# Ton of gravel in a half ton pickup???



## leftyscott

I need some gravel for my driveway.  Freezing/warm temps have turned it into gumbo.  Any great harm in driving Aton of gravel 20 miles in my half ton chevy?


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## devinsdad

C'mon man its a Chevy. We hauled 4.12 tons of sand in a Chevy 1 ton dump the other day. But some quarries won't let you leave their yard if you are overweight.


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## FORCE FAB

Half tonners have non full floating rear axles....(Means the weight is carried by the drive axle not the housing)IMO i wouldnt go 20 miles.............OH AND ITS A CHEVY


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## Dakotas Dad

I found if you are going to live like a man, but roll with a 1/2 ton pickup, or in my case a Expedition Eddie Bauer, because I'm all manly and stuff, but air conditioned seats are the shiznat in the summer time.. you need a trailer. Or whats best, and the way I roll, a FRIEND with a trailer.. ;-)

a ton of gravel in a 1/2 ton truck is a sure way to break an axle.


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## kevin j

weight plus speed = problems.     but slow speeds, we hauled way more than that on the farm. and I've hauled almost 6000 on a one ton GMC made into trailer.
the issues are tires (pump to max), very slow speeds, not hit any bumps, and not have much much brakes.
I am not recommending, but have done it myself......


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## wellbuilt home

I would load the truck till the Axel just touches the  rubber stops and then roll over the scale and see what you have . 
  Gravel is heavy  and you will be disappointed how little a ton is .
  A tone is about 3x3x2 or less if its frozen . 
  I had 5 ton in my 3 ton truck the other day,  lucky i wasn't going far .
   John


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## mayhem

Go to the gravel pit and load it up to your rated GVWR, they won't let you overload anyways.  Do yourself a big favor and make sure your tires are in good shape and properly inflated...nothing worse than popping a tire off its bead while the bed has a ton of gravel in it.

Odds are good that loading up to your GVWR will probably net you a ton anyways...your truck probably weights about 4500lb or so empty and I think your GVWR is around 6800-7200lb...check your door sticker.

Long story short, you'll be fine if you don't do anything foolish.


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## homebrewz

Yep.. another 40 mile round trip is better than a broken axle. You might consider bringing a friend and two shovels. Self loading the truck will ensure the loader doesn't overfill it. It goes quick with two people. Bring hard hats.. they won't let you out of the truck in the yard without one.


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## Corey

Sent the wife out one day to pick up some soil for the front yard.  She came back and I saw the truck (04 Ford F150)  I was like 'WOAH - how much did you get!??'  Looked at the ticket and it was 30XX pounds.  Needless to say it was setting pretty low in the back and I probably wouldn't go that heavy again.  But I'm sure a full load of hedge is 2000 pounds+  --a cord is listed at ~4300 pounds dry.

So it certainly can be done.  But only do what you're comfortable with.  You will probably make it, but if something goes bad, it could be a pretty big wreck.


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## ROBERT F

Why not two trips at a half ton each?   could save a lot more money on repairs than you would spend in the extra fuel.


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## tcassavaugh

1 ton of gravel is easy to carry on a 1/2 ton.....just make two trips

cass


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## mayhem

You guys all know that the term half ton as it applies to a pickup truck has no bearing on its actual load capacity, right?  50-60 years ago a half ton truck was rated to carry a half ton, not its very different.  A half ton truck has a specific GVWR and fawr and rawr rating, mandated by the federal govt (I think).  Subtract your truck's actual weight with you in it from your GVWR and you know your safe loading capacity...its probably somewhere in the 2000lb range.


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## WoodMann

You're getting a big NO over here. As mentioned earlier that semi- floating rear axle is the weak link; not that it's bad, it's just not at stout as the full floaters in heavier trucks. Take the extra time and make a couple trips; it'll save you down time and repair bills down the road...............


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## EatenByLimestone

I once put a ton in the back of my Dakota.  But I wasn't going far with it and it was straight, flat driving.  I know it was a ton because it was bags of concrete.  

