i wanted to know your thoughts. I want to pull a gooseneck flat bed pulling about 12000lbs. I have an 88 F150 with a 5 speed manual and a 5.0L engine. I will be hauling round hay bales so it's up there pretty high. is this a good or bad idea

 

Bad idea, you should have a 1 ton pickup to pull a 12k load.

 

Not even close.

 

I've pulled that much with a 1/2 ton before, not pretty though. If you don't run too much tonque weight and add some serious overload springs and lower gears it might be ok. Check and see if you have the mazda tranny too, if so that will have to go, it will pop for sure. The 1/2 ton suspension is the scarry part, with a big load it sways around and you feel along for the ride, not in control.

 

Mazda Tranny?? They have Mazda tranny's in some of these???

 

Yeah the 5sp can be a mazda tranny from what I've heard on here.

 

The 5 speed manual tranny is a Mazda, commonly refered to as the M5OD.

12,000lbs it waaaay too much for a half ton. I'd think towing 12,000lbs alone would take a diesel. Your brakes, shocks, leafs, would all be insufficient for this. Also the weight of the load would be close to 2.5 times the weight of your truck. You'd need something a bit more heavy duty than a 302 also.

 

I've done it before with a 1/2 ton suburban, but like I said not good. That much weight I'd agree you need a diesel or 460 5sp F250 or even F350. If your just going to hook up and and putt around the farm in low it might be ok, but any road use at speed will be ugly. I don't tow much only once a month max, and then usually no more than 4,000lbs. I got a 1994 F150 5.0 Supercab and I'm just planning a brake controller and rear overload springs, should be good to go. Also I talked to the dealer about the mazda tranny he said some are mazda some are ford trannys.

 

Its not the power that is the problem its the brakes..

theres no way in hell you should pull 12k with a 1/2 pickup. Its extremely dangerous when you need to stop unless you give yourself an extreme amount of stopping space or drive at a low speed.

We all know stuff happens on the road and you need to stop short. 3/4 ton and 1 ton trucks have much larger brakes to handle the extra load. Even with good trailer brakes it still too much for light f-150 brakes.

 

I think pretty much any F-150 that has a 5-speed manual is a Mazda, M5OD.

 

I think you said you were going to haul hay. The nice thing about hay is the weight is adjustable in 60lb increments. If you need to haul hay on a regular basis, haul 1/4 that amount and you should be ok.

If this is a one-time thing, the ticket you'd get would (should!) cost much more than a hay delivery fee. That's assuming the truck doesn't die before that. Pulling 4x the legal weight on a 1/2t pickup should attract a lot of attention, and rightly so. If I saw someone doing it, I'd be on my phone calling the state police. I'm sure nearly every trucker or pickup owner would do the same thing. It's that grossly overweight and unsafe for the others on the road.

Dave

 

he said round bale hay, and those bales are in excess of 1 ton in weight.

 

12,000 lbs in that truck AINT HAPPENIN'.

I've had one almost exactly like that truck, pulling 5000lbs. That was enough for me to be pulling, nevermind 12,000.

Based on whatever experience I have, I wouldn't pull 12,000lbs with nothing other than a dually diesel.

Not to mention the fact that if an accident occured or you were stopped, you would not be anywhere near legal. You would not be insured by the insurance company if an accident happened. They'd refuse to insure you for breaking the law.

I wouldn't pull nearly that much weight, and I have much beefier trucks.

 

Round bales made by an Allis Chalmers vary in weight...could be 30, could be 60 or more. We'd pick up 1000 of these per day and stuff them into the barn. Stacking outside we could do a few more. Crew of 3 or 4. Those were the days.

 

wow those are small. the round bales we used to do were 5-6 ft in diameter, and between 1900lbs and 2700lbs