I have a 2005 with an f-350 style overleaf kit. so for all practical purpose, chasis and suspension is closer to f-350 than it is f-250.

but the weight carrying of the bed is in question.

need to haul 100 bags of 50 lb cement about 20 miles. trying to decide on breaking up the load into single pallet loads of a given weigth (pick a number) or renting a trailer.

the pallet option introduces the question as to how much weight can really be supported by the actual truck bed in a pallet foot print. looking underneath and we have those tubular cross bracing...and not to many of them.

40 bags would hit 2000lbs in a pallet foot print which is about 3ft by 3ft.

I once hauled 3280 lbs of 12ft sheet rock on a 4X8 trailer I had converted to double axle and both axles had a combines weight of 3400lbs. the trailer handled that just fine. So the option of renting a trailer is still a possibility.

bringing this up after hearing a few stories of folks hauling reasonable loads and had some resulting permanent bending or dropping of parts of their rear end.

I guess you have to consider if you have a 9 year old truck like my 2005....will it haul the same as a new 2005 truck?

I could probally dropp some planks lenth wise if we think that might help transfer some of the pallet weight to a larger area of the bed floor

so has anyone hauled pallets of cement and their beds survived the adventure with out damage.

I already have a bowed tail gate from hauling a 800 pound motor cycle so I'm not a real believer of our trucks super duty status.

 

I would go easy with springs and no bags or timbrens...I would go by the door sticker anyway..for gross weight. You don't want the front end up in the air. Really steers weird.

 

I think the issue would be compounded by the short bed also. Long bed truck doesn't have the same front end lifting effect as short box IMO. Be safe with your decision though and stay within the rating of the truck. 20 miles isn't that far to make 2 trips.

 

One pallet at a time is what I would do.

 

gross weight is more about weight to the wheels and axles....I want to know what our beds can hold per square foot. so looking for input from folks that have hauled bricks, cinder blocks, sand bags, etc.


the overload leafs claim 2500lbs of load leveling....what ever that means....I do know with my 8.5X18 toy hauler, my dipping tounge problems was solved once I added these leafs. My toy hauler has all my tools (6ft high by 8ft wide tool box) all in the front.

so I don't think the nose will be up or tail down. my questions is more about the strength of the bed and the floor compressibility with what looks like 200lbs per square feet if I just haul 40 bags at a time which would put me at 2000lbs.

30 bags would put me at 1500lbs and about 150lbs per square feet.


and again, a DIY tamdem axle 4X8 using two harbor freight 300 dollar utility trailers hauled 40 sheets of 12ft sheet rock (3200lbs) with no problems....so I need to understand more about what looks like Superduty truckbed loads in the area of 1500lbs

 

I routinely hauled over 3K in my 06. Same with the 08 I had and now with my 13 I have had even more.

All the same beds btw.

 

I put 2000 lbs of wood pellets (40 50lb bags) in mine and drive it around until I get unloaded and have a heavy canopy on there as well. Never had it on a pallet though always just stacked thrown in there. I would do the pallet thing but have always had a canopy on for whatever reason. I know that isn't 5000#'s but I definitely would have but an extra 500 in there without hesitation. I've got a 250 w/o any helpers and honestly the truck didn't squat much.

 

I haul a pallet of concrete in mine about once a week. 3360 lbs. My truck has about 2 inches of rake and with the pallet it sits down about 4 inches.

 

I hauled two pallets of brick pavers in mine with no issues and the total weight was around 5,500 lbs. I have also had over 5,000 lbs of wood in the bed on many ococcasions with no problems either. That was on a long bed though, but as far as bed damage it was fine.

 

I have also hauled 2 pallets of pavers. I believe to total between the 2 pallets was 3500-3700lbs. I incurred no damage on my bed, though the weight was spread between those two pallets. I also have the F-350 overloads on my 2005 F-250 5.4.

 

I did a pallets of paver bricks in mine. 532 bricks X 6 pounds each was roughly 3200 pounds. The suspension was not an issue, but you could seriously the weight when you tried to stop. 5000 pounds will be even worse, so be careful.

 

If all your cross braces are still reasonably solid I would think you can easily split it in to two pallets of 2500 each with no issues. Probably could do both at the same time but since your concerned I would just split them into two trips.

 

so based on all the input...I'm going to go with a single pallet load of 2500 at a time.

2500 would put me at 50 bags which is 4 bags over needed to get a volume price discount.

Thanks for the input

 

mission accomplished.

wound up with two trips each of one 56 (about 2800lbs) bag stacked pallet. The overload springs earned their keep and the 275/70 18's finally got a good load test.

we prep the bed with 3/4 ply and laid three 2X4s length wise so that the fork lift fork blades would not get stuck.

the truck dropped but did not come any where near bottoming out at all.

the ride of 20 miles was pretty smooth with the back end having plenty of leaf flex left and vertical travel room.

the bed was fine and did not pond, underneath no signs of compression of those square cross braces. No changes to any of the spacing of the tail gail doors, and fitment of my oversize truck cap.

I would not recommend this be done on an unmodified f-250. I add a set of overload leafs that claimed to add 1500lbs of load leveling. The set comes with a main full length leaf, and has an added 3/4 lenth leaf. looks a lot like an f-350 overleaf except it uses u clamps instead of the chasis bumper.

I'll probally add another single leaf, since I will have a few more occasions to need to be able to transport a pallet of cement. Probally 6 pallets before the end of the summer.

Someone asked why not just get it delivered...and infact Homedepot has free delivery if you spend 499. Problem is if you on line order, I can't use my military discount or don't get the contractor discount for bulk purchases. So the 20 mile drive cost me some time, gas, and tolls, but saved me 300 dollars.

I also need to be able to leave it in my bed since I have a large truck cap. With delivery, it gets dropped in the drive way and theres no cover there.

 

Get a set of timbrens and never worry about weight again...