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OT-The Lowly Over Loaded 2 Ton Farm Truck

F

F-350

Member
Several days ago I was accused of being a liar and being unsafe for hauling nearly 400 bushels of corn on a 2 ton farm truck with hydraulic brakes.I was told to let them know when I would be on the road so they wouldnt be there.

I dug out some old scale tickets from the elevator and I was averaging around 370 bushels per load which is 20,700 lbs.The truck weighs 9700 lbs so the total is 30,400 lbs on a truck liscensed for 30,000 lbs.We do get a little weight tolerance at harvest time.

Truck # 1 is a 1970 IH 1800 with a 392,5 speed-2 speed ,and 16 ft bed with top sides.It has hydraulic brakes with 10x20 tires.

Truck #2 is a 1976 Ford F-700 with a 361,5 speed- 2 speed,and 16 ft bed with double top sides.It weighs close to 9800 empty.It has air brakes and 10x20 tires.It will easily haul over 400 bushels.I usually only do this when hauling from the fields to my own grain bins.Going to the elevator I try to be around 375 bushels so that I would weigh the same as the IH.


I live in level flat country with straight roads and not alot of traffic.Its 6 miles to the grain elevator with half being gravel and half being blacktop.

Lots of the nations farmers haul loads or used to haul loads like this before they went to semis.So are we all unsafe?How come you rarely ever hear of a 2 ton farm truck being involved in a wreck? I"ve never had a close call in 40 years.
 
I don't see anything wrong. I have a grain truck and a dump truck, and I regularly gross 30,000 on both.
 
don't worry about it some have no idea about hauling anything. if you want to get picky most big boats and travel trailers are to big for most cars and some trucks
 
there are some on here that talk about hauling a ton on a half ton truck and think thier safe.

now thats dumb
 
Some insurance companies won't even insure old farm trucks.Most are neglected by farmers unless something breaks.The hydraulic brakes were not very good when new.There weighing hopper wagons in ohio.Those big wagons they sell are easily over weight.Yes,you got by for 40 years,but with your next trip you might not.
 
Keep on Hauling at harvest time!!! Most of the farmers I know are safer than the other type of people. They do know how much room it takes to stop and how to stop.
 
These trucks are safety inspected every two years and they pass.The IH had a complete new brake system about 6000 miles ago.My insurance company gladly covers them as they have never had a claim from them.Theres not a thing wrong with hydraulic brakes if they are properly maintained.They got the job done when they were new and they will get the job done when they are old.
 
Keep on trucking, most have no idea about towing anything. I'm much less worried about somebody who knows what they are doing towing overweight, than the average Joe towing a 7k boat with a truck rated to tow 5500 lbs while hes talking on the phone and reading the newspaper.
 
This is almost as good as the story a relative told me about a haul he did with a 70's 1/2 ton Ford with a 360. He had 18000 LB plate on this truck as he pulled a goose neck trailer with it. His Dad was building a new house so he went to town to get some material. He got some concrete block and stack them over the axles to form a box so he could also haul some sand. He got every thing loaded up and headed home. He made it OK until he got about three miles from home. In his route home is a pretty steep hill. He had to go to compound to get over the hill. He though there was something wrong with the 360 in his 1/2 ton Ford. Anyone who ever had one of these engine knows they were no power house. He made it home and after unloading. His truck seamed fine. He then got to figuring the load he had on the trailer. Turned out he had over 30K on the trailer. NOT BAD for a 1/2 ton Ford.
Another neighbor related about towing a FULL fertilize spreader with an S-10 and going down a local hill with a curve he had not considered. He said if he had of touched the brake he would have crashed.

