Whats the most weight you have hauled in the bed of your 97-03 F-150. I recently put 2000lbs sand in it and had it squat about 5 inches. Pleanty of room for more sand.. maybe 500-600 lbs... But i have 900lb add a leafs. Im trying to get a rough estimate how much i can throw back there with out breaking things.

 

You are already pushing a serious limit. Static you may have another 500lbs, but down the road is a bit different. The rear end would likely be the next weak link. To see what I mean take a look at the itty bitty outer bearings in that rear end. Have a parts store and set one on the counter along side an F250 bearing(twice the size and two per wheel). A blown bearing quickly followed by an axle exit will be the next indicator since truck sag has been reduced. Brakes, Frame etc... If you plan to haul those kinda loads, you really should step up to a 250. I have air bags and have shamefully loaded mine down. After pulling axles and seeing the bearings on an f150 again, I am very cautious when it is (over)loaded.

Sorry to be harse, but F150s are not heavy haulers and when it breaks it will be ugly.

 

Yup im aware of all of those things... Im more looking for stories right now... Im not to worried about the truck itself... I keep up on it pretty well... but thanks for the concern

 

I'd agree with an 8.8 rear 2K is about the limit. I've had a little more than a ton on a few times but do not do it often and try not to go over 60mph, plus I have a 9.75 rear.

 

1200 of weight from the 5er on a regular basis + about 300# of other gear.

 

1.5 metric ton (about 3500#) gravel . Only took about 3-4 miles

Rob

 

i got about 2 tons of bricks in the back of mine a few weekends back but im not sure what mods have been made to the backend. it used to be a company welding truck and from what i hear they put quite a bit of money in it. its got 3 extra leafs but thats all i know with out tearin stuff apart.

 

Not sure how much weight it was, but I once loaded the bed of my truck as full as I could with oak. The rear bumper was only about 6" off the ground.
On average, if you put 1500-2000 pounds in the beds of these trucks you are at or beyond the limit of what they are rated for. These things are only little 1/2 ton trucks, if you plan on doing lots of heavy hauling you would be a lot better of with a Super Duty.

 

To be clear, its not a maintenance concern, But a limit of the design. How it is driven loaded is significant to your question. Since you asked for experiences. The most I have loaded was just shy of the stops with 1000lb air bags over aired by 25%. I didn't dare go hwy speeds and it was about 15 miles. And several trips for a couple hundred miles with 1800 to 2000 in the bed. Usually 4 adults as well. Any more weight and it did not like to behave at 65-75.

You might add a little oil (1/2 gal) to the rear if planning to do it often. The extra oil will cool it by a measured 25 degrees or more. I do have a temp gauge in mine.

 

Okay im sorry for my original post...im not worried about safety..... i know with my truck what im getting into... let me re ask the question...

How much have you hauled... if you think its alot lets hear it...

Im sorry for the confusion....didn't mean it so literally..

 

one time i put an entire fence in the back, went to the hardware store and got enough wood for a 100 foot fence 8 feet high, all the vertical slats, horizontal supports and support poles, put everything in the back of the truck, it was maxed out, all the wood barely fit in the truck, it was piled considerably higher than the bed rails, it was real, real stupid, but, i got all the way home, went about 45 max all streets no freeway, and unloaded and never had a problem, back suspension was resting on the bumpstops, this was in a 2000 150 short bed, standard cab, manual, 4.2L V6 btw , shifted like a dream with that much wieght though, never even got a wiff of burning clutch either, scraped the back on the way home several times, but it had a hitch under it so it was ok, prolly shouldnt do that, im sure its not good for anything, i should have taken pictures, it looked like one of those trucks where somebody puts hydraulics on it and sets the back down on the ground and leaves the front normal, ah man that was quite a task! but my ford stood up quite well! specially for a bottom of the line bone stock work truck! but i would not recomend to anyone else to do that, it was dumb and dangerous, and if a cop saw me i most definetly would have gotten a ticket for over loading, i was young and dumb, well, younger ...

 

'97 F-150 SC with a v6 manual, 2wd..... I think the heaviest would be carrying 1200lbs in the bed while towing 3500lbs in a trailer. I also had 3 people in the vehical.

The truck was sagging a lot and had to be VERY carefull not to scrape the hitch. We only drove it a short distance and at VERY slow speeds. Truck handled it fine.

Truck only, i've had one yard of sand in the back or 1.5 yard of topsoil. It handles it quite well. I'm not sure how much weight it is tho.

 

off road 4x4 short bed 01 SCAB. 1200 lbs on several occasions - taking junk to the scrap yard. They have a scale. Most I ever had was wet soil up to the bed rails. I was really close to the stops. Had to be close to 2000 lbs.

 

I put a pallet of sod (3,000 lbs) in the bed of my truck and pulled a trailer with another pallet of sod in it all at the same time. Didn't burn the clutch up, but it was slow going. Did have a very some ride with all that weight.

 

I put as many bags of concrete that the box would hold without **** falling out and man was that heavy!! The frame was resting completely on the bumpstops and she bottomed out a few times....and i ended up splitting the u-joint on the driveshaft...nothing else broke but that....go figure! Awful scary when i got her up around sixty kilometers, she was drifting everywhere and the brakes would burn up real bad on a downhill....lol...ah, i love my truck.