I purchased a 1974 F350, 2wd, DRW, with a 12' x 8' dump body on it. Before you laugh, know that this truck has 73K original miles on it and has solid, original cab mounts, and almost no rust any place else. I do not feel bad about the condition of this truck. I will say that I am thinking of repowering it with a Cummins already, as the 360 in it, while it runs great, is gutless and sucks gas like it's going out of style.
Anyway, it is titled for 20K GVW. I weighed it and it's NVW is 8,320 lbs. My partner loaded it down with 4.57 tons (9,140 lbs) of gravel and told me he thought it was maxed out, that the rear axle was almost in contact with the frame bumper. This would have put it at 18,280 lbs GVW with the gravel on it.
I have no clue what the GVW was originally, from the factory, as back in '74 they didn't put such information on the door plate. I do not know if the springs on the rear have been changed/enhanced for this dump body. I know the dump body has only been on there for a few years, as that part of the truck is almost new.
I'm trying to figure out how to assess the actual GVW I should go by, and possibly change the title to the new GVW, if 20K is not accurate.
I know that brakes and axles come into play with GVW, but don't know how much bearing they should have on the end number.
The rear is a D60. The brake are dual piston calipers in front and 12"x3" shoes in the rear.
Anyone have any tips, or know who I should ask about calculating the GVW for this truck?

Thanks,
Chris

 

Are you sure the rear is a dana 60 ?

I've never seen a drw d60, nor a d60 rated for that much weight. I'm guessing it is a dana 70, which does look a lot like a d60, heck they even use the same diff cover & gasket.


Find out 150% for sure which rear axle you have. Somewhere on the rear axle tube pass side, near the spring perch will be the BOM number. You may need to clean the tube real good to read it. That number will tell you everything about that axle (gearing, bearings, original build info, etc).

It will be a 6 digit number followed by a 1 digit number (603237-2 is one of my old axle BOM's).

You can also pull an axle out and count the splines to try & narrow it down. I personally don't see any d60 axle ever being strong enough for a 20k rating.

The d80 in my dually is only rated for 11,000 lbs and it is a ton bigger than a d60 or 70.

 

TRCM has the right idea. What the truck is titled for has no bearing on what the truck was built to haul, the previous owner was just willing to pay for the tags. Look at registration weights as a tax, you could probably title it for 26,000 if you wanted to. If you are regularly going to load it up to over 18k then you need those tags to keep from getting an overweight ticket. Maybe it is a Ford thing, but I have a 67 C20 pickup, and it has a GVWR (7500)/VIN tag riveted to the door frame. It came with 16.5 split rim wheels and full floating rear axles. Gee, 9140 pounds of gravel on a 3500 frame nearly bottomed out the axle, go figure.

 

Are you sure it's titled for 20k GVWR (gross vehicle weight rating) and not 20k GCWR (gross combination weight rating), which is the max rating for tow vehicle and trailer. Generally, 3/4 ton and 1 ton pickups have a GVWR around 10k and a GCWR around 20k. For an explanation of these acronyms check here:

http://busbuilding.com/bus-conversio...acronyms-mean/

The GAWR (gross axle weight rating) of a Dana 70 is around 6500Lbs and a Dana 80 is around 7500Lbs with some exceptions. Here's a chart:

http://www.dodgeram.org/tech/specs/axle/rear_axle.html

It seems unlikely to me that any 3/4 ton or 1 ton pickup could handle 10k in the cargo without very extensive modifications.

 

Yeah, I'm sure of the titling, which is why I posted here. DMV busted me hard on the tags for it. My insurance company is probably going to up the price since it's above their 18K limit.
From the registration:


I am of the suspicion that this GVW is high, which is why I am trying to figure out what my genuine GVW should be, for licensing, insuring, and safety.

I do not know where I got the idea that this is a D60. I will check further into it and see if I can get the BOM off it. It's at my partner's house right now, and he's not available to go out and look tonight. I'll see if I can get the info tomorrow.

Thanks,
Chris

 

I had a few 350s through the 70s and 80s, and the gvw ranged from a low of 10,000 to 13,500lbs. depending on things like springs, tires, rear end,front end.

 

The DOT here in Canada told me on a truck like that they go by the weight on the tires. If you are over on the back end more then the tires are rated for you get fined. That would be the best place to ask, go the scale, at least then you will have an answer sorta. Still dont trust those guys.

 

A 74 F-350 is certainly not going to carry a GVWR of 20,000. That is F-550 territory!

