Mark Hodowanec

Thought I was loaded heavy - was thinking that I had 5000 lbs. of firewood in the bed. However, the sag was alot less than I expected which makes me wonder if I really had 5000 lbs. in there. Here are the details:

My truck is 2500 short bed quad cab 4x4. The tires are e-range Hankook 315/70-17 Dynapros (rated at 3525 lbs).

The firewood was loaded heavy towards the headache rack & lighter towards the tail to try to get the front tires to carry as much of the load as possible. I calculated the CG of the load to be about 8" in front of the rear axle. I measured the height to my wheel wells before and after loading & got 3" of sag. I also measured how much the hitch dropped because of the load & it dropped a little less than 4". So the front was definately helping in sharing the load. Still, I was very suprised by how little it sagged, which makes me wonder if I really had 5000 lbs. in there or not.

The tires were at max pressure of 65 psi. After I started driving, I measured the tire pressure after 5 miles, 10 miles & 30 miles. The pressure stabilized at 72 psi. The outside temps were around 50F so I'm sure that the cool temps helped. At one time I weighed my truck empty & believe that weight on the rear axle was 2800 lbs. I'm not sure if that before I put in my headache rack/stake sides. So lets say that the rear axle is at 3000 empty. If I had 5000 lbs. in there, then the rear axle weight would be 8000 lbs (950 past the tire rating). Does the bump in hot pressure (to 72 from 65) seem consistent w/ tires that are overloaded by 13%?

I drove carefully & never exceeded 60 mph. Overall, the truck handled it great, but again I was super light w/ the brake & steering. I know that I really should have used a trailer for this, but did not have access to one!

enafzige

Hmmm... I'm not sure you had 5k on there, but kindof hard to tell.

Recently, I hauled a large load of firewood, with the bed stacked full, and a very overloaded tandem axle trailer. I have the Carli LT air bags, and with 110 psi in them, the truck was squatted 3" in the rear. I weighed the rear axle, and it was at 8,600 lb. Total truck/trailer weight was 23,5xx lbs.

--Eric

snoyes

How high above the bed rails did you stack it? You did a good job distributing the weight, but a 2500 with no airbags and only 3 inches of sag... Seems you may have been under 5K. When I've seen a tractor load the back of most 1 tons with 2 yards of gravel, they sag big-time. And that is about 5K... (1.3 tons a yard).

Grit Dog

You didn't have anywhere near 5klbs in it.
A 3000# pallet in an '03 2500 centerd over the axle drops the rear end big time (6-8" ??).

SundayMoney

A cord of firewood is 4x4x8 (128 cubic ft)

Compared to a cord,how much do you think you had?

Most hardwoods weighs about 3000lbs per cord dry.

Do a little math and you can probably get close.

Ridiculies

Get yourself a set of Firestone Air Bags, should eliminate a lot of the sag your experiencing when loaded heavy. I too get firewood throughout the winter and have zero issues with sag because of them, keeps the truck level.

Mark Hodowanec

OK lets go thru the math: I stacked it about 3'3" high. That means I had 110 cu.ft. (.86 cords). I've always used 3500 lbs dry & 4800 lbs wet. The wood I was hauling was wet so let's say 4000 lbs./cord. The load was then 3500 lbs. Even if the firewood was 4800 lbs./cord I would only be at 4200 lbs.

I guess it's good to know that I was probably not over the tire limits. But still, with say 4000 lbs. in the bed, I still expected more sag than 3".

All that I can think of is that the weight was carried by the front was significant. More math: 4000 lbs. 8" in front of rear axle on a truck w/ a 141" WB results in 225 lbs. carried by the front & 3775 lbs. by the rear.

Again expected more sag, so, only possiblility is that the wood was lighter than I expected it to be???

HOBrian

I 3400lbs of tile in the back of my truck and the forklift guy and myself were shocked at the fact that the truck sat level! He and I thought I would be laeving with a saggy rear end. Just my .02

HotRodK

I had 55 boxes of 16" tile and was sagging about 3"-4". It was loaded as far forward as I could. That was hauled about 650 miles from Orlando to Haleyville AL. No problems at all with the Nitto TG 295/70s.

FSTDL

My truck drops 3 inches with a 1,100 lb tounge weight of my trailer

modiesel

I could not believe my eyes HotRodK! I was raised in Haleyville! I NEVER see that little town mentioned anymore. I loive in Huntsville, AL now.

HotRodK

Thats where my folks live. Out on ChickenFoot rd.

Ridgeman

My fifth wheel has an approx 2000lb pin weight. It drops the rear 3 inches at the tailgait. The hitch is centered 4 inches in front of the rear axle.

TexasCTD

I have been expanding my patio with 18'' square concrete pads. Here are some pictures with the truck loaded with a pallet of 56 pads....50lbs each...for a total of around 2800lbs on the pallet. These were placed on top of a yard of mortar sand spread out in the bed. Im guessing this was around 4000lbs or so. The truck was definately sitting on the overloads. Repeated the same load today.....wheww im sore unloading this thing!











and here is an unloaded pic just for comparison.....it was squatting pretty good with this load above..



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