2 ton to pull 10 ton

Just curious if any of you folks use a old 1 1/2 ton or 2 ton truck with a gas motor and 4 speed manual with 2 speed rearend to haul your equipment around like , backhoe or midsize dozer. No need to answer if you use a diesel truck bigger or smaller. I have no desire for a diesel engine in a truck, they may be better but this is just something Im considering to pull a 15 ton trailer with electric brakes. Anyone have success with a gas motor, 4 speed with 2 speed splitter? Thanks for reading! Merry Christmas

I used to have an international 1600 with a 9ft flatbed, I think the engine was a 345, 4 speed with 2 speed axle. I pulled a 24ft dual tandem axle with a John Deere 550 dozer. Engine was rebuilt but had a hard time doing 50mph. I had a 1990 F350 with a standard trans. that pulled it much better and in better comfort. Was not sorry to see the international sell. Good luck

I've seen them pull a lot more than that. A local trucker used to use gas engine semi trucks to haul grain for hire til into the 90s at least. Claimed the lighter weight allowed for a larger payload that payed for the extra fuel and more. His trucks were always Chevy's with single drives and tag axles with a full size hopper trailer.

Had a B170 IH with a 345 and 5 and 2. We have had 340 bushels of corn on it. You could get it rolling ok but stopping took planning. If I remember that was about ten ton load. I wouldn't want to do it in today's traffic.

Sure it will . At about 4 mpg which isn?t bad if you?re not putting a lot of miles on it a year even better if you already have the truck

I had a couple single axle IH dump trucks I would haul 10 tons of material or pull a trailer with dozer or backhoe. One had a 4 and 2 the other a 5 and 2. A long time ago I drove a cement truck with a gas engine and a 5 and 3 or maybe 5 and 4 and it was a tandem with a 9 yard barrel so not a small truck. Don't forget the CCKW 6x6 army trucks used in WWll were a 2ton truck with a gas engine and just a 5 speed.

One of those old trucks will pull the load easy, but probably not too fast. In high school in the early 70's I hauled gravel for a local man who had several F-800 fords, 2 speed rear ends, gas engines, 20 ton gravel trailers. At that time and into the 80's there were literally hundreds of F-600 to F-800 and Chevy C-50 to C-65's pulling 12 cords of pulpwood or 4500 board feet of logs in our area, plus puliing equipmnet lowboy trailers when time to move the job.

They can do it, just not going to do it fast. Just about every Med duty truck before the mid/late 80's was using gas engines and doing this kind of work. If you have the choice, get the most cubic inches and cylinders as you can get, preferably a V8 with at least 400+ cubic inches

The truck can easily handle the pulling side of it. Watch out for the gas motor, vacuum booster brakes. They need to be in good working order to stop the extra weight of the trailer/load even with electric brakes on the trailer. Getting those hydrovac units repaired is getting hard.

Just be prepared for the fuel mileage or I should say lack of it. LOL Hauled a lot of grain on trucks like your talking about. 2-4 MPG was not uncommon.

Wow, all great information and a fantastic amout of reassurance that its possible. Thanks to everyone!

My fathers last logging truck was a 1966 F600, 391, 5 speed, 2 speed rear end, not tandem. It was hooked to a 32 foot tandem trailer built out of 8x8 rock elm timbers. We would gross out at about 60,000 pounds in the winter, a little less in the summer. It would make 7 or 8 trips from the CA border to a paper mill in Grand Rapids MN per week, 150 mile round trip. When the air brakes worked right it was reasonably safe, it wouldn't pull a load much over 55. Most of the local loggers ran similar equipment, you don't need a big diesel engine to haul a big load.

I have been using one for years, and my Dad used the truck from new in 54.All the truck has done is haul hay, or tractors. It is a 1 1/2 ton, with a four speed and two speed axle. It's just not real fast going up a gade. It does the job with a 235 six. Stan

I had a Louisville Ford with 5 speed,2 speed rear and a 391 motor it pulled good,got decent mileage and would run 60 MPH all day long.

With them tiny skinny little sparkplugs. You think you are going to break the darn things.

