Overloading the wood hauler

[Flatbedford]

This is from another forum I visit from time to time. This guy ran off a dirt road into a ditch with a pretty good load of Hedge in his Dodge Dakota. The impact bent the frame and sent wood and tools in through the back window. He and his wife suffered only minor bumps and bruises. I'd say this truck was way overloaded and that he was lucky. Just because the load will fit in your truck doesn't mean you can carry it safely. This truck was probably already nearly overloaded with the empty utility body on it. Let's be careful folks.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Steve, it doesn't look like it was overloaded unless some fell off. More than likely it was already weakened. Still, going in a ditch does create a bit of stress.

 

[Flatbedford]

Maybe it wasn't overloaded, but we should all keep in mind that the stuff in the truck will want to keep moving even if the truck stops.

 

[ISeeDeadBTUs]

A utility box . . . on a Dakota??!? :wow:

 

[Highbeam]

Old Dakota in salt city. Single rear wheel truck too.

Even on my one ton I can see the flex in the frame while going down the road with a load.

 

[mayhem]

I had to look a few times myself to be sure thats what it actually was. i agree the empty utility body probably put the thing near its GVWR...that little bit of wood was probably all over the top.

Bet the frame already had some corrosion too. or the thing was a cut and weld splice job to connect the Dakota cab tot he utility body frame and the welds snapped.

 

[Danno77]

That's a steel service/utility system. Not even Fiberglass. That Dakota was overloaded the second any tools went into it. Add the wood on top of that and you've got a recipe for disaster. Surprised the frame was the thing that gave, as said previously, probably has some significant corrosion on it!

Glad to hear the couple was unharmed. Sorry to see a truck die that way!

 

[ISeeDeadBTUs]

Note the tilt to the right. Overloaded as soon as the wife got in!!

 

[gpcollen1]

Steve, it doesn't look like it was overloaded unless some fell off. More than likely it was already weakened. Still, going in a ditch does create a bit of stress.

As some indicated, there are many trucks out there with utility Bodies that are just about overloaded from the start. add tools or 2000# of wood and you are overloaded. My old boss used to buy these pieces of junk all the time and thought they were great - mostly b/c he did not have to drive them. Through 10 bags of cement in there and the ass was sagging already...

 

[sgt7546]

Never knew Darwin to drive a yellow truck..but its possilbe.

 

[iskiatomic]

That is just a dump body with the hydraulics hooked up wrong.


KC

 

[pybyr]

Maybe it's the hillbilly version of those trendy dropped-suspension lowered pickups...

 

[OhioBurner©]

Yeah that utility body was pushing the limit from the get go. But on anything of that age frame rot is going to weaken it further. Might not be so much a problem down south but in the rust belt your frame could be compromised. But when you have an old beater that’s worked well for the last 15 or twenty years its hard to believe it could be compromised even though it 'runs great'. A lot of folks I know drive old beaters for there wood trucks, I drive a brand new factory-ordered truck and they pick on me for it. I have nothing against old trucks, and have a '78 myself, but I have a 2+ hr drive to get back home from the families farm- I need piece of mind, especially when I am hauling the whole family along with the wood.

FWIW I ran off the road last year with a heaping load of cherry on my 99 F150, don’t want to get into all the details but around a corner an oncoming car didn’t give me enough room and I had to swerve - the wrong way around the bend, slid down a couple feet into the ditch at about 30 mph, branches from some evergreens along the roadside whacking my windshield in front of my wife’s face, and was able to drive it right back up on the road without skipping a beat... well my heart might have skipped a beat, or two, or three. I mild 2" lift and mildly oversized mud tires help on those dirt roads covered in a few inches, and I think they defiantly helped when in the ditch! We drive by the same spot in the road and wonder how we did it, the ditch slides down probably waiste deep, luckily somewhat gradual and not and abrupt ditch.