I am driving my 87 F150 -longbed- from Prescott, AZ to the Texas hill country with a load of volcanic rocks in the bed (a few hundred cantelope -sized rocks, no idea how much weight that is).

Question: What is the best way to distribute the weight? Right now they are in large plastic bins. My husband thinks I should drive with the weight over the back wheels and I wonder if I should spread them out evenly in the whole bed. We have to load some other camping gear on top and some firewood, too. But the rocks are the heaviest thing, of course.

Thanks!!

 

you are brave... do you know if you have four or five leaf springs? I have four leaf and put a yard and a half of wet sand in the bed, drove about two miles, and broke both springs... I would say to put the rocks in the front, away from the axle, and put the lighter stuff over the axle, but i'm not sure, you may just end up stressing the front springs too much. Either way, your gas milage is probably going to suck pretty bad with all the extra weight... someone else may have a better idea than me though

 

i already drove about two hours with this load and mileage was okay/normal. i will find out about springs.

 

i know the five leaf are stronger, mine were well worn. I bought the truck for five hundred off of the guy I used to work for doing concrete construction. Its been loaded up pretty heavy a few times. we used to put wet concrete in the bed for side jobs on the weekend, about half way up the bed on the inside... i know that can't be light, I hope everything works out for you

 

yeah i think concrete would be heavier...for now i will unload the rocks. not leaving until saturday, no sense in stressing them all week. thanks a lot. take care.

 

I would weigh the truck before you unload the rocks, then again empty and you will know how much the rocks weigh. I know you have other stuff besides the rocks you will be hauling but you'll get a better idea what the total load will weigh.

 

I'm with your husband--'er, let me rephrase that:

I would put the heaviest weight over the rear axle. BUT, make sure that there's stuff in front of it that can bear the weight of the rocks, as they try to move forward, under hard braking (which you should avoid anyway). Otherwise, if you put something delicate ahead of the rocks, they could crush it against the back of the cab, under braking.

Provided you can put something strong and undamagable in front of the rocks (firewood?) I would keep the rocks as close to the rear axle as possible.

 

I would drive the truck to the nearest scale with the rocks in it and find out how much it weighs. Then compare that to the GVW of the truck on the driver's side door jamb. If it is over the GVW do not make a long trip with that much weight. If it is under, get an idea of how much more weight will be going into the truck and don't overload it. I have driven overloaded trucks a bit (every load in my Peterbilt 379 during harvest) and trucks don't drive good when overloaded, making them unsafe, plus it does not treat them kindly.

You might want to consider renting a Uhaul trailer to put some of the stuff in.