Kent
 
Being careful or not. There comes a point when increasing the load goes past any margin of error. And up to the point of nearly breaking, shearing something off or fading the brakes.
How does somebody know when they are running at 80% or 99.9% of the failure point?
Equipment will fail sooner when being operated at 99% than at 80%.
Well cared for or not. Age, enviroment,chemicals, road salt, moisture and load cycles. All gradually weaken equipment,components and tires.
Just because a 50% "overload" has been "ok" for the past 20 years. Tomorrow, next week, next month or next year. It could be too much.
It maynot be your fault but if some minivan full of kids on their way to a soccer game. Via an over stressed and distracted Mother who runs a yeild sign. You are still going to look and feel bad looking at the broken bodies.
Cops and insurance company won't care who is at fault. Just what the safety inspection finds, the max legal licensed weight and the actual weight.
 
Yeah we mostly only have 2 ton trucks and they will all haul at least 400 bu, some close to 500. When they go to the field, they come back full-end of story. We wish we had more tandems but we just don't. We just picked up another to take some of the load off but until then, we load 'em full and take it easy.
 
I worked for a farmer/ contractor and we mixed our own cement. We hauled sand off a island, then up a long steep grade, probably 3/4 mile climb. The road was gravel, and we always were told to load a real load, as we usualy hauled random evenings to avoid troubles with the law.

We started at the bottom in low, and the two speed in low, and for about fourty feet in one spot we had to slip the clutch a few times to keep from staling the motor.

The truck was new, and the boss was always ticked off that the carrier bearings were always giving out, and the pto universals were of poor quality. Even with extra leaf springs added they broke often as well, tire were blowing often, and so on. GMC got alot of undeserved blame.

I'm not so sure we couldn't have hauled more sand in less time if we would have loaded less each time, but the boss is always the boss.
 
I drive a semi for a living now, semi retired. I don't worry about the small farm trucks hauling 300-400 bu. of grain. What I think is crazy is these guys pulling two 400-500 bu wagons behind a farm tractor. Even a two hundred hp tractor might weight 25-30 thousand lbs. 500x56=28000x2=56000+12000(wagons)=68000 behind a tractor weighting half. Yes I know that most of these newer wagons have brakes on them but I bet not even half of them work. Each year here we have someone wreck a wagon train. So far no one has been seriously hurt. Just been lucky.
 
What is wrong with hydraulic brakes? My 4700 IH weighs 25,000 lbs every day, been that way for 145,000 miles, on hydraulic brakes. Chassis is rated for 26k, IH sold it to me new, so I don't think there's a problem.
 
I believe you and know there is plenty of grain and other loads still be hauled with similar trucks. I used to be one hundreds of short wood haulers in my area that hauled 30,000 plus pound loads every day on 1 1/2 or 2 ton trucks as well as 15,000 pound loads on 1 tons with a drag axle. It was called economic necessity, I don't remember anyone ever being killed, I do remember driving at a sensible speed, checking my brakes several hundred yards from a stop, not getting on any vehicles rear end and other traffic on the road staying away from the truck.
 
given the same circumstance ,,I would do the same in those conditions , but not in my area ,,, My 75 Ford F-600 weighs 26,000+ with 320 bu corn ,, I drive down 800 ft elevation to OHIO river bottom in 1 mile, ...sure don't need the accelerator for that mile...
 
I"m not sure if it has anything to do with your case or not but the reason they prefer air over hydraulic is when you lose your hydraulics you have no brakes when you lose your air the spring automatically applies the brakes in turn safer in theory.
 
If you were to play Russian Roulette with my Trailsman .22 pistol statistically 7 out of 8 times (87.5 %) of the time you would be fine.

I wouldn't call it safe.
 
Around here darned near every farm straight truck used to be overloaded and there never were any overload-related accidents that I can remember.Then the Iowa DOT started coming around regularly and ended it. Now we have mandatory annual inspections on ALL trucks.

A few years ago I was hauling a combine on a two lane road in western Kansas. I was meeting an older straight truck loaded with wheat. The straight truck slowed way down and got over a bit and when he did another old tandem axle straight truck, also loaded with wheat, rear ended him so hard the wheat in the back truck came up over the cab and onto the hood. The driver of the back truck was leaning out the window waving to the front truck to get out of the way. It happened in a second and the next second I was past it. Seemed like I was watching a movie until the reality hit. I've heard about someone getting the cr**p scared out of him but I didn't know the phrase was real until this happened. Nuff said!

