I think nothing about loading a yard of 21AA gravel in my F-250 done it for years, but I know it's some what hard on it. One day I asked the counter guy at the Landscape supply how much does a yard weigh and he said 3000lbs which is a ton and a half?? 3/4 ton 1500lbs?? I do have a 4inch lift with an extra leif.Am I thinking this correctly or taking a chance on busting something?

 

IMO, it's too late to be concerned.

 

For your year model the 250 and 350 are the exact same truck with a different emblem on them. For example, my truck(same year as yours) has a gvwr of 8800 lbs and weighs 5600 lbs, for a payload of 3200 lbs. It is the exact same truck as the 350 that comes with a 9900 lb gvwr, which would be 4300 lbs of payload. You are well within what is safe for your truck. 3/4 ton is an outdated term for a 250. It started back in the "old days" when a 3/4 ton truck was called that because that was how much weight it could haul.

 

Fords are tough.
I had 1100 Lb of sand blasting media in a 1988 Ranger. Tank about over-load.
Talk about a bit of a fun drive. I just drove it a bit slower.
Did not break anything.


Sean

 

A yard of gravel weighs around 3000 - 3500 lbs. It depends on how damp it is. A ton is 2000 lbs to 2,200 lbs depending on where you are. The payload on a typical "half ton" F150 type truck ranges from around 1300 lbs to 3000 lbs depending on your options, a F250 is about the same at the top end. My F250 has a payload of 2800 lbs, but it is 4wd and diesel. Trucks haven't been half ton., three quarter ton and one ton in terms of actual capacity since the 1950's... You were probably overloaded a bit, but not much.

Edit: of interest to me is that I bought three loads of gravel to top dress my driveway, 11 yards per load, and it was 3/4" minus which is even heavier than straight crushed stone. I figure 33 yards was around 115,000 lbs of gravel, which I had to spread with my tiny 25 hp tractor... Took a long time... I also have an interest in firewood. I got seven cords of split maple for this winter's heating, at a similar 3000 - 3500 lbs per cord I carried and stacked around 24,000 lbs of firewood... Sore hands!

Brian

 

X2. My dad has an 05 ranger and when we took a family vacation this year we drove it around with 1900 lbs of people in it plus our coolers, chairs, clothes, etc, and it handled it just fine.

 

is that legal? no seat belt laws or child seat laws?

 

Even worse they could have been smoking!!

Lock 'em up.

 

Where we were driving around at it was legal as long as we weren't on state highways or interstates. I only had my 3 year old in the back for the picture. One of my older daughters(not pictured) took her place before we hit the road and the toddler sat up front with me and my wife.

 

as a kid i used to love riding in the back of trucks, with or without toppers on them , even in travel trailers being towed, was good, but im not sure if thats still legal with all the seatbelt and kid seat laws now. i loved laying on the back seat of the car too.

 

Not to get off topic too much, but things are done a lot differently here than most parts of the country, as I am sure they are in your area too. It's nothing to see a 12-13 year old kid driving down the road pulling a trailer, driving a tractor or other things to help with the farm. We have 1,800 people that live in our town, everybody knows everybody and everybody watches out for everybody too. As long as you aren't doing something stupid, no one cares. I follow the laws pertaining to car seats and booster seats 100%, but I don't think twice about letting my 3 year old(almost 2 in the picture below)drive all over the neighborhood(private drives, so no laws there) or our farm. She knows which key to use, how to start it, put it in gear and steer :-)

 

I checked to make sure it was legal before I put them back there, as it varies from state to state. In Tennessee I think that it is 12 years old or older can ride in the back of a truck on any highway with no supervision and below 12 is only legal on non state or interstate highways. I haven't checked in a while, so I may be off a year or two. Some states it's 18, others 16-17 have to have an adult, etc. What's kind of funny is that one of my kids is required to be in a booster seat and in the back seat if she rides inside of the car, but is legal to ride in the back of my truck on any non state or interstate highway.

Edit-checked the law.
Tennessee Code Annotated 55-9-189— children over age 12 can ride in a truck bed on state highways, and children older than six can ride in truck beds in city limits. In each case, the truck’s weight must be 1,500 pounds or more. Both state and local laws make exceptions for younger children when those children are participating in a parade or are doing some sort of agricultural work. State law also makes an exception when the truck is traveling at a speed below 20 mph.

 

Thanks all, just curious to know if I was pushing it too far!! Like I said been doing it for years but when you start looking at the numbers it made me wonder.

 

Sheesh 3400 pounds is nothing for these trucks today. The heaviest loads I had in my F250 were approximately a yard of sand which ran around 3000 pounds and a yard(approx) of 3/4 gravel at 3200ish pounds. Was I over weight? Most likely. Did I drive like a maniac to get my load to its final destination? No. Should have the payload sticker been followed? Probably.

In my old F150, I got up to 2600 pounds once. The truck had no problem handling the load plus it had only 900 pounds of reserve! This was according to the scale weights empty and the door jamb sticker. It was technically under a 1/2 ton! LOL My dad's Ranger had literally a ton of stone in it a number of times. This truck is of 1990 vintage!

When I was a kid, I remember when my parents bought this Ranger. There was a campground in which we had a seasonal site. My dad would drive use all around the campground and the adjoining fields at the place in the back of the pick up. We would go to the upper meadow in the back and watch the sun set on the weekends. Since he added a roll bar in the back, we would drive around at night with off road lights on spotting the deer in the lower meadow. From then on I knew I was a pick up truck guy. I just would not own an official pick up owner until later in life.

 

the law is here to protect us they say, seems like we can do less and less as time ticks by because its labeled as dangerous. i for one like seatbelts. but dont like airbags or booster seats. although i would always keep my kids in baby seats. i try to be a good sheep and follow what the sheepherder tells me to do most the time.