Matt


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## gpcollen1

That is only about a yard of stone....i think you should be fine.


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## joat717

It'll be fine check you tires and roll on. I've seen an hauled way more in a so called "half ton". plus it's a chevy


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## raven

i loaded an old 96 ford 150 6 stick with at least a ton  of gravel. other than the feeling the front end might not be touching the ground at all times and having to replace the rear gas tank after the trip  it was no big deal... lol  go for it ;-)


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## Highbeam

mayhem said:
			
		

> You guys all know that the term half ton as it applies to a pickup truck has no bearing on its actual load capacity, right?  50-60 years ago a half ton truck was rated to carry a half ton, not its very different.  A half ton truck has a specific GVWR and fawr and rawr rating, mandated by the federal govt (I think).  Subtract your truck's actual weight with you in it from your GVWR and you know your safe loading capacity...its probably somewhere in the 2000lb range.



This may have been true once upon a time or maybe with another brand of truck but a GM half ton carries much LESS than a half ton legally. The typical 4x4 chevy half ton weighs 5500+ lbs, my last one weighed 5800 lbs empty. The GVWR is 6200 lbs. That's 400 lbs of gravel. 

Have you even asked about a price for delivery? A ton is about 2/3 yard of gravel and not nearly enough to make a dent in your gumbo driveway. The man with a dumptruck will show up and gate spread several yards of gravel to get you through the winter. So think along the lines of ten tons and a delivery fee of a few bucks. 

Lots of work to unload the pickup too.


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## SolarAndWood

Highbeam said:
			
		

> Have you even asked about a price for delivery?



The delivery around here is brutal.  When I pick up 4 ton with my dump trailer, I pay $40.  When I have 12 ton delivered to a jobsite, it is $400.


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## leftyscott

Update:

So, I sneak out of work a couple hours early no big deal as today is federal holiday.  Head to the quarry and ask for a half ton of1 1/2 " stone.  Old boy in a large bucket dozer deposits one scoop into my bed.  I go back to the weigh station and it turns out I got 1 ton.  Only cost me $10.70.  No problems on the drive home.  

What a pain in the butt it was to unload, one shovel-full at a time.

BTW.... I got a quote for a full load (23 tons), delivered.  It was under $300... no brainer for me as soon as it dries out a bit.


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## mayhem

Highbeam said:
			
		

> mayhem said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> You guys all know that the term half ton as it applies to a pickup truck has no bearing on its actual load capacity, right?  50-60 years ago a half ton truck was rated to carry a half ton, not its very different.  A half ton truck has a specific GVWR and fawr and rawr rating, mandated by the federal govt (I think).  Subtract your truck's actual weight with you in it from your GVWR and you know your safe loading capacity...its probably somewhere in the 2000lb range.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> This may have been true once upon a time or maybe with another brand of truck but a GM half ton carries much LESS than a half ton legally. The typical 4x4 chevy half ton weighs 5500+ lbs, my last one weighed 5800 lbs empty. The GVWR is 6200 lbs. That's 400 lbs of gravel.
Click to expand...


I disagree.  Its simply not possible to buy a full size pickup truck with a 400lb carrying capacity...at least not a "normal" pickup...Chevy lists a 6200lb gvwr for the hybrid...not sure of its curb weight.  Think about it, you're saying if you put two grown men in the back of a pickup truck that you're over its carrying capacity.  No disrespect intended, but you've got a math error somewhere...I suspect its in the weight of the truck.

I don't have access to a half ton pickup to check right now, but all I can find online are GVWR of either 6800 or 6900lb for chevy 1500's (Silverado "classic" is 6900, the current body style is 6800).  Edmunds lists the same trucks as about 4200-4300 lb curb weight...add in all fluids and a driver and you're nowhere near 4800lb.  My 3/4 ton Silverado (ext cab, 4x4) weighs in at 5800lb with me in the driver's seat, a full tank of gas and the push plates for my plow installed.  No way a half ton is anywhere near that weight...those things weigh in well under 5000lb.