I didn't stop because my wide load would have caused a bottleneck, but it made me a believer in good brakes. Jim
 
the old "2 1/2 ton" truck will always be around to some degree, and usually overloaded -sort of, the difference is in the application and the driver, most of these trucks operate in rural or semi rural areas, and farmers know how to drive them with a full load, keeping the speed down and do everything smooth, thats why there are usualy no problems, love those old trucks keep 'em rolling, the city drivers worry me,a lot of these people have minimal driving skills on a clear day and a straight road,yet there hitting 90 on the freeway on their way to work ,talking on the cellphone, fighting a bagel and coffee and trying to see the paper too, and dont even talk about texting teens behind the wheel,
 
I probably shouldn't say a whole lot.. but hey, in Michigan that same semi that is only good for 80k in most states is good enough to haul 160k.. just toss a few more axles under the trailer.

We have a few brokers.. most have new-ish Kenworth W-900's and pull barrels that will hold 12,500 gallons (usually haul aproximately 11,000 per load) and it works out to right around 160k.

Yes, I understand that semi brakes are better than that of a old 2 ton, but here too there are a lot of guys using them, overloaded, and pulling a wagon behind to boot. I'm not saying safe or not.. I once had a tandem with air brakes.. rated for 44,000.. never hauled near that with it.. but a JD 45 auger only reaches over a side that is so high.

Also.. for the person who said when you lose air the air brakes will lock up.. NOT ALWAYS. If your truck and or trailer was not equipped with an air maxi with a spring for parking brakes they don't lock.. My tandem was not equipped with these and had a mechanical parking brake.

By the way, I also believe the overweight "problem" here in SE. Lower MI will be getting worse soon.. Alot of guys here use flat deck "steel haulers" with side kits to haul grain, but I keep hearing 2010 will be the last year that elevators around here will use their truck dumps, so you'll either have to have a hopper bottom, dump trailer, stake truck with a hoist, or a wagon... and I don't see a lot of the guys shelling out big money for new hoppers (but old stake trucks seem to usually go quite cheap at farm sales)

Brad
 
I wouldn't call a 30,ooo GVW truck a two-ton. Our s1900 is rated for 35,000, and regularly hauls that, and sometimes more. There is a safety margin in the ratings, the rear axle is actually built for 40,000.

The GMC tandem we had was rated for 56,000. Empty it was around 21,000. That leaves 34,000 payload. That's 10 big cement blocks at 3,400 each.

PA will let you license a straight truck to 35,000 single axle or 61,000 tandem.

A lot of trucks are built that heavy but have 26,000 GVW on the door so people can drive them without a CDL.
 
I am one of the ones that called him out in the original post, and like i said in that one and like scott here says, a 30,000 lb truck isn't what pops into my mind when you say two ton truck, so that is why i agreed 400bu on my idea of a two ton truck was excessive.
 
What kind of brakes do you have on air when they need adjusted? Not much! You can't feel the pedal like hydraulic brakes. I have seen some close calls because the driver didn't check his slack adjusters. All brakes are unsafe if not maintained! All so the spring brake is only on the rear axles and only on one most of the time and if not adjusted no breaks.
 
Back in 1977 I went to a materials yard in San Jose for a load of stone fines for a outdoor pottery display area. I got the load and went to the scales...I grossed a little over 38,000 in a 5 yard dump box on a '76 Chevy 1600 with 8.25-20 tires. I sneaked across town very carefully to the jobsite...no trouble...no ticket. (never tried anything like that again)
 
A F-700 Ford,1700-1800 IH,and a C-70 Chev are heavy duty 2 tons.A F-600 Ford,C-60 Chevy,and a 1600 IH are lighter 2 tons.I have seen lots of them haul 350-400 bushel loads.

In fact a neighbor bought a brand new 1976 C-60 Chevy and hauled close to 400 bushels on it.When it sold on his farm sale in 1993 it had 12,000 miles and sold for more than he paid for it.He probably never drove it over 40 mph.
 
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