Hello, my first post.

I am actually a chevy guy when it comes to tinkering (don't hate me, was my upbringing), but it seems when I get a truck for my business (making headstones and digging graves) it always seems to be a ford F series which I know very little about. My fleet currently consists of a '78 F250 4wd dump with plow 88k miles (for sale), an '81 F350 dually flatbed 2wd with liftgate and crane 120k miles about to get it's 3rd motor, , '84 F350 2wd dually with 140k miles (also for sale), an '86 F250 4wd puckup with dump conversion, and lastly my newest aquired '86 F350 4wd dually dump. So I am no stranger to ford trucks, just never tinkered with them.

Anyway with that aside I am hoping I found a place to get some good ford truck info so I can work on these myself.

My question today is about the '86 F350 4wd dually. It's got a 460 and a nice steel pto dump. The door sticker says GVWR 11k lbs. I am curious about the towing capacity on this truck. It's got a large 3/8" steel plate on the back between the frame rails with a 2" receiver. Currently I haul my 6k lb backhoe on a 16' + 2' dovetail trailer rated at 10k lbs. I'm planning on ditching the tractor style hoe and loader in favor of a 8k lb mini excavator and the 4k lb skid steer loader I just picked up. I would like to haul both machines on a larger trailer. I'm thinking a 20' or 22' 14k lb trailer could possibly do it since the mini and skid steer together would come in at around 12klbs leaving 2k lbs for the trailer weight. My question is do I have enough truck to do this or will I be stuck hauling 1 piece of equipment at a time? I have no problem ditching the 2" receiver for a pintle.

 

You will probably have to go to a pintle hitch if you buy a trailer rated high enough to carry both pieces of equipment. They recommend you go to a pintle type hitch for anything over 10,000.

If you go by this guideline for the newer trucks https://www.fleet.ford.com/showroom/...er_weights.pdf they do not recommend putting that much weight BEHIND an Fseries, though when you move the weight over the wheels with a fifth wheel, apparently you can get by with it.

 

is a 5th wheel feasable on a dump truck?

 

I wouldn't think so . I think your truck is going to be borderline carrying all that. I worry more about braking than it actually pulling it.

 

i used to pull 11 1400-1500LB hay bales with an F250 diesel on a 24ft gooseneck on soft backroads. yes your truck CAN pull it. just legally... you'd have to check.

 

I must say I'd also be more worried about stopping all that weight safely like aforementioned

 

Yeah, though the trailer axles should have suffecient braking but I think running that close to the limit would cause uneeded wear and tear on the rest of the truck. Oh well it was an idea.

I got the truck at the garage fixing a few things and getting inspected so I can start using it. This is my first true big block and wow that torque is so yummy, the hollow was echoing the big block through the glasspacks (I prefer flowmaster 40s personally). Every time I goosed it my grin got bigger, and the needle got closer to E.