A ton is pushing reason as far as the rateed carrying capacity, but the max safe payload capacity is waay, way closer to a full ton than to 400lb.


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## DiscoInferno

I've hauled 1800 lbs of gravel in a Ford Ranger 4x4.  Drove pretty well, all things considered.  Didn't mean to get quite that much, but a front end loader isn't a precision instrument.  Guy at the scale just sort of chuckled.

I've probably had over a ton of wood in there once or twice, mudflaps were scraping the road.


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## Kong

I'm finding this thread funny.

Look inside the door jam and see what the gross vehicle wieght is.   When you buy stone the first thing they do is weigh your truck.  Then they dump on the stone, then you get weighted again and they subtract weight 1 from weight 2 and the difference is how much stone you have on the truck - but Weight 2 shouldn't exceed the Gross Vehicle Weight maximum listed on the sticker.

We have a quary/crushing plant not 5 miles from here that I've been buying stone from for 30 years.  Last fall they would not sell me stone.  The reason was they now demand to see your registration before they will weight you the first time. My registration (3/4-ton Ford Superduty with Diesel Engine and towing option suspension) says 8,000 pounds ad the truck weight 8,400 pounds dry.  They refused to put so much as a handfull of rocks on it because they said it would be overloaded.

That said, before that, back when they were interested in selling to individuals, they would routinely load my truck with up to 2 tons of crushed stone on it.  Over the years I managed to break on rear spring hauling.  The spring cost $157 and was easy enough to change (if you have air).

When I  haul wood back to the house we only go a very short distance with it, generally 1/2 mile or less, and I often load the truck to the same kind of weight as that 2-tone load of gravel.  

So you can put on way to heave loads, you shouldn't do it, but you can.

On, and I run tires on the truck(265/75/17 8-Ply) at the maximum airpressure unless I'm towing, in which case the fronts come down 10 and the backs come down 5.


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## mayhem

Just curious, whya re you using 8 ply tires on a 3/4 ton truck?  I've always been under the impressionthat 10 ply (load E) tires are the correct rating for a truck with that GWVR.

My local gravel pit will no longer sell to homeowners.  They have 8' wide loaders as their smallest loading equipment and apparently someone got their back window blown out in their pickup truck.  So now if I want to haul my own gravel I have to borrow a dump truck or drive an extra 15 miles one way to get to the next nearest gravel pit that will load a pickup truck.


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## Highbeam

mayhem said:
			
		

> I disagree.  Its simply not possible to buy a full size pickup truck with a 400lb carrying capacity...at least not a "normal" pickup...Chevy lists a 6200lb gvwr for the hybrid...not sure of its curb weight.  Think about it, you're saying if you put two grown men in the back of a pickup truck that you're over its carrying capacity.  No disrespect intended, but you've got a math error somewhere...I suspect its in the weight of the truck.
> 
> I don't have access to a half ton pickup to check right now, but all I can find online are GVWR of either 6800 or 6900lb for chevy 1500's (Silverado "classic" is 6900, the current body style is 6800).  Edmunds lists the same trucks as about 4200-4300 lb curb weight...add in all fluids and a driver and you're nowhere near 4800lb.  My 3/4 ton Silverado (ext cab, 4x4) weighs in at 5800lb with me in the driver's seat, a full tank of gas and the push plates for my plow installed.  No way a half ton is anywhere near that weight...those things weigh in well under 5000lb.
> 
> A ton is pushing reason as far as the rateed carrying capacity, but the max safe payload capacity is waay, way closer to a full ton than to 400lb.



I am not mistaken. My 1998 K1500 chevy 4x4 pickup with every option available was 5800 lbs empty weighed several times at DOT scales, quarries, and even the dump. I tow my tractor and an RV so combined weight rating and gross vehicle rating are extremely important. You first have to realize that a half ton pickup is expected to have luxurious features to be used by the middle class as a commuter. They often have the same body and engine as a 3/4 ton and only go lightweight on the running gear. With a 6200#GVWR my legal payload was 400 lbs, yes, two fat chicks. You can buy a new truck with higher GVWR or you could just buy a one ton truck to fix this problem.

