PJ C5 car hauler for CUT

[MinnesotaEric]

I don't know about your trucks but if I tried to put 1875 # on my truck hitch, I would be first way overloading my hitch and I think the bumper would likely be dragging on the ground but I only have a 1500 series truck so about 500-600#(estimated) on the factory hitch is all I like to put which makes for a good pull when putting my LS P7010 tractor with FEL on it. That is real close to maxing out the trailer capacity the way I figure my weights. I have dual 6K axles with dual brakes on a similar trailer to yours (20ft ) IIRC the trailer is 2300 which puts me at about 10K load minus my hitch weight. That is about all my truck is rated for although I did haul 10 round bales on it once and really overloaded the tongue weight I think just based on how low the bumper was to the ground. It didn't tear off the hitch but I was really concerned with it

10 bails of hay? That's like living out your own, personal truck commercial if they're 6' bails!

Everything on my truck is class IV, and so I'm limited to 10,000 pounds.

Until I purchase a CUT and ballast the tires with rim guard, the heaviest thing I haul around is an excavator. In the photo below the KX61-2 weighs 6100 pounds, the trailer, 2800(ish) pounds plus chains and binders. I've likely 1000-1200 pounds on the tongue and the truck isn't sagged out very far with the Roadmasters installed. On the other hand, hauling stuff like this around (as well as pallets of stuff) is how I wore my springs out.

The Roadmaster active suspension that I added to get rid of the axle wrap works by forcing the leafs into an arc. While the product worked awesome while it worked, improving the ride and handling as they claimed and even increasing mpg ever so slightly (Roadmaster's boldest assertion), I suspect that the additional flexing of the top leaf is what caused one leaf to prematurely wear and throw off my thrust angle.

 

[sd455dan]

Never heard of wearing out a spring and it's something I've never thought of.

When I restored antique cars I will often take the spring apart and to clean and lube.

My work trucks are Chevrolets... 85 and 91 vintage and no spring or suspension issue so far.

We did have a 69 Ford with split I beam front axle and replaced the king pin bushings because of shimmy

I haven't worn any out but my SD has cracked one completely in half at the pin

 

[ultrarunner]

I haven't worn any out but my SD has cracked one completely in half at the pin

Once I was driving down the road and caught something flying towards me from across the median... it was half a leaf spring from a spring pack...

Lucky for me it hit smack in the middle of my driver's side front door... left a nasty gash in the door skin... 24" higher and it would have been me... also had the window down at the time.

I still have it kicking around somewhere... most expensive piece of spring steel I own!

 

[sd455dan]

Once I was driving down the road and caught something flying towards me from across the median... it was half a leaf spring from a spring pack...

Lucky for me it hit smack in the middle of my driver's side front door... left a nasty gash in the door skin... 24" higher and it would have been me... also had the window down at the time.

I still have it kicking around somewhere... most expensive piece of spring steel I own!

Wow i bet that was a surprise!!
Luckily i discovered the broken leaf immediately after a hard launch one day.
I replaced them with the z-28 style that have an extra leaf and so far no problems.

Leaf springs have to survive a lot of different stressful things- i am kind of amazed that they don't fail more often.

 

[ultrarunner]

Mostly all I need to do on a 100 year old automotive spring pack is replace the bushings and it's good for another 100 years!

 

[MinnesotaEric]

I haven't worn any out but my SD has cracked one completely in half at the pin

I cracked leafs on my old 1980 F250 as well.

It must be a tradition. :drink: