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  1. 7521 New Member

    joined: Feb 25, 2012
    15 posts
    California sierras
    Used my 1/2 ton crew cab silverado to haul a ton once. Never again. Next time I'll breakout the car trailer and do a couple of tons and not worry about the load. The car trailer has a diamond plate deck and 'E' track to secure the load along with surge brakes. Safer for everyone.

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  2. rwthomas1 Member

    joined: Dec 20, 2011
    117 posts
    Wakefield, RI
    I have a '04 Silverado 1500 reg cab, long bed, 2wd with the 5.3, auto and 3.73 gears. Its a stripped work truck, so its as light as a Silverado can get. Its job is to tow my construction tool trailer and the dump trash trailer to and from the jobsites. Though well within the limits of tongue weight and tow weight I thought that the rear sagged a bit too much. Thats what long leaf smooth riding leaf springs will do, they carry the load but deflect too much when loaded. I added a set of Hellwig airbags to the rear, now I can adjust to whatever I want to add to the bed. The truck is about 4200lbs empty and IIRC rated for 6100lbs max? Either way, with me in it and a ton in the bed I'm just over the limit. Still moves the ton just fine. Rear tires fully inflated, airbags fully inflated, break the load down so as much weight as possible is forward and as low as possible in the bed. I tried hauling with the pallet stack just dropped in the bed ONCE. Too top heavy and attracts too much attention. Works for me. Unless you have signage on your truck, or are obviously commercial the cops around here don't notice you.
  3. Corey Minister of Fire

    joined: Nov 19, 2005
    2,009 posts
    Midwest
    '04 Ford F150 4x4 with 500# helper springs on the rear. Never hauled pellets, but I find when I go to the landscape store, about 3,000 lbs is where I draw the limit. I wouldn't want to drive 50 miles of interstate, but taking the back roads 10 miles into town is no real issue. I'd probably load a bit more with firewood because I can stack that load a higher behind the cab and have less weight hanging on the tail whereas most of the landscape stuff pours out evenly in the bed.

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