Our 10500 GVWR 7.3 F250's door sticker capacity is 3482#. I may need to carry a 3321# pallet of pavers 74 miles of freeway and highway, finishing with 8 miles of OK condition dirt road. My son and I combined are probably 350#, and there's half a tank of gas at about 210#. So I'm about 400# over.

I have the correct stock Platinum wheels with the correct offset and hubcentricity, and the same PN is used on F350's, so I'm not worried about wheels. Recommended pressures at rated load are 60 front and 65 rear, but the E load range tires are good up to 80. I've got inflation tables, I can put a titch more air in for proper inflation. Rear springs, I don't know! Mine are 4 stack of leaves with a flying overload above, I'm guessing I'll be riding on the overloads, I just hope it doesn't sack out all the way to the bumpers.. I trust that the axle capacity is OK, isn't it shared with F350s? OK, what can you experienced heavy haulers tell me about my plan?

- I have a rubber mat in the bed. Not to protect it, but to keep stuff from sliding around. I would remove that, and have the brick joint fork the pallet as far forward into the bed as possible, then back up, and nudge the pallet forward until it is centered on the rear axle. Or should it be somewhat forward of the axle so the front wheels get some of the load, too?
- Are little D-hoops bolted to the lower corners of the bed fairly strong for securing straps? I will be driving in high alert mode for potential unexpected fast stops.
- I will actually be taking 2 pallets of pavers and 1 1800# pallet of fireplace pieces in three trips. If y'all think I'm being sketchy at 400# over rated load, I can take some pavers off of each pallet and haul them them with the lighter fireplace pallet.

Thanks for your smarts!

 

closer to 200 lbs over your rated payload since it includes a full tank of fuel, but you should be fine with the rear tires aired up and the load being a bit forward of the rear axle, looks like you've got the high cap rear end

 

If I had the option, I would spread out the entire load over three trips. First load would be fireplace stuff and enough pavers to equal about 2,800 pounds or so. Second load would be the remainder of one pallet of pavers and some off the other pallet to roughly 2,800 pounds and then the last pallet would be about 2,800 pounds for the third trip. The weight of a full fuel tank is already factored in when referring to the capacity on the door sticker.

 

D'oh, I remember seeing somewhere on the Ford order menu page "high capacity" axle or something like that. Thanks for the reminder and the additional info.

Next up: Loading anxiety. 40ish years ago I was at nursery where a guy was getting a load of landscaping mulch. The nursery guy impressively finessed tractor up to the brand-new pickup truck, precisely centering the bucket over the bed. He then made a lever motion like putting the tractor in neutral, and dropped the clutch. It was still in first gear. The tractor centerpunched the truck so hard it had to have bent the frame. The owner freaked, and angrily said you might as well dump it now. So the tractor guy re-centered... and did again! That's a core memory for me.

 

When you get to your destination do you have the equipment to offload?

With pavers, stones and bulky cargo in general I like to use a trailer, lower floor makes easier to get them out and drives more stable with all that weight high up with how high off the ground these trucks' beds are. The rings on the floor and the thin bed metal might be fine for what you need to do but a trailer is better for this kind of work unless your dirt road has dimension limitation that precludes a trailer.

 

I don't think 400# is necessarily sketchy. Highway okay but I would be more concerned about the dirt road. The load might be taxing the suspension limiting its ability to absorb the road irregularities. I would air up the tires as you mentioned. No reason I can think of not to take them up to their max rating of 80 psi.

The door sticker will specify the max rear axle weight rating.

FYI, the payload capacity on the door sticker includes a full tank of gas.

How tall is the load? I suggest having the load of pavers wrapped with plastic either by the place selling them or buy a roll and do it yourself. It makes a huge difference in keeping the pavers from shifting around. You mentioned you are removing the rubber mat. Will the pallet slide on the unprotected bed or do you have a liner? Pushing a heavy pallet forward is not always easy depending on how easy the pallet will slide. Consider that forklift may need to set a portion of the pallet on the tailgate before it can reposition and start pushing it in further. The weight may be too much for the tailgate. Some specialty forklifts can extend the pallet into the truck bed before lowering the pallet so pushing it may not be required. When I have pallets pushed into my dump trailer, I bring along a 4' piece of 2x6 and set it up against the pallet to give the forks something to push against. The other option is to use a second pallet to do the job.

