Towing heavy on a 1/2 ton

[Sysop]

I haven't seen it mentioned, but even stepping up to a 3/4 or 1 ton class of truck, specs will still likely deem WDH a must once you dig into the fine print. I know of none of the factory hitches that are rated to tow 14k without WDH. The trucks are, and some third party hitches are; but not the factory hitches. Factory hitches all want WDH for loads that big.

The main difficulty in connecting a WDH is the fact you need to run the trailer jack up and down while lifting on the back of the truck to get the bars installed. I think there would be a market for a heavy duty electric jack for utility trailers like there are for campers. Someone invent one and I'll buy it.

 

[mikester]

How can that rust situation happen..... in CANADA?
I thought there was an annual (or bi-annual) provincial inspection required for every vehicle?

Only commercial vehicles (i.e. you have a CVOR) have to get inspected. Half and 3/4 tons trucks are considered personal use unless you remove the OEM box. Personal vehicles only get inspected if title changes or you get new plates after being off the road (unlicensed) for any time.

No rust in Canada? In winter our roads here are white from salt - not snow. In the past few years the cities are saving money on grader blades by dumping thousands of tons of salt each year to try and melt the snow instead of plowing it.

Everyone drives relatively new cars here. The old ones just disintegrate and vanish after 10 years or so.

 

[Jstpssng]

Only commercial vehicles (i.e. you have a CVOR) have to get inspected. Half and 3/4 tons trucks are considered personal use unless you remove the OEM box. Personal vehicles only get inspected if title changes or you get new plates after being off the road (unlicensed) for any time.

No rust in Canada? In winter our roads here are white from salt - not snow. In the past few years the cities are saving money on grader blades by dumping thousands of tons of salt each year to try and melt the snow instead of plowing it.

Everyone drives relatively new cars here. The old ones just disintegrate and vanish after 10 years or so.

The stuff they are putting on our roads is worse than salt; and they start spreading it before snowfall as they say that it makes plowing easier. It took a toll on brakelines on older vehicles for a while. But hey, the day after a storm you can do 70 on your way to the local Walmart.

 

[prof fate]

Everybody seems to forget that 10K trailer rating is tied to a single vehicle or combination of vehicles exceeding 26,001 pounds.

Sorry, no.

A CDL brings down my legal BAC whether i'm in a commercial vehicle or my private vehicle.
My license allows me to drive any "one" vehicle of any weight - a triaxle dump, say, for personal use or for hire.
And I cannot tow a trailer exceeding 9,990 - it's specifically stated as such on a CDL class B. Class A is tractor trailer, so trailer weight isn't limited by one's license.

My license isn't different depending if i'm working commercially or for myself in a personal vehicle.

Like a bus - the SAME vehicle, as a 'bus' you need a CDL. If it's registered as an RV, any old license works - even if it's well over 26k pounds or has air brakes.

CDL's are so specific I can't drive a manual transmission commercially unless i take the road test in a stick shift truck or bus.

If you go for your class b test in a tractor (as in semi) with a fifth wheel they won't let you use it. take off the plate, and you can use it for the test. Absolutely no difference in the vehicle's size, handling, rules of the road, etc - but the plate on the back makes it a Class A vehicle - even without a trailer!

Hey, license's are government things - they don't have to make sense.

 

[tractorshopper]

My F-150 is much older than the OP's, so this may not all apply but I think some will. My max tow rating is ~9,600 lbs (2006 model). My receiver that came on the truck was only rated for 5,000 lbs. I bought a new receiver and installed it for 10,000 lbs as well as the B&W 10,000 lb adjustable tri-ball system so everything was in line.

I have towed up to about 7,500-8,000 lbs repeatedly with this truck. Will it do it? Yes. Horsepower is very sufficient. Is it really the right truck for that job? Not in my opinion. I think all the truck companies throw numbers out there for ratings to out-do each other and while I'm sure yours is rated to tow more than mine, I'm not sure that it really is much more capable than my '06 is. The reason comes down to the items others have mentioned, weight of the tow vehicle vs. the weight being towed allows you to get "pushed" around while towing even with the trailer brakes fully functioning. Quick braking, emergency maneuvers, downhill grades with curves, old folk pulling right out in front of you, young folks pulling right out in front of you, etc. I have towed similar weight and same trailers with my friend's F-350 and it is night and day difference. You don't even know the trailer is back there behind his truck.

If you live in a flat area, you're probably in better shape than me. While my truck has handled the chores over the years, I am convinced it is not the best fit of a truck to be handling these loads with which is why my next truck will be a 3/4 or 1 ton. I really think 5,000 lbs is more the right amount to safely be towed with a 1/2 ton truck.

 

[newbury]

Overtaxed,
Here is my two cents. A weight distributing hitch for what you are doing is going to be a PITA. Reason is after you load it you will have to install the torsion bars on the hitch and how they are adjusted is going to change based on your load. IMO I would not plan on using a WDH with a dump trailer.