As soon as the opportunity arose I sold that wonderful chevy (I really liked that truck) and bought the big F350. This was for safety while loaded as well as the upgrade to crew cab. The Ford is only a couple of feet longer and the engine weighs about double but the whole Ford weighs 7500# empty. The 9900 lb GVWR allows 2400# of cargo assuming I don't go over on axle weight. 

It is wrong to think that anything but a stripped down full size truck weighs less than 5000. You can NOT assume the listed curb weight is correct, it is practically never correct. Our message is the same though, weigh the actual truck and then compare to the GVWR to calculate the legal payload. 

I did get a little burned on registered weight vs. stickered GVWR. The licensing lady tried to save me some money by selling me 8000 lbs of GVWR the first year I owned the truck. This year I made sure that the registration says 10,000 so that I can use all of my truck's GVWR legally. It cost 20$ more.

Oh and they stopped using "ply count" a long time ago. Now they use load ranges (LR) which require that I use LR E tires on the ford. The tire requirement is right there on the sticker by the GVWR. As I recall, a LRE tire is traditionally a 10 ply tire. The LR E tires each have enough capacity to make sure that I will never exceed a tire rating so long as I respect my axle ratings.


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## Tony H

Check around one of the quarries near me has been running a deal 12 ton for 105.00 delivered up to 20 miles and of course they will dump it in one big pile or in a run as you wish. I am going to get a load in spring and then use a buddies skid steer to push it around.
IMO would not use the 1/2 to haul that type of load I would use a bigger truck or a trailer if I had to self haul .


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## mayhem

Christ on a crutch Highbeam, thats a ludicrously heavy half ton truck.  Any chance it was a mislabeled 3/4 ton truck?  We had an 85 Sierra when I was a lad...it was a 2500 and had the badges, door sticker...everything.  Except it was a 1 ton truck.  Had the 1 ton frame, suspension, axles, had zero pollution equipment, ran on leaded gas...it was a 1 ton truck that was mislabeld on the assemnbly line.  My brother once loaded over 4000lb of sand in the bead and drove it on a 3 hour trip to another brother's house in CT (no, i don't understand why they didn't buy sand in CT...IIRC it was because their sand came from part of the Housatonic river watershed in CT, which at the time was so full of pCBs from GE in Pittsfield, MA that it practically glowed at night)...the truck would not squat down on its suspension and it was bought new, no suspension mods.

My brother replaced that truck wiht a 97 Sierra 2500 rclb.  I used it a few times to haul gravel...the scales at the gravel pit had its unladen weight right around 5500lb, which lines up well with my ecbs 2500's weight of 5800 or so considering it has a heavier motor and alot more steel in the extended cab.

One of the biggest differences I've noted between half and 3/4 ton trucks is the frame.  Many half tons use C frame cross sections and are fully boxed only at the max load points where the axles are located and 3/4's are typically fully boxed end to end...that right there is worth several hunderd pounds of weight.  When i was truck shopping I looked at several half ton and 3/4 ton Chevy/GMC trucks...both OBS and NBS.  The halfs tons were always alot lighter...you could feel it.  I drove a half ton and 3/4 ton OBS ecsb back to back (both late 90's...forget the exact years) and while they were both Vortec 5.7 V-8's with pushbutton 4x4 and 4 speed auto transmissions, the half ton was clearly a lighter truck.  It was alot quicker from a dead stop and you could feel it was less massive when turning and braking.  Had similar experiences when test driving NBS trucks.  Drove my 6.0 2500 compared to a 5.3 1500, both ecsb 4x4 trucks...2500 has 4.11 gears, 1500 had 3.73's...despite the quicker gears and more powerful motor in the 2500, the 5.3 was alot quicker off the line and I had a difficult time keeping the rear tires from breaking loose (rainy that day).  The only good reason I cna think of is significnatly less weight on the 1500.


