF guys I passed in town. It was my hauling load stupidity coupled with the fact I passed them (BTW, two lane road before I get flamed)... .

Back end sag was just below centerline. I love this truck!!!



I didn't go more than 12 miles with it and then cleared out most of it down to about 1500lb now. Leveled off a low spot in the yard nicely though.





Brian

 

Revision on numbers

OK, made a mistake in figuring. Revised numbers:

6. 5*5. 5*1. 5*100= 5362. 5 lbs vice previous post.

Still alot... .



Brian

 

Check Weights

Hey Brian,



You can check out your weight for free at C&C Sand on Steel Dr. off of Fillmore. Been in there lots, weighing my rig with different combos. The scale readout is up on the side of their building, so you can easily see it when pulling on.



FYI my 3100 lb camper just barely has the rear of the helper spring touching it's pad.

 

Sregorb,



You've answered my question without realizing it. I need new shocks. Empty, mine will tag the overload pads going over speed bumps and with my current approximately 750 pounds of traction weight (in case of snow) they tag almost constantly.



Thanks for your inadvertent help.



Now I just have to convince my wife I need $250 for 4 shocks.



Wayne

 

Wayne

Wayne- No problem, glad to be of service Guess this helped two people at least.

BTW, wow if you're hitting bump stops on speed bumps you must have put some serious "work" into that worktruck. It took ALOT of weight to get mine to sink enough to just rest lightly on the stops. I'm just curious if the springs have to be addressed when you replace the shocks or if just the shocks are enough?



I remember seeing a good 'discount price' for shocks thread a short while back. Try a search because there was at least one "group buy" from some company (might've been for Rancho's or similar).

Somebody might chime in... ... .



Brian