Are you sure it doesn't have a 261 in it. The 54 I had was a 261. Had a wrist pin rattle for several years so I updated it with a 350 and an TH350 automatic in front of the 4 speed & 2 speed. It worked pretty good for hauling grain with a 14 foot bed.

The mom & pop freight line I drove for at one time had nothing but Chevy & GMC gas powered tractors with 5 speed and 2 speed axle.. They used 283,327,350,366,and 427 for power plants. We pulled 28 foot trough 53 foot van trailers. We pulled a number loads that should have had a heavier tractor.<

ya 235 was a good pickup engine but too small for 1 1/2 0r 2 ton trucks. My 1960 Chev. C60 had 261. It went bad & I put 283 with 327 heads in. It went about 5 mph faster than the 261 but would stall out with 60 crossties coming up out of the pit. Switched back after rebuilding the 261. The extra lugging power was more important than speed.

I have a 1995 Ford F450 that is rated at 1 1/2 ton. It has the 460 (7.5) gas engine but with 4 speed auto trans and a 4.63 single speed rear end. I have only had it about 10 months. The engine is great but trany had to be replaced.This truck handles 13,000 lbs. like there is nothing behind it and gets about 7 miles to gallon loaded. The Allis weighs 6,000bs. and Farmall weighs 8,200lbs.

My dad's first CCKW log truck. One of the first things I drove, when very young, around the mill yard.

Last goof ball I drove for had an early '80's F-700 Ford with the 8.2L Detroit Fuel Pincher diesel in it, got 7 mpg when it was running right and would run 65 mph, would get about 4-5 mpg and run 45-50 when it started running bad every month or two. Truck was fine, 5+2 transmission, air brakes, like driving my F-150 except the air brakes.

Goof Ball bought an early '70's IH FleetStar single axle tractor, 478 cid gas V-8, straight 5-speed, single speed rear axle. Would run 62 mph empty or loaded, and get about 3 mpg. I put about 2400-2500 miles a week on the truck, engine was wide open, exhaust manifolds glowing orange hot out on the road. Truck started summer or winter with just a flick of the key. Burned a quart of oil every day. Goof Ball was terrible on maintenance, claimed he did maintenance but I knew better. Pilot bearing in transmission failed about 200 miles from home, but the old Binder got me home.

Township I worked for had a Miller brand equipment trailer with pintle hitch we pulled with the Chevy C65 dump trucks with 366 gas V-8's and 5+2 transmission. We hauled the Case 530 Construction Ling tractor, loader, backhoe to the farther points of the township on some projects. The empty truck weighed almost 10,000#, heavy-duty everything, snow plow mount was BIG heavy channel iron beams under frame of truck back just in front of drive axle. 12,000# frt axle, 23,000# rear axle, cast Dayton wheels. Just plan your stops ahead of time. Not sure what the

I'd look for a truck with a 5-speed. Typical 4-speed medium duty truck will have small block V-8 or 6 cylinder. 5-speeds will be in Big block powered trucks, don't forget GMC made some great Big Block V-6 gas engines in the 1960's and early '70's. Keeping vacuum brakes working will be the biggest service issue, right ahead of keeping the gas engine running right. Not many of those old gas burners out there anymore.

That's a sweet one. Brings back a lot of memories.

Neighbor has a D350 dually and a stump grinding business. He has a pential hitch and a 3 axle dump trailer. He puts his Bobcat in and dirt/wood chips trailer. He also pulls his 75 hp stump grinder behind trailer. Somehow something went wrong and the back end of truck slid and caved in the truck's back fender.
He doesn't have any weight in bed of truck.

RusTtrader, do you have a specific truck in mind?

How often you'll be hauling, how far you have to go, and what kind of terrain you're driving on, will dictate how much hair you have left on the top of your head after a trip, but as long as she runs and stops, you'll get the job done.

Before anyone points out any alleged "change of heart", the difference here is you're not asking if you can haul an 8000lb tractor on a 7000lb rated car hauler trailer with an F150.

Awesome picture, thanks for sharing.

How can you get from California to Minnesota in a 150 miles?