And Overtaxed, I'm sure if you get in any legal troubles "truckdiagnostics" will take care of them.

If you are always putting in about the same load the torsion bars will be adjusted the same.

I haven't seen it mentioned, but even stepping up to a 3/4 or 1 ton class of truck, specs will still likely deem WDH a must once you dig into the fine print. I know of none of the factory hitches that are rated to tow 14k without WDH. The trucks are, and some third party hitches are; but not the factory hitches. Factory hitches all want WDH for loads that big.

The main difficulty in connecting a WDH is the fact you need to run the trailer jack up and down while lifting on the back of the truck to get the bars installed. I think there would be a market for a heavy duty electric jack for utility trailers like there are for campers. Someone invent one and I'll buy it.

I install my bars on the Equalizer by using a farm jack (which I keep in the truck ALL the time) to raise the bars a few inches.

 

[thekkfan]

I think there would be a market for a heavy duty electric jack for utility trailers like there are for campers. Someone invent one and I'll buy it.

What are you looking to replace? I know they make them up to 5000lb for camper/utility, they even make the heavier gooseneck/horse trailer jacks electric and hydro. Pricey though.

 

[Renze]

Half ton trucks have saggy springs and thin rollbars. A customer of a previous employer used to tow 11.000 pounds with them and we installed a Firestind AiRide kit on them. Slightly inflated to lift the weight off the leaf springs made them drive much smoother when empty, but with a load on it, it tracked much better and had less sway.

Even when not using the increased spring capacity to carry load, the more rigid rear suspension greatly reduces sway.

And about brakes, the max you can brake, is the axle weight x friction coefficient. Which means the only way to substantially increase brake performance is to increase the weight on braked axles, i.e. get trailer brakes on all axles.

 

[shooterdon]

After reading most of this, if you only need to haul 5 tons 5% of time (15 times a year), buying a dump trailer and the right hitch may be a poor investment unless you find a great deal on a used one. If the supplier is only 15 miles away, I doubt he will charge more than $50 per load to truck it. Driving your own vehicle will cost about $15...so the additional cost to have it delivered will be $35 per load.

Take the $10k you will spend on a new dump trailer, invest it at 4% and you come out ahead. If you need to finance the trailer, the numbers are even worse.

 

[Overtaxed]

After reading most of this, if you only need to haul 5 tons 5% of time (15 times a year), buying a dump trailer and the right hitch may be a poor investment unless you find a great deal on a used one. If the supplier is only 15 miles away, I doubt he will charge more than $50 per load to truck it. Driving your own vehicle will cost about $15...so the additional cost to have it delivered will be $35 per load.

Take the $10k you will spend on a new dump trailer, invest it at 4% and you come out ahead. If you need to finance the trailer, the numbers are even worse.

Well, this is exactly what I've been thinking about, the ROI on it. I can get 20 tons delivered for ~400 dollars, or, at the quarry, it's about 1/2 that price (220). Each 20 ton load is 4 trips with a dump trailer, so, every 40 trips with the dump trailer saves me 10 load fees, ~2000 bucks. So I'd need to do about 300 tons before I hit a break even on just crush and run (120 trips). Wow, that's a lot of back and forth, but in miles terms, it's not that bad (120 trips, figure 30 miles round trip each time, ~4000 miles). However, just seeing that number "120 trips" seems a bit daunting. I guess if I split it up a bit and think about how I'd do this, it's only a month's worth of 4 trips a day. Still seems like a lot though! I've gone through about 150 tons of crush and run so far, and I probably have another 200 or so in direct line of sight for planned projects. Still though, just thinking about it, 200 tons is only 10 truckloads, I can get that dropped here in a day by a guy with a truck.

Part of this is that finding the "guy with a truck" and getting him to, you know, call me back/show up/deliver on time to the right spot is a bit of crapshoot. Also, there are other things I could save on, I usually get a tri-axle or 2 of mulch a season, I'm sure I could do pretty good hauling that myself (I think the limit there is volume, not weight).

I think I've known for awhile that the financials don't look great for dump. It's more about the convenience of it, if the quarry is open, I can roll on over there and get 5 tons, no notice, no coordination. In the truck, 10K of rock at the property in <1hr (for 55 bucks!). But maybe this is one of those things where the thought of it sounds better than the reality.

Also, figuring in I have to take the value of the used dump trailer into account. They seem to lose almost no value if they are kept in decent shape, I've been looking for a used one for a long time, none of them make sense because the prices are too close to new. So, assuming I decided to sell it in a year or 2 (doubtful, but, hey, it's part of the financial consideration), I have the feeling the numbers would start to look real good, even hauling 100 tons of stone, I'll bet I'd hit near break even (doing 20 trips to the quarry, saving 1000 in delivery fees, I could probably resell the trailer for 1000 less than I bought it for at that point).

Of course, that doesn't take into account the wear/tear on the truck.. And that could be substantial.