Loading a pickup

[DieselTech]

How much wood do you intend to haul?

If you intend to haul several cords a year, heat solely with wood, sell some, etc, then you don't have the truck for the job. The Tundra is a great truck, but it's lacking several things to make it the ideal truck. The axles, brakes, and suspension are a little light to be hauling full cord loads of wood, and it only has a 6' box, correct?

I would recommend you buy a dedicated wood hauler, or a trailer. You can find a used, ugly old 3/4 or 1 ton pickup with a V8 (or a diesel) and four wheel drive for less than 2,000 dollars in most places. It'll have a 8 foot bed, or possibly a flatbed- with a hydraulic dump system, if you're lucky. You can haul a lot more wood, and a dump bed makes unloading super easy. Having four wheel drive and an old, slightly beat up truck will be nice when you get stuck out in the woods, or a piece of wood/ limb/ etc smacks into the side of the truck. The downside is it's another vehicle to insure, maintain, and park somewhere.

The best solution might be a trailer. You can use your current truck to tow it (so long as it isn't too big), load it with much more wood than you can put on most pickup trucks, and it's easier to find space for than another truck. Besides, once you buy a trailer you'll find uses for it that you never dreamed about.

 

[doubletodd]

if you are using your good truck be careful and don't overload it. my new wood hauler is not done yet and my good truck is taking a beating!!

 

[Zodiac45]

options:
1. Beef up suspension
Timbren air springs, Firestone or Air Lift adjustable air (these work great I have on my truck)

I have these on my old Ranger 4x4 too (Air Lift) and they do work well and are inexpensive. I started with the fronts inside the coil springs to combat snowplow sag and ended up doing the rears too for a little more hauling capacity. Next year I want to get ahold of an F250 (or equiv) 4x4 for wood duty like the one in wdchucks using in his pix. In my area pickups command big bucks because everyone has them.

 

[wdchuck]

You are out of your mind! That is a Sonoma? How long have you been doing the over inflation thing? I think that bears some investigation. Keep on trucking YEEFNHAA! And YOU say be carefull ?

Apparently the fault lies with my writing skills, but the info is in my post.

The truck pictured is an F-250, shortbox.


I've been watching the free auto booklets for the low priced 4x4, 1ton, dually, with a dumbox on them, I'd rather have that and not worry about the aesthetic abuse, and the dump, then you can bring home logs from a dropsite, and not worry about how to get them out.

 

[LarryTheCableGuy]

Everything clearance said plus you could put airbags on your rear axle. Inflate them before you leave to get wood and deflate them when you get home. You'll increase the capacity of your truck without affecting the ride.

That will allow you to exceed the the maximum safe capacity of the axle. Not recommended.

I had an '02 Tundra Access Cab. I made some redneck sideboards and had it loaded nearly cab high with pine & fir several times and it wasn't too bad...but that was fairly light wood.

.

 

[steelhead kid]

I built my own truck bed trailer from a junk yard for $200. probably could have talked him down. it was a full size chevy, full floating dana 60, with overloads and sway shocks. It holds 1.3 cords of wet wood. hardly sags at all. I can still geta load in the truck too.

not the prettiest and no dump hydraulic, but worth the money. Usually go for 500 built.

i did hear that air bags are pretty good at supporting the rear end. i have overloads and add a leaf, boy is it stiff.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

I have a set of SuperSprings on my F150 and a pull a 5x8 trailer with 25" sides and a single 3500lb axle outfitted with electric brakes. I wish it was a 5x12 tandem axle, but it is what it is I guess.

Keep in mind that helper springs just level the load and make a load more controllable, they don't increase the weight rating of your bearings and axle and they don't increase your the amount you can tow. Your tranny and differential don't care what kind of springs you have under the bed. Also keep in mind that your payload rating and your tow rating are an either/or, not a both. My truck is rated for 1600lbs in the bed OR 6300 lbs in a trailer, not both at the same time.

Ian

 

[mysawmyrules]

We have a farm about 40 miles from the home place and it's on the other side of a lot of crown land with pipe line access. They have a habbit of uprooting lots of large trees then leave them to rot so every time we have to haul the loader to the other farm we unload early put our permit's worth on then road the tractor the last 5 miles and bring a couple of these loads home. And yet I still find myself in the bush as often as I can. Oh well

http://

 

[Haywire Haywood]

Showoff.... LOL

 

[mysawmyrules]

Sorry not relavant to original poster kind of an extreme trailer load. However short sides on just about any pickup to avoid spills, and the truck will let you know when it's full. Take your time when loaded and as cash permits a trailer with brakes will be a plus.

 

[doubletodd]

pickup box trailer works good if it's heavy enogh you can put sideboards on and cut and split and leave the mess in the woods

 

[LNG24]

Don't ruin the pick up, just get one of these. You can have this one for $4,000. I'm in New York 12590.

It's a 2006 Cam Superline 6x14 Low Profile Hyd. Dump

 

[Billy_Bob]

Look at the weight rating tag on your truck. My tag is on the inside frame of the drivers door. Then load your truck and find a public truck scale to see how much weight you have loaded.

