I was talking to my dad Last night about my truck and about how I have been hauling a bunch of wood lately to sell. ill usually stack a cord off fire wood on it at a time (usually wet) and I'm guessing it has to weigh around 2000 pounds. I also do some pretty hard wheeling with it and I have jumped it in our a couple times and got about 2 feet of air under it. my dad told me I need to closely inspect the hole front of the frame for cracks because he said there known to crack somewhat easily, the truck is a 1988 f150 has a 2 inch leveling kit and a 2 inch body lift wit 33 inch BFGoodrich all terrains 4 speed and 300 six. he told me this because out friend has almost the same truck but his is a 95 with a 6 inch suspension lift and 35s and my dad has had to do a lot of welding and adding more brackets and gussets from add stress of the suspension lift. has anybody herd of this or had this happen to them with the twin traction beam front end? any and all info is extremely appreciated!

 

yes they do seem to like to crack, remember this is a 20 some year old frame. also if you had a full cord in the back (a full cord is 4x8x4 going height length width) and it is wet, you would have more like 3000 to 4000 pounds, dont believe me type in google how much does wood weigh, i did and lets just say i was glad i have a 6000 pound axle and other similar beefy parts on my 5.5 by 8 trailer, so it is more than you think, also the jumping doesnt help anything either so it is very likely that you could crack something.

 

@blue924.9 I totally believe you about how much the wood weighs! I personaly wish had a trailer that I had a tandem axel trailer that I could haul with instead of putting so much stress on my truck on my tuck. I have 8 ply tires on my truck and they were buldging pretty good also.

 

I've overloaded my truck before many times. Filled the bed up with snow, heaped over the rails, wet heavy snow. I've checked on a scale, truck empty was 5240lbs, full of snow I saw ~7000 lbs. Done that in the cities (MN) in my teens and up in the CO backcountry in 2007'-09' a few times (had to wheel some as well).

I've also driven from Minneapolis to SW Colorado with the truck just under an inch off the bump stops. Last winter I had to replace my axle shafts and axle bearings, they didn't fail but the bearing surfaces were galled TOO MUCH WEIGHT!....No frame cracks I've seen...

I've hauled wood short distances, full of logs cut to length for splitting, but that was under a mile. I think it sat on the bump stops, never exceeded 10mph and was on private land the whole time. I've heard of these 8.8" axles snapping the housing with too much weight & a wooped out highway.

I don't think you're going to hurt the front end of the truck hauling lots in the bed as much as you will if you're jumping the truck. I wouldn't jump, but its your rig.

For me, lesson learned, leave that super heavy stuff for the 3/4 & one tons for everyone's safety.

 

Couple of guys over at FSB have had issues with the frame cracking around the spring towers due to there huge lifts and 35"+ tires. But those are the guys that BEAT on their trucks.

 

I've seen the front axles crack from the weight of a snowplow and the abuse that inflicts.

Plows are very hard on trucks.

I have also broke leaf springs from overloading them repeatedly. I recommend obviously check the whole frame, axles and spring for stress cracks. Put overloads on the rear if you plan to load it over it's normal rating. Timbren makes some that are cheap and easy to install.

 

The only time I've seen the frame split from the TTB is having large tires, big lifts, snowplows, and jumping the truck like a fool.