How much can I exceed the 3/4 ton payload capacity on my '86 F-250 4x4 without breaking the rear axle?

I'll be hauling firewood this summer and I might drive over to seattle to buy a '94 1 ton, since the price is right and it's a turbodiesel.

I've had 1.5 Chords of firewood on the back of a late 70s 3/4 ton ford before, didn't break anything!

Apparently a chord of wood weighs 3000-5000 lbs depending on the species, so i REALLY overloaded that old '77.

 

itll handle whatever the tires are rated for.

 

yep what the tires are rated for of if you have an aftermarket rims check them too!!

 

First lets make sure we are talking apples to apples. Here a cord, often called a bush cord, is 4' x 4', x 8' long. Works out to 128 cubic feet of wood. My dually with the flatbed dump is 7'x9', to get a full cord, I have to pile it in rows, and have it almost 4' high in the middle due to only having 18" high racks.

I love seeing the ads that say we can deliver a full 'cord' in a pickup truck though, again, do the math, a standard bed is 4' x8' in between the wheel wells, or 32 square feet. Let's add another 8 square feet for the area fore and aft of the wheel wells, for a total of 40 square feet. If the wood is piled (no air space) just over 3' high, for that entire area, you would be getting close to a cord. Box sides however are only about 2' high, so that means it has to be heaped up almost to the roof of the cab (or higher) to allow for the crown.

The common thought around here for Maple hardwood, in a semi dry state, is 40 pounds/cubic foot. That would work out to over 5000 pounds for 128 cubic feet of wood, however there is lots of air space in there. A number of years ago when my grandfather was selling wood out of his gravel pit, we weighed cords of wood on various occasions, and found that often we would be about 3800-4200 pounds. This was a 4' wide, 4' high, 8' long dump trailer, with the wood stacked in it, and slightly heaped in the middle.

Regardless, unless you are going to be hauling several cords/day, you can pretty much put whatever you can fit in and go without concern if your tires are decent.

 

I've had ~6k in my 86, 110 bundles of Architectural shingles.

See more ... Loaded up trucks

-Enjoy
fh : )_~

 

I assume your truck a diesel

which means that the rear axel is the same as an f350

don't sweat a load that feels safe after you get done tying it down

do make sure you have 80psi in the rear tired and that they are load range E in good shape

 

Well, the racks on my truck are level with the cab. I assumed that the bed was roughly 6' wide, the racks definitely are, so totally loaded to the top with stacked split wood, my rough figures were 6' wide x 8' long x 4' tall. That's 1.5 Chords.

Realistically, due to the wheel wells, it's a little less than this, but i can stack another layer above the top of the racks and secure it with a tarp to make a true 1.5.

But it's good to know that it will handle whatever the tires can handle.

Thanks
-Matt

 

Only if the axle is the original one - I know of at least one diesel '86 F250 that has a 10.25 semi-floater axle under it, I'm 100% sure it's a swap from a later gasser F250 cause of the VSS on top of it, but my buddy who owns the truck would never know it if I didn't point it out.

By the way wheels may be of more concern that the tires - case in point I have wheels that are good for up to 3400 lbs on factory wheels rated at 2500 lbs. Those are dually wheels tho, maybe the singles can carry more due to the lack of such a deep dish to them, but still it's worth checking up on.

 

Check your Rating Plate on your door post. 3/4 ton GVW 8.600#; 1 ton GVW 11,000#. John Law will! If it looks overloaded, you'll probably get stopped.

 

that is a good point there though, specialy if you plan on doing it a lot

 

I'm sure that they could push the issue if they wanted. But as long as you are not obviously, dangerously overloaded and not driving like an idiot, they'll look the other way.

I've seen a few light duty 250's with diesels that had semi floaters. But even then, I wouldn't worry about it unless you are planning on frequently hauling heavy loads.

Jason

 

Just a note, those ratings can vary depending on the truck, not all F350's are 11,000# for example. If you're in an area that you need to watch your loaded weights, make sure you check what your truck is rated at!

 

what kind of wood is it, and is it green or seasoned?
im not a believer about the 5 pack stock springs being able to handle whatever the tires can.it's simply not enough springs.

 

the GVW is 8600 lbs? Really?

I weighed the truck empty with three passengers and it weighed in at 7060. Subtract their weight and i suppose that's about 6760. So that's almost a ton that i can throw on the back. That doesn't really cover a chord of wood, though.

 

Tires are E rated at 3025lbs. That seems like plenty if i assume that the entire load rests on those two tires alone, which isn't the case.