With my truck, I load it until the top of the rear wheel opening fender goes down to the top of the rear tires. And this is twice the weight rating of my truck. But I drive slow and don't have any long hills to go up/down. And I only do this if I have a fairly smooth road to drive back on. If rough bumpy road, then I don't load the truck so much.

The weight rating includes *everything* on the truck. Tires, wheels, lug nuts and number of lug nuts, axle, bearings, suspension/springs, clutch/transmission, brake capacity and not overheating on a long hill, steering/handling on curves, etc.

So basically if you have a load on your truck which is within the weight capacity of the truck, you should be able to drive normally. If over that, then might not handle good on curves, brakes could overheat on long hills, wheel could fall off, etc., etc.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

You can have this one for $4,000.

That red type is probably the problem for 80% of us. My trailer cost me $600 and adding the brake kit cost another $200. I bet I could trade it in for the 5x12 tandem I want for an additional $1200 or so but the cash for that just isn't available. $4k is just a pipe dream. My little 4.6L F150 wouldn't like pulling that beast full anyway.

My full on crack dream is a 3/4t 4x4 diesel with a dump trailer like that.

Ian

 

[doubletodd]

I hear ya would love to be set up that way but my old car trailer will have to do for now. don't like sawing it up in my backyard but I like to bring home a load when I get a chance to go.I saw a great trailer the other day too but not in my budget right now

 

[cmetalbend]

Look at the weight rating tag on your truck. My tag is on the inside frame of the drivers door. Then load your truck and find a public truck scale to see how much weight you have loaded.

With my truck, I load it until the top of the rear wheel opening fender goes down to the top of the rear tires. And this is twice the weight rating of my truck. But I drive slow and don't have any long hills to go up/down. And I only do this if I have a fairly smooth road to drive back on. If rough bumpy road, then I don't load the truck so much.

The weight rating includes *everything* on the truck. Tires, wheels, lug nuts and number of lug nuts, axle, bearings, suspension/springs, clutch/transmission, brake capacity and not overheating on a long hill, steering/handling on curves, etc.

So basically if you have a load on your truck which is within the weight capacity of the truck, you should be able to drive normally. If over that, then might not handle good on curves, brakes could overheat on long hills, wheel could fall off, etc., etc.

Right, like anybody is actually going to go ta this extent. Not to mention those ratings on the sticker are in my op. a joke. "And you can only go the rated 45mph on U-haul trailers too"

 

[cmetalbend]

Don't ruin the pick up, just get one of these. You can have this one for $4,000. I'm in New York 12590.

It's a 2006 Cam Superline 6x14 Low Profile Hyd. Dump

For 4000 you can get a desent used 3/4 ton 4x4 and haul at least the load pictured. Not to mention you'll need a 3/4 ton to pull that trailer. And when you get into mud that trailer will sink like the Titanic, loaded anyway. If your going the trailer route. A simple suggestion when using a truckbed trailer I will make is get a trailer the same size(preferably same truck) as the truck pullin it. You'll then be able to see past it through your mirriors, Probably not overloading it's power capabilities, and you'll only need one spare tire. But if ya got the 4000 layin around then why not?

 

[Haywire Haywood]

I don't know where you're shoppin', but if you can find good used running 3/4t 4x4 for $4k, buy 10 of them and move here. You could double your money within a week. My buddy just bought a 93 3/4t Dodge diesel in good shape, got it for $8k+ and thought himself lucky.

Ian

 

[Zodiac45]

That red type is probably the problem for 80% of us. My trailer cost me $600 and adding the brake kit cost another $200. I bet I could trade it in for the 5x12 tandem I want for an additional $1200 or so but the cash for that just isn't available. $4k is just a pipe dream. My little 4.6L F150 wouldn't like pulling that beast full anyway.

My full on crack dream is a 3/4t 4x4 diesel with a dump trailer like that.

Ian

I hear ya would love to be set up that way but my old car trailer will have to do for now. don't like sawing it up in my backyard but I like to bring home a load when I get a chance to go.I saw a great trailer the other day too but not in my budget right now

Ditto here Boys. It's nice and it's fancy shmancy, but I promise you that 4k just ain't gonna fly unless I'm doing a whole lot more than my personal firewood with it. Think I'd upgrade my truck if anything, too an F250 and double the load I can carry.

 

[SnaykeByte]

upgrade

Yes, you could install heavy springs, or add a leafs, or Timbren bags for the suspension to handle the overload. You could change out the rear housing for a full floater and then add some E tires, you'll have to upgrade the brakes to stop it safely when it's overloaded. You could swap the mill out for a bigger one or maybe even a diesel to maintain speed when overloaded. Of course if you do that, you'll need to upgrade the front suspension as well to carry the extra weight of the repower. Or, option B, you could just get a truck that is rated to haul the load you want to and call it a day. I've always thought that the people who make a vehicle should pretty much know what it is capable of. As an added note, I think stating that the GVWR rating that the MANUFACTURER puts on the completed vehicle is non accurate is the most ridiculous thing I have heard in a week!