 

The destination is our cabin in the boonies. This paver job is a science fair project, but we had a dirt artist cut the soil grade and laser-level imported sand. I've set tile, the pavers look like big tiles with no grout to smear on the back Anyway, I will take my dolly, put my harbor freight ramp smooth surface from the tailgate down the ground, and make lots ups and downs.

I see Shawnee1's comment about setting partially the tailgate. I've thought about that, I was going to measure their forks in advance to see how far the can reach in. I'm like a mile from the paver yard, think I should take the tailgate off, get the load, then go grab the tailgate again. It would be nice to have the slide out step and "cane" for jumping in and out. I haven't take the powered tailgate off of this platinum, is that a huge hassle? Bonus: if they did bump the truck, it would just be the bumper that's much easier to deal with than painting a tailgate!

Edit: I checked the other door tag (not the tire pressure), my rear axle GAWR is 6340. When I got the truck new, I took it to the CAT scales just cuz I'm weird. Truck completely empty, me standing outside, full of gas, the rear axle was 2960. So, with 3321 of pavers, the axle load would be 6281. So I would just squeak in, but moving the pallet forward would shift some of the weight to the front, AND there has to be a safety factor on the axle design. Even still, I may shift some pavers to the fireplace load. I sold a 9.5 slide in camper to a guy who showed up in an older 5-bolt wheel F150. I told him I wasn't feeling good about it, he said he was and wanted it no matter what. Well alrighty then!

Thanks to everyone for your inputs! This is the greatest forum on earth!

 

People put way more weight on these trucks than that and don't even break a sweat. Air up to 80psi and drive sanely. You'll be fine.

 

I would have the pallet up against the front of the bed or slide some pavers off the pallet and set down in front so when the Prius brake checks you it doesn’t slide forward and beat the front of the truck bed up.

otherwise load and go. That load is heavy and low, the truck will not even know its back there and will ride really smooth.

 

I would put a sheet of plywood down in your bed. It makes it easy for them to put the pallet on and slide it in your bed protecting everything. I keep a sheet of treated plywood in my bed all the time. Best bed protector ever

 

I wouldn't think twice about it

Load it and go. These are work trucks under all the fanciness.

 

Most guys in this thread believe you'll be fine, and I agree.

However, I think one commenter has it right, especially given a statement you made - its for your cabin in the boonies.

Put them on a trailer, especially if you don't have equipment there to unload the pallet. Because if you need to run back into town for something (even lunch/dinner), you can simply unhook the loaded trailer and leave it sit. You don't have to break your back and wear yourself out to get the truck unloaded prior to going anywhere. And since these are pavers, you'll need somewhere to set them that is relatively flat and level, since if you don't have some kind of equipment to take the whole pallet out at once, you'll need to unload them all one by one...and if you don't have another pallet or sturdy object to unload them on, they're gonna go on the ground and get stacked up, which COULD lead to a few of them getting broken. Nothing more annoying than a broken paver that you paid good money for. If it is your trailer (or a borrowed one from someone who doesn't need it right away), it can sit there all week while you go back home to work if you don't get the job done in one weekend. It also isn't up as high (usually), and many have a handy ramp at the back you can walk up/down instead of having to climb up and down the bed of a truck.

It's funny, I bought a car hauler years back to haul a car to a car show...and it's been used more to haul lumber, concrete, and various other construction items than it ever has hauled a car or quads. Even at that it sits 90% of the time.

 

You mentioned pallet and mat. You will want to take that out and just toss a cheap piece of osb/plywood on the floor.

You should scale it for fun. Since you will be doing this for a few runs put 5-10psi extra in the rear tires.

Have them wrap it well if you slide it all the way up, which really isnt necessary.

I had a tile company around 15-20 years ago and a shortbed ram 2500. I loaded it almost daily to the max.


EDIT Do people do the plywood on these or does it damage the bulkhead?