Ballast New truck: weights, towing capacity

[Dargo]

Ya see, this is a "family friendly" website, but I'm fair game. Oh well, since I dish it out, it's only fair I take it too. Hmm, that could sound bad...

Anyway, I like light weights, medium weights, but not heavy weights. It takes a certain guy to want heavy weights and has some insatiable appetite for more beef. I don't think you want one of those guys.

There is about a half a dozen hidden jokes in there. How many of them can you find?

 

[patrick_g]

Gee thanks guys! I read this whole thread in one sitting and am nearly moved to tears. I have a friend who runs a trailer MFG operation and I have a trailer based on their HD car hauler rated for 12000 lbs gross. It has 16 inch load range E tires and 4 wheel electric brakes with breakaway brake application.

I have been towing this with my 1997 4x4 diesel extended cab Dodge Ram 3500 with service body. I have a class V receiver hitch rated at 14000 lbs with an adaptor to bring it down to 2 inch drawbar (I use a solid drawbar) I have air bags installed over the rear axles and have retrofitted all 6 wheels with 19.5 inch Alcoas and am running Michelin steel belted radials rated for inflation up to 110PSI and rated for way more load than the max weight of the truck and anything you can put in it. I have the Gear Vendors aux overdrive and a BD aftermarket (seriouisly beefed up auto tranny) and the Doctor Performance high pressure injector pump and small orifice injectors so I can get more HP more torque AND 1 or 2 MPG better economy at the same time.(think efficiency, not something for nothing)

I have a boost gauge, EGT pyro, and tranny oil temp. I disconnected the standard hot water based Dodge tranny heater so as to reduce interference with my aftermarket fan equipped tranny cooler. I have the Horton thermostatic clutch fan and other stuff.

Now that I have had the advantage of re-education via this thread I will probably be trying to find the modern equivalent of a LUV truck to trade up to or maybe a good used Rabbit if I want to stay diesel before I get killed due to equipment failure from the INVERSE LOADING LOGIC I have begun to understand after reading here.

Ratings aren't imutable like some laws of physics (speed of light) Planc's constant or pi. All use of equipment wears it. As you load it more heavily, drive it faster, handle it more roughly it wears faster. It is not linear. Wear goes up at an accelerated rate as loads and speeds are increased. Ratings are based on how much can be handled without increasing the probability of a catrostrophic failure or reducing the service life such that it would become a problem for the manufacturer due to warranty claims.

The manufacturer wants to claim the highest ratings possible to sell more trucks. On the other hand they don't want to lose significant profit due to warranty work or building the truck better (more expensively) than needed. The major manufacturers have a very good understanding of what they have to do to make most trucks last through the warranty period. They are also aware that most 4x4 trucks hardly ever go off road or really stress the 4x4 components. That is why the 4x4 capability is as much cosmetic as real. Making it real costs and few owners actually stress their 4x4. So those of us who really NEED good 4x4 performance end up doing aftermarket improvements like double front shocks air lockers and on and on.

My aftermarket front bumper (Reunel) weighs nearly 500 lbs with the 12000 lb Warn Winch but is still sitting about 1/2 inch over stock 4x4 ride height due to the custom eliptical variable rate front coil springs I had made for me at a spring company. I asked for 1/2 inch over stock because I truly believed the heavy diesel and aftermarket bumper would sag the springs a bit over time. Almost 9 years later and I am still waiting for the front coils to sag. That is OK. The custom leaf springs in the rear put the rear about 3/4 to an inch above stock with normal stuff in the service body but no big load in the bed.

There used to be a motorcycle based 3 wheel pickup with handlebars instead of a steering wheel. If I really want to go HD, I'll look for one of those.

If I have misunderstood the inverse loading logic about buying smaller lighter trucks to get more payload then please straighten me out before I call my buddies who have ex military deuces as personal trucks and explain to them the disadvantages of all that robust construction.

Pat

 

[Dargo]

If I have misunderstood the inverse loading logic about buying smaller lighter trucks to get more payload....

Pat

Nope. I think you got the jest of it. Darn if I don't need to get me a much lighter truck too!


P.S. Make sure you remember this thread's entertainment value when you vote for the most entertaining thread.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

Since this thread has gotten so goofy, guess I may as well throw in my 2 cents. The last guy I seriously dated dumped me because he said my butt was too small. Do you think if I ate one of those giant slurpys everyday that eventually I would look like Dargo's wife or concubine love machine or whoever and that the guys would be flocking this way?