You talking about the IH FleetStar made me remember that the first tractor the company gave me to drive was a IH FleetStar 210 series with a 450 Red Diamond inline 6 with a 5 speed and single speed rear end. That tractor did 50 MPH tops loaded or empty but that tractor was like a tank in the winter in deep snow or muddy roads it plowed right on through.

I guess I wonder why you would not think they could ? Way back when that's all they had ! LOL.
Now your biggest obstacle will likely be the DMV and insurance companies ! I had an old IHC road tractor with a gas engine once. Insurance co. didn't like the fifth wheel ! I had made an adapter hitch for my gooseneck to fit the fifth wheel that was already on the truck. I got rid of it not long after I had it.
I still have a 1981 F350 4 speed manual that I put a 460 gas engine in. That has moved some really heavy loads ! no scales to check and didn't want to really know !
Not too long ago I started seeing the horse people swapping out the 4 door 1 tons for medium duty trucks. Truck companies took notice and started offering a line of low profile medium duty's.

CA is the abbreviation for Canada!

(quoted from post at 23:58:29 12/19/18) One of those old trucks will pull the load easy, but probably not too fast. In high school in the early 70's I hauled gravel for a local man who had several F-800 fords, 2 speed rear ends, gas engines, 20 ton gravel trailers. At that time and into the 80's there were literally hundreds of F-600 to F-800 and Chevy C-50 to C-65's pulling 12 cords of pulpwood or 4500 board feet of logs in our area, plus puliing equipmnet lowboy trailers when time to move the job.

Click to expand...

Bingo! I drove a gas 74 Dodge with a 5x2. Pulled a trailer with paving equip. Never had a problem pulling but spent a lot of time shifting and staying in the slow lane. That was great truck!

For many years gas engine powered truck roamed the roads . there aqre still a lot of gas powered grain trucks used on small farms . Yes they get the job done but they are not travailing far . They are slow when loaded , eat gas like M &M's parts are getting harder to find , brake problems and for the most part due to improper adjustment as most people do not know how to adjust them or the lack there of . Would i want to throw a big heavy trailer behind one with ELECTRIC brakes Nope i personally do not like electric brakes , yes i own a trailer with electric brakes , yes i have had brake problems . You have never lived till you had a total brake failure fully loaded . Half a CENTURY back i was driving a gas powered semi pulling a FIFTY TON lowboy hauling heavy equipment , you became a master in the gear selection dept. with 20 gears to work with . Nothing like pulling a hill at a mind blistering speed of 4-10 MPH baking in the cab from the heat off the engine and sucking down gas you were lucky to get 300 miles on a 125 gallon . Now today this is what i have seen with my own eyes , One year while getting my corn off i had a friend give me a hand i had a 1700 loadstar with a 16 foot mid west bed with a 393 four bbl five and 2 , my friend came down with his NEW 89 Dodge 3/4 ton diesel with a AUTO MATIC 4x4 pulling a Moritz tri axle grain trailer with the vary same grain bed mounted on it . last two loads taken off that farm that evening my friend had 356 bushel on his trailer i had 345 on the truck , We both pulled out together head for the elevator together This farm was way back in on a nasty old back dirt road , Vernon used low range four wheel drive to pull out of there and i eased on out in second low . BUT once were hit the black top and vernon went into high range the drive of 23 miles to the elevator he was GONE and this was not on pool table flat ground either there was a lot of shifting and splitting going on , by the time i arrived at the scales he was already dumped and waiting to weight out as i was coming in . During the day of hauling with both trucks his DODGE used a little over 20 gallon while the loadstar sucked up 75 gallon. Then here is the next kicker what is the GVW of the truck your thinking of usen , then you already said a 30000 lb trailer , NOW you fall into the large car bracket as once you cross that line in the sand of 26000 it's a whole new world and you get to meet a whole new group of people with there hands in your pocket with all kinds of goofy ideas and to make there point they dig into your pocket book HARD.

I wish it had a 261. It's a 235. Don't remember all the facts, but the engine was changed at one time to the 235. I don't know if they were still putting 216 engines in the 54's. Maybe it was just another rebuilt 235. Stan