RJ:
Are you asking about weight on the trailer axles ? My 25' goose equip. hauler transfers 25% to the ball (off the trailer & load). My 44' goose enclosed (which is +10' from rear of 3500 axle to first trailer axle), transfers 33% - these are empty weight transfers. Longer the "bridge", greater the transfer. Does this help ?

 

No... the truck axle....but think you answered. Always wondered about that. So all the talk about loading the trailer behind it's axle to balance it is BS. As I suspected...really can't be done with a full load, ie. 20,000 lbs hay bales, or a backhoe.

I must be missing something? With a ball wt limit of x lbs (not many), how safe is it to have thousands of lbs sitting on that ball?

I'm curious cause I never towed much over 10,000 lb., but it's all been in front of the trailer axle??

RJ

 

In the 50s and 60s they were 10, 20, and 30 or 100, 200, and 300. Then in about 1970 there was a heavy duty half ton introduced to get above the minimum GVW for smog regulations. The 1/2 Fords for instance, could have a simpler emmisions package if they could be rated for a higher GVW. So Ford started selling the F150. At that time you had to special order a 100. Pretty soon there were no "100s" because there were "150s" and that sounds better. Then, for some reason, the 200 became the 250 and the 300 became 350. And finally the 250 became the 2500 and the 350 the 3500. Marketing.

With Ford, the original one tons got cheapened more and more till they were more like half tons so the Superduty thing came out. Pretty soon everyone will have to by a 450 Superduty to get a true 3/4 ton. Ridiculous.
Examples of this are the twin I beam links that used to be forged steel on the half ton and became stamped steel on the one ton. 3/4 tons used to have full floater axles with eight bolts. Now they're semi float with seven bolts. And on and on.

How much you can carry safely in a truck depends, within limits, on where you are driving it. If it's just a slow trip across town to the dump, you can double the rating or even more and probably be fine. But if you are heading through the mountains with steep grades and many miles over rough roads, or no roads, it's far better to stay within the rated limits. Heavy bottoming leads to broken axles and steep grades can overwhelm the brakes. Hard surprise stops on curves with minimal suspension and a heavy load is not safe. Even the rated load capacity, which seems light, can be too much at times. Just use commom sense and experience.

Wetspirit

 

what Wetspirt said was close, but what change it from 100s to 150s and brought out chevys big 10 that later became the1500 was the begining of unleaded gas in 1975 you could still run leaded gas if your gvw was higher ( I think it was over 6000 lbs )so the reason for the 150s ect, then in 1985 or 86 the old standard for 3/4 tons 8,400 lbs for heavy ones went up because the law required 8,500 gvw or more to run leaded gas next leaded was gone all together

 

If you are referring to the Military Hummer in the bold text, also known as the Humvee the correct letters would be HMMWV (High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle) FYI

sorry I couldn't resist, I am a Hummer buff.

but thats my only correction.

 

K 10s were 1/2 tons

 

So remind me what a K5 was, just applied to Blazers? I swear my first vehicle I ever bought at age 15 was a K5 Blazer. But, that was a long time ago...memory...fading...what were we discussing again?

 

Are you saying the axles on the 3/4 ton+ are non full floating?

Jeff

 

Chev and GMC were distinguishable by their designation at one time.

Chev used even numbers as C10/20/30
GMC used odd numbers as C15/25/35

C stood for Pickup
K stood for Blazer/Jimmy
P stood for Panel
G was the Van designation

 

No, I think "C" was 2wd and "K" was 4wd.

 

The A2 incorporates the four-speed, electronic tranny coupled with a 6.5L diesel. The payloads of these vehicles range from 4400 to 5100-lbs including the crew.

They really don't tow that much weight. They are impressive, but will never compare to my Unimog for off road capability.http://www.unimog-trucks.com/index.php?id=18

 

jwooden your right k 4x4 c 2x4

 

jeffahart,

No, I'm saying the axles on many 3/4 tons are semi floating. 3/4 ton Chevy and Dodge vans (2500) have 1/2 ton axles, meaning 5 bolt semi floating. And in Mexico I've seem 1/2 ton trucks with the 250 logo on them.
It seems the 1 tons still get the 8 bolt full floaters, in other words, the 3/4 ton axle.

I'm just making the point that trucks get cheapened more and more or built lighter and lighter for the same rating. Dodge trucks seem to be a little less affected by this, Fords a little more.

Wetspirit

 

the rating of "3/4" ton is or has been very deceiving some of the companys make or did in the past 3 differnt gvw rated trucks in the same year I've seen ratings as low as 6,800 lbs and as high as 9,200 with the lite ones running the same axles as 1/2 ton and the heavy the same as 1 tons

 

I was going to correct him, but you did a fine job!