Will it be safe ?

[mcourtney]

I just got a 1974 F-350 with a 12 foot long by 7 feet wide bed with 4 foot tall sides with a hoist. Do you guys think it will be safe to haul 2 cords of green oak and do you think it will raise the bed ?

[Ford_man]

I have a 78 F350 with a 12 ft bed and hoist and i have hauled 3 cord ranked in it and the hoist dumped it just fine. My truck has 10 ply rated tires and inflated to 80 psi. I have hauled as much as 12000 lbs of grain. but that is too much 10000 Lbs is not a problem. You cannot beat those older trucks.

[Corley5]

  I haul five face cords (1 2/3 cords) of green mixed hardwood loose on my '01 F-550  ;D  It's a good load and the truck knows it's there.  It would do a full two (six face cords) but would require stacking.  A full two would be a good load for an F-350.  If your hydraulic system is in good shape it should dump it. 

[snowstorm]

there is a big difference between a 350 and a 550.

[Corley5]

Yup,  A whole lot.

[snowstorm]

you asked if was safe.........no

[Jhenderson]

Let's see, 12,000lbs in a truck that grosses maybe 10,000. Yeah, go for it. Another Darwin Award candidate.

[so il logger]

Will it haul it?.... probably. Will it be safe?.... probably not so much :D :D :D

[snowstorm]

Yup,  A whole lot.

i told you that you would like that f550.

[Corley5]

Yup,  A whole lot.

i told you that you would like that f550.

  They're a serious truck  8)

[Maine logger88]

I hauled 2 full cord of mixed HW on my F350 with a 12ft body once it was only a mile up the road and I will never do it again it felt like I was in a boat. 25 miles an hour the whole way way easier to just do 2 1 cord loads. 1.5 cord isn't to bad tho

[tantoy]

Had a 78 and 79 f-350 cab/chassis dumps. I could never figure out why both trucks had crappy rear brakes (Dana 70 with drums). I tried SO hard to fix , rebuild, make like new those rear drums. The last straw before buying my current truck( 2001 F-350 cab/ chassis) was skidding thru a 4 way stop with front brakes locked and little to no steering.
Love the old Fords, but just could not seem to get the rear drums to grab? Almost tried swapping in a hydro boost on the 79' but ended up buying the 2001 which has been very good to me.
My 78' had the straight 6 with 4 speed, and my 79' was a 460 with a c6. I rebuilt that c6 3 times. Just could not  handle the HP/torque with towing a mini grossing around 18,000.

[Holmes]

  First thing to break might very well be a hydraulic hose.  It may be wise to work your way up in weight before you put a lot in it, and change the hoses. The second thing to break may be the frame if a hose pops, the third thing to break could be?

[HiTech]

I knew a guy who had a 1961 or 1964 Dodge 1 ton with a dump box and it had a 6 cylinder with a 4 speed standard and very, very low gears in the rear end. I don't think the truck would go 50 mph wide open. He used to put 3 cords of spruce pulp on it. I would see him coming down the road and just shake my head. He would haul 2 loads a week to a local paper mill. Today they would throw him in jail and throw the key away. lol I really do think the older trucks were built to a heavier spec than todays trucks.

[redprospector]

I've got a 67 Ford F-1,2,350. I'd swear it had belonged to Johnny Cash except he said he worked for GM.  :D
Whoever built this truck started with an F-100 4x2, and ended up with a muscle bound Frankenstein that does a pretty good job. It has a dump bed that was from an old dump truck. It was cut down to fit the little Ford.
I've hauled 4000 lbs. of chips with it pretty regularly, when I was chipping. She handled it just fine. I don't think she'd like 2 cords of hardwood though.
The old trucks were built heavy, and we did things with them that no one should ever do, and they handled it. But they don't compare to what we have available today. The newer trucks have better engines, better clutches, and better brakes. The old trucks were considered worn out at 100,000 miles, and for good reason. My 2005 has almost a quarter million miles and is still going strong pulling loads my old trucks would want no part of.

[sandhills]

I'd like to see a picture or two of your '67, I like Johnny Cash  ;D ;)

[redprospector]

I'll get a pic in a day or 2 when I get close to it again.

[coxy]

the problem is they took the truck out of the truck and made them ride like a caddylack  :D the 3/4ton trucks today where like the 1/2tons back then

[Joe Hillmann]

Figure out what the gvrw (gross vehicle weight rating) is.  Probably on the drivers door jamb.  Then weigh the empty truck.  What ever the difference is is what you can haul.

[Corley5]

  So this got me thinking about what I can haul on my F550.  It weighs in about 11,600lbs (11,540 with a half tank of fuel, 11,760 with me in the seat  ;) ;D ) and has a GVWR of 17,500.  The five face cords (1 2/3 cords) weighs in around 8,800lbs for a total weight of 20,400 figuring 11,600 for the truck, which puts me 2,900lbs over weight    A full cord (3 face cords) would put it around 16,900lbs.  Hmmmm....  But the truck has a 13,500lb rear GAWR and a 6,000lb front for a total of 19,500lbs.  So how much can I haul  ??? ???  17,500lbs or 19,500lbs  ??? ???
  The wood weight is using the Forum Calculator for a cord of hard maple at 5,300lbs.  Sugar maple is the heaviest wood I haul.  I wood have guessed beech but it weighs in at 4,900 per cord.

[redprospector]

I'd like to see a picture or two of your '67, I like Johnny Cash  ;D ;)

Here ya go.
I forgot I had taken this picture when the village told me that I couldn't own such a truck...but that's a whole other story. She had been sitting in the yard for 5 or 6 years. I put air in the tires, and hooked up jumper cables, fired her up and drove on the trailer for the trip to my log/firewood/mill yard.  ;D



 

[Joe Hillmann]

  So this got me thinking about what I can haul on my F550.  It weighs in about 11,600lbs (11,540 with a half tank of fuel, 11,760 with me in the seat  ;) ;D ) and has a GVWR of 17,500.  The five face cords (1 2/3 cords) weighs in around 8,800lbs for a total weight of 20,400 figuring 11,600 for the truck, which puts me 2,900lbs over weight    A full cord (3 face cords) would put it around 16,900lbs.  Hmmmm....  But the truck has a 13,500lb rear GAWR and a 6,000lb front for a total of 19,500lbs.  So how much can I haul  ??? ???  17,500lbs or 19,500lbs  ??? ???
  The wood weight is using the Forum Calculator for a cord of hard maple at 5,300lbs.  Sugar maple is the heaviest wood I haul.  I wood have guessed beech but it weighs in at 4,900 per cord.

17,500 lbs is the most it is supposed to be loaded.  The load should be balanced so no more than 13,500 is on the rear axle and 6,000 is on the front.  The 2,000 pounds is just to allow for the load to not be perfectly balanced.  But the gvwr is the maxamum weight the truck is rated to handle.

Also, on some older trucks at least there may be several Gvrw's on a particular truck depending on what size and how many tires it has.

[bigred1951]

those older fords will surprise you in what they will do. After 79 when they changed the body style in 80 i think they went down hill. The old 70s fords will pretty much do anything you ask sometimes might grunt a little then go on