Long story short. This weekend I helped a freind remove a concrete patio so he can replace it with a paver block patio. He drives truck for a feed mill and has acces to a Wrangler (small small payloader style material handeler). He brought it home on the company trailer behind the company truck and it dident like it very well. The truck is an old beaten to hateis chevy 2500 with a 350 in it. The Wrangler weighs around an estimated 5-6000 pounds. After we got all the concrete up we had to go get all the new pavers. We decided to take my truck because we knew they would be heavier than the wrangler, and he would get fired on the spot if I was caught riding with him in the company truck. He said he needed 5 pallets of blocks weighing around 2500 pounds each. We where going tomake a few trips and just get 2 pallets at a time. Just before we left he got a call and had to take the wrangler back to work so they could use it. Now we have no forklift to unload the pallets so we have to do it block by block by hand. We looked the trailer over and discovered it was rated at 10,000 pounds. We decided we would have to make only one trip because there wasent enough time to get 2 pallets at a time and get it all unloaded in 1 day. When we got to the hardware store he bought them from we looked at the tag on each pallet and realized they wheighed 3000# each. The forklift operater started loading it and due to the fenders couldent put any of it over the axles. So we put 2 pallets behind and 3 forward. The trailer was bowing real bad at this point. On the way home the trailer was not very happy. It dident trail worth a hoot. It swayed and waged around back there like a dogs tail if I got up over 55-60 mph. The truck handeled it fine, more than enough power. Does aneyone know off the top of there head what the factory reciever is capable of handeling. Not somuch what its rated for( I can go look that up) but what it will actually safely handle. I figure there was around 16,000 pounds back there allowing 2000# for the trailer itself. I bought a supper strong drop hitch to go in it as well. It is a solid forged 6 inch drop. It weighs probobly 20 pounds. It is rated at 12,000#. Anouther problem that has been pleaging me for ever was trailer breakes. I had NONE. Not fun towing 16000# with no trailer breaks. Luckily it was less than 10 miles. I think I may start anouther thread regarding that issue.

 

Class IV is 12K pounds,
Class III/IV is 10K pounds,
from what I can find. Your reciever should be stamped with its load rating.

 

I think your tongue weight would be 500 pounds without a weight distributing hitch.
1000 pounds with one...and 10K weight max.

I would've opted to get two loads and stacked some over the axles.

You are lucky the coupler on the trailer did not rip off from the heavy weight changes from front to back and the bouncing on the road. I have seen this happen...especially on older trailers.

Scotty

 

He is even luckier he didnt kill someone towing that weight without trailer brakes.

 

Scotty, Fronty, So I shouldn't have pulled 23836 from Oregon to Ohio the long way? Of course, I had trailer brakes and was only about 1K over on the wagon GVW, but our trucks are extremely underrated.

 

We wanted to do it in 2 loads but like I said we had to take the Wrangler back to his work so we had no forklift to unload them with. We had to unload buy hand and that takes a long time. There was around 650 pavers on each pallet. We only had 1 hour before the store closed.

As far as having no breaks, My controler said they where working but they where not doing anything. I asume that they never have been used because the truck they usaly use to pull the trailer has no controller. I would have been more woried abought it but we only had to pull it around 7 or 8 miles and out here in rural Iowa there is very very little trafic.

 

You left a store with people, on a road with people to save time on equipment you did not own that I am sure the owners did not approve the over-loaded use of. Yep the underated Dodge will pull it- hell of an excuse to make it all justified??????? Commercial truckers follow through with this one and see how you do- cause I know a KW, Peterbilt etc. will pull it. I definitely will tell my kid(s) this is not appropriate behavior for adults to act responsibly!! PK

 

If I am figuring this correctly, he loaded about 15,000 lbs on a trailer with a GVWR of 10,000lbs including the weight of the trailer. I am guessing the total to have been about 17-18,000 lbs because I am unsure what a trailer like that weights. If the trailer had 4 tires he would have been at about 4500lbs a tire. I am suprised the tires didn't just pop.

 

Yes the trucks are under rated. My concern would be the condition of the trailer and the rationale of not enough time so risk it down the road with equipment that is not mine.

I will share an incident I had when I first got my 90 Ram and a single car trailer that I borrowed. I was told it was a 2" ball. I never bothered to check the trailer. I hooked up and then loaded a Jeep LTD on the trailer. I had the Jeep too far forward and decided to roll it back a bit to get it over the axles more. The coupler snapped off the ball and the trailer hit my left side knocking me about 6 feet away. Nothing was broken and the safety chains stopped it from going further. I also had a chain on the Jeep with a bit of slack that stopped it from rolling off the trailer and...well to wherever it would've went. I kept wondering what would've happened if I got out on the highway with that an it let go.



The simplest thing can cause a big problem. Not always but more often then not.

Scotty

 

I have been wanting to reply to this thread ever since day one but since I can not find kind words to say I will say nothing.

 

You people would have a fit then if you lived around here. It is comon site to see 3/4 and even 1/2 ton trucks with tandem axle goosnecks hauling as many as 16+round bales at a time. Ballpark of 27200# minimume + the trailer. I dont know how many people I have had get in my truck that have trailers large enough to need brakes and ask me what the gizmo was under the steering colum(brake controller). I have yet to see a construction truck with a break controler. I have several freinds that work for a few diferent contruction companies that have a hole fleet of trucks and equipment trailers without a singe truck set up with trailer brakes.

 

Scotty,

If it came down to an argument you would be right hands down! There are many variables that contribute to irresponsible adult behavior. The wagon I was pulling was brand new and I was not in a hurry by any means. I was on a two month vacation and certainly wasn't in any hurry to get back to Ohio with the winter they had here.

 

If you were an ambulance driver, fire fighter, police officer or all three and seen or heard half the stories I have it would make you puke. Just the memories this thread has given me sends chills down my spine and tears to my eyes. Yes I did all three jobs at once although two of them were volunter. I have seen what someone else's foolishness has causeed someone else's families grief for a life time. It also impacts the perps life and his families life. Causes insurances to rise etc. etc.

All because some one was in a hurry.

 

Its always nice to have good reliable gear when on the road. I was not referring to you in regards to being in a rush.

Scotty

 

Off topic, but it doesn't matter if you're volunteer or paid. You get the same training, run the same runs, and touch the same dead bodies...

Volunteers are the more dedicated ones - we do it for free.