A 74 F-350 would have a GVWR of 10,000 as most all 1 tons did until recently. It is capable of carrying much more. If your tagged for 20,000 then at least your legal from a plate standpoint. Doesn't mean your 100% safe though.

Personally I would never go putting 9000+ lbs in the back of a 1 ton truck. That is asking for an accident.

 

You are in VA...you can tell them any number for GW & GVWR ad they will put it on the title as long as you pay the money, but you have to prove EW.

According to those numbers and the way dmv sees it, you can't pull a trailer with that truck either.

and halbritt...those numbers are a lot lower than the dana website I got them from.

BTW, the empty weight on that f350 is less than the empty weight of my 1/2 ton ramcharger stock (4400 lbs, and that is about 600 lbs light in reality).

heck, my jeep almost weighs that much.


If you look, it is titled for a gross weight of 20k, NOT a gvwr of 20K. there is a difference...still wrong, but they aren't the same thing

I think mine is titled as EW 7500, GW 7501, and gcwr of 25,000. the gvwr on my truck is 11,000, and I purposely left it off the title.

Thinking about it, maybe I should change it to 11,000 lbs from 7501, but that's how dmv put it in


My bet is it is a dana 70 axle, as the 80's weren't being made yet.

 

Had my partner look at it last night (he got out of training sooner than expected). He was unable to find any BOM on the axle. There is a tag bolted to the diff cover, but it's partially unreadable due to corrosion. I have not looked at it but my partner is not a dumb guy, and went armed with a wire brush to look for the BOM on the back of the right axle tube, so the BOM is in an odd place, if there at all.
The EW on this truck is believable to me. as it originally was some kind of navy truck, and sat on Dahlgren Naval Base for most of it's life, in a hangar, with some kind of satelite dish on it. This explains the low mileage and lack of rust. Of course, the current EW is different due to the addition of the dump bed.
How important is it for me to get the EW right on the title/registration? Does it really matter as long as I'm licensed for at least that weight?

Thanks,
Chris

 

Gvwr of F350's (dually) was 10k until 99. I had an old Chevy dump and what I did to calculate its capacity was take the rating of the tires minus actual weight and that will give you a max safe cargo weight. Which I am going to guess is around 4000 pounds.

 

we have an 82 ford f350 dump, huge rear springs, 4spd , 400cid, and it has the 15 sticker, i personally never liked having more than 5500lbs in the bed, 12ftby8ft. It might do it, or you migh break a leaf spring coming down a hill and kill yourself of some inocent driver. Keep the loads around 2.5 tons

 

Only thing EW is used for in VA is to determine if you need truck plates, and that truck will.

The fact that it is an ex military truck explains a lot, as they did whatever they wanted with the titles, heck, 1/2 the military vehicles I have seen don't even have smog stuff on them.

On the BOM, sometimes you have to use sandpaper to get it to show up. Rub luightly and it will appear like magic. The BOM is normally on the pass side axle tube, near the spring perch, abut halfway up the tube, and the number runs along the tube, not across it, but it may be anywhere between the spring perch and the pumpkin. the diff tag won't help you identify anything but gear ratios.

 

Still have not found the BOM. The axle has really short tubes, and I am suspicious, after looking at the Dana web site, that with very short tubes they did not put a BOM there. I have not yet been able to verify that though.
I did fins documentation that told me where to look for the model number, and as it turns out, the model number is stamped on the right, lower gusset on the carrier. We have found a "70" there, so I guess it's a D70. I have th axle tag, but some of it is too rusty to make out the numbers.
I'm using this to see if it can help decipher the rest:
http://www2.dana.com/pdf/X510-8.PDF

Anyway, the tires are rated at 3042 lbs each, @ 80 psi. This gives me a capacity of 12,168 on the rear axle, just going by the tires. I have not weighed each axle separately, so I do not know the weight distribution yet.

Thanks to all of you for the good info so far. It has given me clues, and much to think about.

Chris

 

I was listening to the top cop of the local highway detachment talking at an RV show about GVW, etc. He said they don't really care what you license it for, what springs, air bags, etc that you have added - they are going to go off the numbers on the plate.
Also, since even our pickup trucks are licensed here as commercial trucks (yeah, read your ICBC insurance paper) the fines can get ridiculous real fast.
Some guys here (BC) license for over 5000KG to avoid emissions testing (but under 5500KG to avoid the scales).