I've been on the "disabled roster" lately after my fall, but I've found a way to keep busy. I'm having some of my laborers do mulching, painting, and all sorts of stuff at the house. I had to haul some top soil, and decided I would use my F-250 rather than having it deliverd. I needed to dump it in a spot that my truck would just barely get to, and I knew the dump truck couldn't reach (didn't want to waste the time to weelbarrow it).

When the guys at the yard saw my truck, they said I could haul a yard of soil (2,700 lbs) without a problem. And they were right! Turns out the guy loading got VERY generous, and gave me half a yard more than what I asked. It scared the bejeezus out of me knowing I had about 4000 lbs in the bed, but my baby performed great! The back end sat a little low, but the springs were in good shape, and the 12 mile drive went without a hitch. The truck drove like a Caddy, in fact!

Not bragging, but just surprised. Gotta' love the Super Duty trucks! I'm not saying I'll put 2 tons in it again, but it sure feels good knowing I could!

 

wow that answers some questions for me also. How full was the bed?

 

my neighbor and i are building a patio for another neighbor. so we decided to get the crushed stone mixed with gravel ourselfs. he has a early 90's F-150 and i have an 84 F-250. we go to the supplier and he get a cubic yard of the stone, his truck sinks to about 10" off the ground at the bumper. the backhoe puts the same amount in mine and the truck goes down till the helpers springs touch, then they put another yard or so into mine and the bumper still 15-18" off the ground. i had over 2 tons in it, and the boss of the supplier company was surprized my truck could handle that. the hard part was shoveling the stone out

 

42000 lbs was the most and biggest load that our sevice truck has ever grossed. The poor little super duty with a non turbo 7.3 had all it wanted. It was a little freaky driving it especially in town. Oh well I made it and I got a lot looks going down the highway with a 12 ton payloader on the back.

 

I picked up a yard & 1/2 of top soil today, the rear squatted a little but i have the hd front and rear springs on my f350....it drove nice and smooth..........d/ft

 

Well, it turns out I got around 1.75 yards -- more than I thought -- on that 1st trip. That's 4,700 lbs == just over 2 1/3 tons. Holy <bad word>! I went back for a second trip, and talked to the dozer guy who loaded it. Guess they wanted to see how much the truck could hold! The bed was full -- crowned in the center all the way up & down the bed (from the dozer's wide bucket loader), but also lower than the bed rails on the sides. Wish I had pictures. He loaded really slowly, and I got to watch the springs just barely touch the helpers. Kinda' cool to see.

Does anyone know how much a yard of kinda' wet hardwood mulch weighs? I had darned near 2.5 yards in the bed (that load had one helluva crown -- you bet the tarps came for that) and I'm wondering what it weighed? I could swear I wasn't driving a truck, but riding a cloud (My Edelbrock Performer IAS Shocks could have something to do with that ). The helper springs weren't even touching.

Man, am I glad I got the HD Springs, with the max GVWR (or is it GAWR? GAVWR? .) package. Some goodies that came with the camper certification package, too. They all got put to use!

 

When I was hauling 2 yards x 5 loads of decomposed granite, I figured I had about 4000#s in the bed each load. Then picked up 4200 lbs of rock on pallets (certified weight). I'll tell you with the new 19.5" wheels and 12 ply tires, air bags, and Rancho's, the bed only set down about 3"and the tires had no "bulging" at all (they're rated at over 4000 lbs). It drove great, mostly due to the low center of gravity of the load.

Now slowing down to a stop made the weight more apparent

All in all, you gotta know these trucks are rated REAL conservative.

 

A yard of soil weighs 2,700 lbs??

I hauled 2 scoops (i think a scoop is slightly less than a yard, a bobcat scoop) in my short bed & it didn't even really squat. It was a little harder to stop, though.

I guess it's really easy to overload!

 

Depending which size Bobcat, they usually have a 1/2 yard bucket.

 

I hauled a yard and a half of wet mulch in my 03SD and as Haroutd knows, we have some pretty decent sized inclines and decents in this area. My V10/6speed handled it no problem whatsoever. The truck did squat more than I expected however at no point did it touch the helper springs. Shoveling/raking out the bed was the worst...one thing i learned is wet mulch settles in transit to an almost concrete like block!

 

2700lbs is a little generous for 1yd of soil, I used to know the weights of this stuff cold, but it's been a few years. A lot depends on organic content vs. sand content and how wet the soil is.

If you work it out, 1 cu. yd is ~0.75 cu. meter. Limestone weighs 2710kgs/ m3, so a solid 1 cu yd block of limestone would weigh around 4450lbs. If it's crushed, that weight drops by 30-35% (porosity) to around 2850lbs/cu. yd. So you can guess that soil, being far less dense than limestone, would be a fair bit lighter.

Tree mulch is near weightless when dry, but it can have bit of weight to it if it's wet. (it's density is less than water remember, let alone rock)

A standard size Bobcat has a 1/2 yd bucket when levelled, about 3/4 yd if it's heaped with soil.

I'm certainly not trying to put down people's experiences, just thought I'd point out some numbers. I know from experience that the SD was unbeatable when it came to loading pick ups at the landscape center.

If you tried to put a yard of sand on a chebbie 1/2 ton the front wheels would come of the ground and the frame would bend.

Waxy

 

I used to work at a gravel pit and drove a monstar with a 2yd bucket.. anyway they would let lanscapers buy direct and id fill them up with gravel.. ive loaded them all, but this was years ago, the newer style trucks werent even born then.. anyway ive way overloaded many of trucks.. i dont really remeber witch did better than witch.. i just do remeber that the Fullsized pickups faired pretty well, BUT when you dumped a heaping load in the midsize pickups, there rear bumper would leave scraping the ground and there front end would be touching the ground with about a sq. inch of tire surface area... looked dangerous to me... ahhh. back in the day
..i had a honda accord.. dont tell anyone...

 

2,700 lbs for a yard of soil is what the guys at the yard told me. I figured they knew what their top soil weighs because they load their own trucks, landscapers, pickups, etc. and weight certification issues can be a real hassle here. I know a few guys with dump trucks who've experienced spot road-checks; it's not uncommon around here. Besides, then stuff was pretty wet -- the tarps I used had some descent condensation on them when we pulled them off.

 

I didn't mean to be argumentative. 2700lbs is not unreasonable at all if the soil is wet and or sandy.

12-14 yds usually put us at about 13,500 kgs (29,700 lbs) net weight depending on how wet the soil was. That works out to roughly 2150-2450 lbs/yd. The soil was screened and was highly organic, it was also damp, not wet, as a rule. Topsoil can vary A LOT in terms of composition and therefore weight. So I'm not disputing anyone's claims, merely trying to post what my own experience is.

We had to be right on with weights too, as the DOT was always on the look out.

Waxy

 

I've had additional leaf springs added to my truck, It's not uncommon for me to haul up to 7000lbs in the bed of my truck when I'm hauling pavers for a patio I'm working on. Oh she squats but the weight is never a problem. The brakes take a beating but thats the price of doing business I guess.