Lesson learned

[Kansas Kid]

Well guys, just to save you some trouble I decided that I will share my experience from today.  We need about a pickup bed (6') of top soil to smooth out some low areas around our house.  We haven't had much luck finding decent soil, so I decided that during my lunch break today I would go get some at the local sand company.

 

Whatever you do, take a 3/4 ton pickup when you go get dirt from a place like this.  LOL  I took my 1/2 ton over there, and said I needed about a bed full since I have an 8' bed.  I figured they would bring a small loader out, and give me about 1500lbs of dirt.  Boy was I wrong.   :notice:  They brought this huge CAT loader with about a 10' bucket on it to load my pickup.  He did pretty good for awhile, getting most of the dirt in front of the axle, so I wasn't worried.  But when I signaled for him that I had enough, he dropped a bit more.  Only problem is that this extra amount was right back on the tailgate.  So here I am with a 1/2 ton, and I got about 2500lbs of dirt in the bed, most of it behind the axle.  Truck still had room to squat though, it wasn't riding in the bumpstops.  It looks alot better now that I've moved most of the dirt in front of the axle.  Now it only looks like Zanes ZR2 did with 500lbs in the back.  LOL

 

Not really any point, except that I need a 2500HD.  

[Shaners]

That's alot of weight!!!  You're lucky you didn't damage your springs.  Have fun shoveling it out of there!!!

[Kansas Kid]

I was worried about that when I seen the old truck squat when he dropped that last bit in.  I had to drive about 5 miles home from there, I was hoping the springs would hold up until I could ge the load moved around better.  I had aired my tires up to 55psi, so I knew they were alright. (Not alot of weigh for 10plys, lol)  It had way too much behind the axle.  It was about bed height from the front until the axle and then it had about an extra 2' height wise in the back.  Now that I've got about 500lbs off, it is sitting just under level.  I'm thinking of leaving it loaded like this so I can have plenty of traction in the snow this winter.  LOL

 

btw Shane, if you want to come help shovel it out I would gladly let ya.  Same goes for anybody else.  LOL

[Jpshostr]

While I haven't done that, I have done that to someone else.  A friend that lives in town wanted us to give him some manure from our cow herd.  No problem, we make a plenty a day.  He showed up with his truck, an '88 Chevy half ton shortbed 2wd.  I got up on the loader tractor and only gave him half a bucket worth.  I tried to slowly dump it off, but since it was kind of wet it came out in one huge clump.  When that crap hit the bed I think the bumper hit the ground and he about filled up his pants.  That poor thing was loaded down worse than I have ever seen anything before or since then.  He said on the way home all he could get out of it was 35mph.  He came back for a few more loads, but I hardly filled up the loader bucket those times.  He found out what hard work it is scooping crap by hand, he was pretty wore out when he got back each time.

[pacodiablo]

ewww, he touched cow poop with his bare hands!?!?! NASTY!

[Kansas Kid]

Hey paco, ever heard of this thing called a shovel?  LOL

 

My truck wasn't near as bad as the one you mentioned Jp.  It still handled good, and had to problem acclerating or stopping.  Just took a little more gas and brake to get it done.  I've only got it about half unloaded, and I'm tired of it.  I'm just hoping it don't rain before I get done.

[pacodiablo]

ohhh, by hand as in not using a tractor, i thought jp meant the dude was using his hands!

[Chev4Ever]

When i loaded up my truck with wood, it was fun to load it up to see how much wood i could put in the back of my truck.. The not so fun part was the unloading for like 2 hours..

[Kansas Kid]

Since I've been driving my truck around with some of this dirt for the past day (didn't have time to take it all out), I've been thinking about something.  How come I take a 1/2 ton to go get a load of dirt, and all these CC F250 PSD's and CC 2500HD's I seen running around are going to the grocery store?  Don't make much sense that I'm using a 1/2 ton pickup more then 90% of these people will ever use a 3/4 ton.  I just thought that was kind of funny.  

[Torque Junkie]

Been there, done that.... sorta

 

One summer back when I was in college, I responded to an ad to deliver phone books, and me beeing a greedy bastage decided to take the biggest route.   I borrowed my dad's 87 1/2 ton Suburban to go pick up the books.  Apparently my route needed ALOT more books than I had expected because it was in the Business District.  We loaded up that sub with so many dang books it's not even funny.  Floor to almost to the roof, back of the front seet to the back doors, and some in the front seat.

 

We calculated that there was about 2200lbs of phone books in that sagging, old tired truck.  It was rather humorous, but delivering them proved to be alot bigger of a pain than I had expected.

[MadFish]

I worked on a paper route here in Kc. I had to ride in the back of a 1988 1/2ton Ford. On sundays the rear bumper would touch the ground. This truck was wore out bad. When things fell off, we just picked back up and tied back on. It ran good, until it literally blew up on us one morning while we were running the apt's. The burn mark where the truck was sitting was still there a year later. Me and the boss made that our last trip around the route. To bad 1200 people didnt get their papers though.

[doverarjim]

With my 86 GMC I went to get a truck load of sand one day for a project, when the loader operator would only fill it about half as full as I wanted he went back and got a big bucket full about 5 yards and then instead of flipping it off he just dumped it, the old truck just bounced once and set there.  Sand was piled up cab high and then went down and out to the top of the bed rails, on the way home I stopped and picked up 10 bags of mortar mix at 94 pounds each hooked to a mortar mixer and drove about 50 MPH with the AC on the old 350 just hummed along.  Man I loved that old truck.  Sure do miss it everyonce in a while, but I do love my newer truck.

[NeXuS1]

this is where i have to say.. silly 1/2 tons.  now you see why i went to all the work to find my 95 K2500 8 lug with big block and 4.10s. dont have to worry about picking up dirt. or a bunch of sod, or a loader full of gravel, or  towing a fully loaded sport hauler. now you see.. <insert evil laugh>