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I may have carried too much in my pickup yesterday, a full yard of wet soil for about a 10 mile drive home. The bed wasn't rubbing the tires, but there wasn't much clearance! Once I got the truck unloaded, it seemed to be OK but I can't shake the thought that the bed seems to be riding a little lower now. I have not had the truck for very long so I can't remember what it looked like before
I plan to crawl under the truck today to check things out. Any thoughts on what I should be looking for to see if I caused any damage? Or am I just being paranoid?
Here's my truck now. It's a 1993. Runs really well and I just got it painted.
The truck seems level, but I could have sworn the bed was riding higher before.
Here's my truck at the yard, just before it got loaded with a yard of wet dirt.
I used to know how many #2 spade shovels full it took
to get a yard. Maybe like 285 or so. That isn't very much
and I doubt it would cause any damage. Unless something
was already wrong.
I would check leaf springs, shackles, shock absorbers, mounts for shock absorbers, and spring hangers. I doubt you broke anything however wouldn't hurt to take a look make sure nothing looks out of the ordinary and such. Those are the only parts I can think of that would cause it to ride lower.
Try jacking the truck up. I know on my 88 F150 when I got it looked extremely low and after I jacked it up (tires completely off the ground) it looked like it raised itself a little bit like something was sticking.
I have hauled that much dirt wet, cinders, red bricks, and who knows what else in our 86 F150 we use to have a few times and never broke any suspension parts just wore out the truck fairly fast. Suspension was the only thing that didn't need rebuilt on it when I got rid of it.
Trav
According to my "Pocket Ref" by Glover, "earth" weighs 125 pounds per cubic foot. A cubic yard is 27 cubic feet, so a yard of "earth" would weigh 3375 pounds! One step further, if you accept those figures, a cubic yard would be about 84 bags.
This from Google. Yes if a ton is 2000# than you had over a ton and a half
on board. That's a bunch for a half ton. But it's a Ford so It can handle it
just fine. But I would not make a habit of it. Try a half yard next time or
borrow the FIL's truck. As long as it aint a Chevy.
LOL! Sort of reminds me of a story a very close friend told me once. He had an early 60s F100 2 wheel drive, 300 I6. His kids wanted a sand box. He went to buy some and the guy in the large loader gave him, I can't remember how many yard bucket it was, but he put the whole load in the back of my friend's truck. He said it was so over loaded that when he let the clutch out, no matter how easy he let it out, the front end came off the ground. He said that there were a couple of places where he was on a hill and he road a ***** through the intersection. He might have embellished a tad, but still a funny story. After that he ran the truck until he sold it to a friend. Then bought it back and gave it to his son in law. From what I know, it is still on the road.
shackle mounts!!!!! they rote out on these truck had to replace both of mine is sucks but they look fine sometimes but they could be scerwed so look closely.
Take a good look at the spring eyes. I'd say it's probably fine, but a yard of wet dirt is WAY over what an F150 can handle. I'm surprised the yard let you get that much.
