I recently bought a 1999 F-150 4.2L 2-wheel drive, long box, regular cab, 5-lugs-on-the-wheels pickup.

I plan to do some hauling of freight next week, and wonder if I can get away with loading 1,500 pounds into the box? The "safety compliance label" on the driver side door pillar says: GVWR 5600 lb/ 2540 kg, Front GAWR 2800 lb/ 1270 kg, Rear GAWR 2900 lb/ 1315 kg. The tires are P235/70R and are to be at 32 psi (cold) inflation for the weight ratings.

Going to ConsumerGuide.com and looking under this pickup for that year, I read that its curb weight is 4,339 lbs. If I do the subtraction, 5,600 lbs - 4,339 lbs, I get 1,261 lbs for the allowable load. But on the same site, I read that the standard payload for the pickup is 1,780 lbs.

The difference between the loads is 1,780 lbs - 1,261 lbs = 519 lbs.

Maybe the standard payload assumes a full tank of gasoline and a driver. To see if this makes sense, I guessed the weight of a full tank of 30 gallons of gasoline would be about 186 lbs, assuming 6.216 lbs per gallon of gasoline.

519 lbs - 186 lbs = 333 lbs.

Maybe this final weight of 333 lbs is meant to be the average weight of a driver and one passenger. If that is so, the average weight of one person would be about 166 lbs, and that seems reasonable to me, although looking around the shopping malls, maybe the 333 is more likely these days!

If all this is true, then the conservative safe weight to be loaded into the pickup box seems to be 1,261 lbs, so I'd say a load of 1,500 lbs isn't too much to haul as long as I don't make a habit of it, assuming that the suspension and the axles and the wheel bearings are in good shape.

Am I doing these numbers correctly? Would be very grateful for any comments. (I understand that it would be best to get the actual curb weight of my pickup by going to a truck scale and paying a fee.)

 

You need to put the truck on a scale and find its actual curb weight. then subtract that from GVWR. Those tires are the issue Ford did not use P tires on trucks only LT so someone cheaped out and put passenger car tires on a light truck.

 

The "safety compliance label" sticker on the driver's side pillar has this for the tires used to rate the load:

"P235/70R or 16SL tires 32 psi or 221 kPa cold"

 

1500 will be fine as long as you aren't going to be going a long distance at a high speed, with the smaller rear and small engine it will be a bit hard on the truck but won't kill it.

 

ford did use p-rated tires back in the 90's. I purchased a 97 new off of a dealer lot that had p235/16 tires on it, my 99, I ordered with the most expensive all-terrain tires and got LT tires in a D rating. My 2002 has P265/70/17 tires and it is a lariet model SuperCrew

 

Sounds like way to much thinking for me. If the tires aren't rubbing, turn off the O/D and go. :P

 

Yes, it is overkill on the cargo worrying, I'm sure. It is a far cry from the time I loaded my poor old 1958 Ford 292 cu in V-8 Tudor in New York with everything I owned and drove to Omaha. I think I bent the springs. I know the car rode very low ever after. Also a million miles from the time I put a big U-Haul trailer on the back of a 1977 VW bus and drove from Omaha to North Dakota. I think the front tires barely touched pavement. It must be old age and reluctance to take a chance that has affected me lately!

 

I hauled the cargo about 500 miles, including letting it sit in the bed overnight, and see no ill effects.

Today I went to a truck scale and had the truck weighed. The front axle weighed 2,380 lbs and the rear 1,680 lbs with no load and no passengers, but nearly out of gas. So the total weight of the truck was close to 4,060 lbs. A short time later I filled the tank with gas and it took about 23 gallons, so there may have been about 7 gallons (weighing a total of about 44 lbs) in the tank when the truck was weighed.

If I add the weight of 23 gallons of gas, or about 143 lbs to the 4,060 lbs, I get 4,203 lbs for curb weight, which isn't too far from the 4,339 lbs given by ConsumerGuide.com.

 

Twice, with my '03 F150(4x4, 4.2, auto) I hauled a pallet of wood pellets. total weight was 2,000 lbs in the bed, with 400 lbs of me and my dad...total weight of nearly 2500 lbs, and the truck handled it great.

No real issue with power, although I never went on the highway. Hell, empty that truck didn't have enough power on the highway....

By the way...my new '07 Screw weighs nearly 6,000 lbs...and it came with P255/70R17s

 

On the drive back here with the load, I decided not to fill the fuel tank completely, but only bought 5 gallons at a time to keep the weight to a minimum. Following advice on this thread, I also took her out of overdrive once or twice when going up a hill. Luckily, going across Minnesota and eastern North Dakota, there are very few hills on Interstate Highway 94!