First Load

[doliver56]

Thought I would let you guys take a look at what a couple thousand pounds looks like in a Z71.

 

Loaded - Rear went down ~3" (~1.5" before bumpstops) and Front came up ~1"

 

I am new to the forum and this is my first post as I have only owned the truck for two weeks. I thought the truck handled it very well

 

Let me know what you think.

 

 

[jrrod2004]

no problem with traction (thats for sure)

[doliver56]

Yeah, more traction is always a good thing this time of year in upstate NY. As you can see they do use a little salt.... the truck is actually black

 

Might hurt my fuel mileage though

[slimjim2525]

Wow, it looks like it handled that ton pretty well. I miss my pellet stove.

[dietz4ibanez]

Yeah that load is no problem for that work horse! Sure does suck when that salt gets on your truck doesnt it? I used to live by Cleveland Ohio most of my life but now I live in the south. I went to Michigan for the holidays with the inlaws and all my chrome got rust spots. It sucks!

[pm26]

Your first load? If you keep this up, it may be your last load soon. Seriously, do not do this with your truck as a habit - 2000 lbs in the bed is pushing it with this truck.

 

Quite frankly, renting a U Haul trailer for $ 17/day and loading that to 2k lbs is a lot better approach. I always use a trailer for hauling heavy stuff like that. You can cause local deformation of the bed sheet metal with a heavy concentrated load like that. Placing a large piece of plywood under the pallet would prevent that.

[jrrod2004]

hmmm never thought about it like that.......guess that is why a fifth wheel is used on the 2500HD. Good point Pete.

[Bostonsfavson]

Your first load? If you keep this up, it may be your last load soon. Seriously, do not do this with your truck as a habit - 2000 lbs in the bed is pushing it with this truck.

 

Quite frankly, renting a U Haul trailer for $ 17/day and loading that to 2k lbs is a lot better approach. I always use a trailer for hauling heavy stuff like that.

 

I think he'll be ok. The payload capacity of that truck is 1739 lbs. If he's not hitting the bump stops, then he'll probably be alright. I know he said a couple thousand pounds, but that may have been an estimate and it may have been less. The pallet should have enough of a foot print to distribute the weight in a manner as to not hurt the bed floor. We haul hydroseeding mulch in a similar manner and we've always been okay.

[Huntervh]

Looks pretty good!

 

Now the real question, how long will the wood pellets last you and what is the cost. Just curious, with the price of heat I am thinking about adding a wood pellet stove in the basement.

[Nice rig]

I got a big wood burning stove in my house...heat's the entire house and saves about $50/month in the winter. I hate heat pumps. I should have took a picture with 3100 lbs of rock in my truck, put it level.

[pm26]

I think he'll be ok. The payload capacity of that truck is 1739 lbs.

 

The payload capacity includes the weight of passengers, so in this case with the driver it is around 1500 lbs. Also, by placing a concentrated 2000 lb load over the rear axle, one is possibly overloading the axle and rear springs.

[Bostonsfavson]

I think he'll be ok. The payload capacity of that truck is 1739 lbs.

 

The payload capacity includes the weight of passengers, so in this case with the driver it is around 1500 lbs. Also, by placing a concentrated 2000 lb load over the rear axle, one is possibly overloading the axle and rear springs.

 

 

That's true; I forgot to factor in the weight of the driver. Like I mentioned earlier, our gopher truck is exactly the same as the one pictured, and we very often use it to pick up 1600 lb. pallets of hydroseeding mulch. It's a 35 mile drive from the distributor to our yard over various road surfaces and we've never hit the bump stops or hurt the truck (which has over 150K miles on it now, many of which are devoted to similar runs).

[dietz4ibanez]

So whats the point in having a truck like that other then trying to get attention from others???

 

 

I think he'll be ok. The payload capacity of that truck is 1739 lbs.

 

The payload capacity includes the weight of passengers, so in this case with the driver it is around 1500 lbs. Also, by placing a concentrated 2000 lb load over the rear axle, one is possibly overloading the axle and rear springs.

 

 

If you take extra precaution to the heavy weight during driving you should never have a problem with that much weight. My truck is a 99 and I run a landscaping company with the use of my truck. Over the past almost nine years I have put countless numbers of pallets of sod in the back of my truck, I think 10 pallets 1 at a time this past summer. A dry pallet would probably weigh about 2500lbs and wet sod can weigh as much as 2800-3000lbs depending on how many squ. ft on each pallet. My truck has almost 200k and I have never had a problem with it!

[pm26]

I did not realize sod was this heavy. I thought 2000 lbs max for wet sod. Anyway, I have a heavy duty utility trailer, so for me it's no big deal. I also wonder if those pre- 2000 trucks were made a lot sturdier than the new ones. My neighbor bought a new '04 Z71 ECSB and after 30k miles his transmission grenaded. To be fair, he pulled a heavy trailer, about 10k lbs, but only around town and not too far and not all the time either - maybe once a week. He had numerous Z71 trucks before which he said he abused the same way and never had such a problem.

[dietz4ibanez]

I think that they are! I would not mind having the 5.3 motor though just for the fact that they got a lot more base hp. My truck came stock with 255 and I think that the newer body style has 295. Doesn't the newest silverado have about 315 or 317hp? I think that a pallet of Bermuda weighs about 2000lbs. But usually only about 310squ ft. of sod. The fescue pallets that I get have anywhere from 550-600 squ ft of sod. Just depends where I get it!

 

I am getting ready for a newer bigger truck even though this one has served me well and just keeps on trucking!