Not looking to start an argument of course, I just can't get my head around any circumstance where you can buy a half ton pickup that weighs 5800lb, resuling in a 400lb load capacity...if you take a couple friends somewhere with you, you couldn't put their golf clubs in the back.  It just doesn't make sense for any manufacturer to make a truck like that.

All that said, yes, you and I are in agreement on how to determine the safe loading capacity of a pickup truck.


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## Highbeam

I really liked that truck. Items that may have made it heavier were the sprayed in bedliner, LT tires, normal tools under the rear seat, and the leer canopy that was flush with the cab. It was an ECSB too. The frame was C channel up to about the driver's feet and then boxed in from there on up which is the same way the the F350 frame is built. The only vehicles that I've ever dealt with with fully boxed frames were toyota pickups and a post 76 Jeep CJ. Maybe the spare tire was stuffed with drugs or something sneaky like that. I ran 177000 miles on that pickup without catastrophic failure. 

The half tons felt faster because they had the 4l60e transmission which has a very low first gear. Much lower than the 4l80e from the 3/4 tons which use that great transmission but they don't have the snap from that low first gear. You did good to buy the 6.0 2500 combo, the later years fixed up that cold start knock issue but the engines seem to be properly sized. 

I'll never know why that truck was so heavy. It was a major factor in selling it. I had pretty much destroyed the rear end in it already as well with my hauling work. The actual housing was bent which was discovered when replacing the bearings. The differential shop pointed at my hitch and said "that's your problem, you need a bigger truck". 

I live near a DOT weigh station that is seldom open but the scalehouse window is open to allow me to weigh my trucks one axle at a time. The front axle was always around 3500 and the rear was near 2300. When loaded with the proper trailer and WD hitch the truck was over the GVWR (of course) but not over the axle or tire ratings. I'm a stickler for getting 10% of the weight of a trailer on the hitch to prevent sway and with an equipment trailer you can position the tractor to change that percentage. I did it at the weigh station.


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## leftyscott

BTW..... At the quarry scale my Z71 Silverado weighed in at 5160 with my 165 lbs & 1/2 tank of gas.  I checked out st 7100 lbs..

Note:  Door sticker shows 6200 lbs as max weight.  I guess that means a half ton truck equals a half ton load.


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## SolarAndWood

Highbeam said:
			
		

> You did good to buy the 6.0 2500 combo, the later years fixed up that cold start knock issue but the engines seem to be properly sized.



What's the deal with that knock?  My 01 started doing that at about 120K.


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## Highbeam

leftyscott said:
			
		

> BTW..... At the quarry scale my Z71 Silverado weighed in at 5160 with my 165 lbs & 1/2 tank of gas.  I checked out st 7100 lbs..
> 
> Note:  Door sticker shows 6200 lbs as max weight.  I guess that means a half ton truck equals a half ton load.



If you weighed 200, your fuel tank was filled up for another 70-80 lbs, and maybe you had a dog in there you would be down to 4 fat chicks of cargo capacity. Considering that you probably have 5 more seat belts to fill you can see how there isn't much cargo capacity in a half ton truck.

The early 6.0 engines had a problem with cold start knock, often called CSK, that was allegedly caused by the very shallow piston skirt allowing the piston to rock and slam around inside the cylinder until the engine warmed up and all the tolerances tightened. GM tried some fixes in later years including coating the piston skirts with teflon and such but ultimately said that the rattle isn't hurting anything.

Since then they dropped the larger gas 8.1 engine so if you want a truck you either need a diesel or that 6.0. This means plenty of 6.0s are out there and they haven't totally died yet.


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## mayhem

Yeah, the 6.0 is a great motor so far.  Bought it with 91000 on it and its at 127000 now, no issues.  I do experience CSK, basically it sounds deisel-ish for the first 60 seconds or so of driving when the temps are cooler...say under 45 degrees or so.  It goes away when I change the oil and comes back slowly as the oil gets dirty.  I do my oil every 10000 miles and the filter every 5000 and use about a quart per filter change...which is not bad considering the filter holds about 3/4 of a quart.


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