racks for the flat-bed ford

[snowleopard]

Hi, all.

I bought a truck a few months ago, '90 F250, and as expected with a truck that age, there have been a few issues. The battery died on me, took it in to get it checked out and was told that the PO had inadequate cables on. That was a cheap and simple fix--much happier to hear that it wasn't an alternator/etc. problem.

Then the oil leaks around the valve cover gaskets got to the pukin-oil point, so she got sidelined again. A friend's son is shade-treeing it--he's doing a good job, should be done today. I have a line on a cabin that someone wants gone, and has offered me the logs. Will try to get up there in the next day or two to check it out.

I ran a search for this here, but there were a not-surprising number of threads here that addressed trucks and racks, so I ask your pardon if this is a frequent topic that I've missed seeing. I need to build some racks for the truck for wood hauling. They need to be sturdy enough to use for hauling wood, up to green-birch weight, and light enough for me to get on and off by myself, as this will primarily be my water hauler, and I will be using the short racks that I already have when I want to put the tanks on and off.

Another question: how involved a project is it to beef up the springs on a truck and how much will that accomplish for hauling heavy loads? I have two water tanks I'll be hauling that have a combined volume of about 500 gallons. How will I know if heavier springs are a necessary accommodation?

I still haven't found heavy-duty tires for it, but am keeping my eyes peeled for some at an affordable price. This truck came with passenger-rated tires--which just seems dumb to me on a truck, but live and learn. Also read on here that the axle can be a weak point in determining how much weight you can haul. How do I know what it can carry?

Most grateful for any insight.

 

[smokinj]

Adding on leaf not to tough. Side rack I would mill some hardwood, but couple 2x6 should be light enough for one guy to remove.

 

[Jags]

Adding on leaf not to tough. Side rack I would mill some hardwood, but couple 2x6 should be light enough for one guy to remove.

Or girl, for that matter. ;-)

There is a sticker inside the drivers door that will have the weights listed for Gross Vehicle Weight. Use that as a guide to what the trucks capacity is. Adding a leaf to the springs will help with accepting a load, but does nothing to the rest of the trucks capabilities. All drive train parts (including axle) must be considered. Everything right down to the breaks were designed around that GVW number.

At 8.34 pounds per gallon, your 500 gallon load will be 4170 pounds. That is gonna be one heck of a load on a 3/4 ton machine, IMHO.

Edit for clarity: GVW is the COMBINED weight of the truck and cargo. So whatever that number is - you must subtract the weight of the truck for a general idea of load capacity.

 

[smokinj]

Adding on leaf not to tough. Side rack I would mill some hardwood, but couple 2x6 should be light enough for one guy to remove.

Or girl, for that matter. ;-)

There is a sticker inside the drivers door that will have the weights listed for Gross Vehicle Weight. Use that as a guide to what the trucks capacity is. Adding a leaf to the springs will help with accepting a load, but does nothing to the rest of the trucks capabilities. All drive train parts (including axle) must be considered. Everything right down to the breaks were designed around that GVW number.

At 8.34 pounds per gallon, your 500 gallon load will be 4170 pounds. That is gonna be one heck of a load on a 3/4 ton machine, IMHO.

Edit for clarity: GVW is the COMBINED weight of the truck and cargo. So whatever that number is - you must subtract the weight of the truck for a general idea of load capacity.

Carrying that kinda of weight not going to be long before he brakes down the leafs that are on there...Much cheaper to add on now.lol Whole new stack adds up quick! One leaf don't going make everything else out of wack. They said the same thing in the 70's we would run 50's and a set of craigers, This was the first dually's out if you will. The wide tire make pulling big trailer on the interstate possible. Along with sway bars tight enough to snap if you where not careful. These trailer where 40 foot long enclosed. :cheese:

 

[begreen]

Send a PM to flatbedford for info on his truck.

 

[smokinj]

Adding on leaf not to tough. Side rack I would mill some hardwood, but couple 2x6 should be light enough for one guy to remove.

Or girl, for that matter. ;-)

There is a sticker inside the drivers door that will have the weights listed for Gross Vehicle Weight. Use that as a guide to what the trucks capacity is. Adding a leaf to the springs will help with accepting a load, but does nothing to the rest of the trucks capabilities. All drive train parts (including axle) must be considered. Everything right down to the breaks were designed around that GVW number.

At 8.34 pounds per gallon, your 500 gallon load will be 4170 pounds. That is gonna be one heck of a load on a 3/4 ton machine, IMHO.

Edit for clarity: GVW is the COMBINED weight of the truck and cargo. So whatever that number is - you must subtract the weight of the truck for a general idea of load capacity.

Yea I got what your saying and 500 gallons is out of the question....Lawn care old tanker where 1200 gallons duce and a half. We had 3/4 ton truck running with weed control only 180 gallons. The new fancy dually running now are called rhino's there 500 gallon trucks ton and 1/2....Best to scale down the that 500 gallon thinking! :cheese: also a one ton set up for Tree's only 3 tanks a 300 and 2-75. None of you could feel all the way up.

 

[begreen]

For water weight I think the saying is, a pint is a pound the world around. Or a gallon = 8 lbs. 500 gallons is 4000 lbs and will need one stout truck body.