I've been lurking through this thread's run. Sort of like a hockey ref, I just thought it would be best to let the participants wear each other down a bit before wading in the middle of the action.

Then your post popped up. No longer could I sit on my hands. (This is getting dangerously close to trouble )

Beware of any self-professed "chubby chasers". They aren't right to begin with. And then, after you've seen enough documentation on the certifiability of these clowns, would you go altering your appearance based on answers you get here? :^

Just to keep this post in the spirit of the thread, truck and trailer should always be OVER-KILL. Marginal hauling rigs are asking for needless expense, bodily injury, and lawsuits. JMHO, for whatever it's worth.

 

[Inspector507]

The last guy I seriously dated dumped me because he said my butt was too small. Do you think if I ate one of those giant slurpys everyday that eventually I would look like Dargo's wife or concubine love machine or whoever and that the guys would be flocking this way?

roxy,
Don't worry sometimes smaller is better. Some guys look for the most "beef" they can get, but for my buck I'll take what fits my needs best.
Besides, slurpys may not do it for you, but a Wendy's Frosty will do it over time.

 

[roxynoodle]

I suggest for towing everyone should look for the last remaining Yugo. Wonder if we will have to fight it out to get it?

The ex boyfriend suggested I eat donuts lol. One time a friend and I were meeting someone to deliver a goat she had sold over the internet during an ice storm. We met them at a rest stop where the parking lot was really iced over. After the goat was safely loaded in their van (took some doing as we were all having trouble walking on it) and they left we thought we would do some donuts in the parking lot in my friend's little Cavalier. By the way it was much easier when we were kids and almost all cars were rear wheel drive. Anyways, the boyfriend called at that moment and asked what we were doing so I told him. He got all excited thinking I had taken him up on his suggestion and I had to clear things up... "No, Bob, we aren't EATING donuts, we're doing donuts in the parking lot with the car!" Needless to say he not only wondered at our maturity level but was disappointed.

 

[Inspector507]

He got all excited thinking I had taken him up on his suggestion and I had to clear things up... "No, Bob, we aren't EATING donuts, we're doing donuts in the parking lot with the car!" Needless to say he not only wondered at our maturity level but was disappointed.

I'm taking the "donut" spare tire off of my middle regions. Yes donuts might make for a little more "beef" where he wanted some, but not me.

 

[daTeacha]

Now I always called 360s with rear wheel drive "donuts", but when we did 'em with front wheel drive, they were "cookies" since the diameter was considerably less due to the FWD pivoting around the locked rear wheels as opposed to the RWD rotating around the unlocked fronts. Ahh, don't you just love regional dialectical differences?

Anyways, at some risk of repeating things, anyone planning to buy a new truck for hauling needs to check on the weight capacities of that model with the equipment you plan to include. If it's on the lot, read the plate on the door post or wherever it's put. That will give you the rating for that particular vehicle. Do not just rely on a general description in the sales brochure, nor on what seems to be common sense since the "inverse logic" ridiculed above is true to a certain extent in some situations, despite what some here believe. I'm not saying a Colorado will outwork a Duramax powered 3/4 ton, but there are quite a few base trucks that will outwork their option loaded brethren, even when that option list includes some heavy duty equipment. Some of you may not buy that, but I'll go with the opinions of those who design and build them. Just so you don't have to find out if the airbags really work, read the specs before you write the checks.

 

[neverenough]

Anyways, at some risk of repeating things, anyone planning to buy a new truck for hauling needs to check on the weight capacities of that model with the equipment you plan to include. If it's on the lot, read the plate on the door post or wherever it's put. That will give you the rating for that particular vehicle. Do not just rely on a general description in the sales brochure, nor on what seems to be common sense since the "inverse logic" ridiculed above is true to a certain extent in some situations, despite what some here believe. I'm not saying a Colorado will outwork a Duramax powered 3/4 ton, but there are quite a few base trucks that will outwork their option loaded brethren, even when that option list includes some heavy duty equipment. Some of you may not buy that, but I'll go with the opinions of those who design and build them. Just so you don't have to find out if the airbags really work, read the specs before you write the checks.

I didn't bother with the payload part becouse it didn't have anything to do with the original question, but...

I second your statement. The chassis decides payload capacity. The chassis can carry "X" amount of weight. Add things like Air, heavy motor, big bumpers and winches, ect...and even small details like added electronics and trim take a bite out of your payload capacity. While it is true some have gone beyond extremes as examples, it is true every little bit effects the payload capacity in the end.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

No, Bob, we aren't EATING donuts

They are NOT donuts. They ARE power-rings and energy circles!