 

[Danno77]

What's this rack business? If it were me I'd be using timbrens and a handful of ratcheting straps to keep everything where it belongs. Keep it simple, keep it cheap.

 

[snowleopard]

Adding on leaf not to tough. Side rack I would mill some hardwood, but couple 2x6 should be light enough for one guy to remove.

That would be part of the problem, Jay--not all of us are guys. (Thanks, Jags.) I figured 2x4 uprights and a few 2x6 horizontals would do the trick, but a lot of weight there. For me, anyway.

As far as the milling, Jay, I it's a safe bet that any rack you build would be of curly maple harvested under a full moon on top of a mountain, with mortise and tenon joints, sanded six times and finished with a hand-rubbed, high-gloss varnish applied in a mere six coats because it's only a work truck. My style of carpentry involves going the lumber yard, poking through their discount piles, and whacking stuff together with 16p nails and a hammer with one claw broken off.
I've got some plywood that would do the trick for the horizontals if the primary function of the horizonal members is to keep the racks from racking, so to speak. Would that do? And if I use dimensional lumber, do I want to bolt it together rather than nail it?

What's this rack business? If it were me I'd be using timbrens and a handful of ratcheting straps to keep everything where it belongs. Keep it simple, keep it cheap.

Checking out the Timbrens, and I thank you for that. So how high could I stack the wood and still rachet it down? I was picturing it cut to length (leave the sawdust off property) and stack the rounds in the truck. I'm having a hard time seeing this--any pix you know if on the forum?

As far as the water-hauling goes, about every third pickup you see on the road has a tank in it--a lot of 150's hauling a 325 gallon tank. Will check out the GVW thing. There's a set of truck scales down the road a bit--maybe they'd let me pull on them and get a weight.

Shade-tree Kid is pulling into drive, so I gotta go--more later.

 

[smokinj]

:lol:

Adding on leaf not to tough. Side rack I would mill some hardwood, but couple 2x6 should be light enough for one guy to remove.

That would be part of the problem, Jay--not all of us are guys. (Thanks, Jags.) I figured 2x4 uprights and a few 2x6 horizontals would do the trick, but a lot of weight there. For me, anyway.

As far as the milling, Jay, I it's a safe bet that any rack you build would be of curly maple harvested under a full moon on top of a mountain, with mortise and tenon joints, sanded six times and finished with a hand-rubbed, high-gloss varnish applied in a mere six coats because it's only a work truck. My style of carpentry involves going the lumber yard, poking through their discount piles, and whacking stuff together with 16p nails and a hammer with one claw broken off.
I've got some plywood that would do the trick for the horizontals if the primary function of the horizonal members is to keep the racks from racking, so to speak. Would that do? And if I use dimensional lumber, do I want to bolt it together rather than nail it?

What's this rack business? If it were me I'd be using timbrens and a handful of ratcheting straps to keep everything where it belongs. Keep it simple, keep it cheap.

Checking out the Timbrens, and I thank you for that. So how high could I stack the wood and still rachet it down? I was picturing it cut to length (leave the sawdust off property) and stack the rounds in the truck. I'm having a hard time seeing this--any pix you know if on the forum?

As far as the water-hauling goes, about every third pickup you see on the road has a tank in it--a lot of 150's hauling a 325 gallon tank. Will check out the GVW thing. There's a set of truck scales down the road a bit--maybe they'd let me pull on them and get a weight.

Shade-tree Kid is pulling into drive, so I gotta go--more later.

LOL......... :lol:

 

[Jags]

Ya know, if your looking for light weight side rails a couple (or 3) upright 2x4s for the stakes and use 1/2 plywood for the sides, you could bolt that together with carriage bolts and wing nuts pretty quick.

 

[Danno77]

Log length on a 3/4 ton flatbed could easily be hauled much like I am doing in this picture on my small trailer. If you have a hard time getting heavy logs up t here then cut them into double or triple stove lengths

(broken link removed to http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j53/DannoSpider/Firewood) 2008/DSCN0601.jpg

 

[Elderthewelder]

Log length on a 3/4 ton flatbed could easily be hauled much like I am doing in this picture on my small trailer. If you have a hard time getting heavy logs up t here then cut them into double or triple stove lengths

(broken link removed to http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j53/DannoSpider/Firewood) 2008/DSCN0601.jpg

link dont work

 

[Danno77]

Log length on a 3/4 ton flatbed could easily be hauled much like I am doing in this picture on my small trailer. If you have a hard time getting heavy logs up t here then cut them into double or triple stove lengths

(broken link removed to http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j53/DannoSpider/Firewood) 2008/DSCN0601.jpg

link dont work

Yeah, I edited the thing like 20 times. Hearth.com doesn't like photobuckt links when there is a space in it. Try coy and paste on whole thing, or try this link
http://tinyurl.com/6lc2oe2

 

[snowleopard]

Elder, the size of the logs in your avatar dwarfs the truck so much that it looks like a Matchstick truck trying to haul Lincoln Logs.
:lol:

 

[Elderthewelder]

Yeah, We grow our wood big out here in the Pacific Northwest. Those rounds are about 36" or so in dia, and are Doug Fir. Those are nothing compared to what our settles cut down out here using a axe

That is my little Toyota 1 Ton Dually with the rounds in it, truck has a little 22re 4 cylinder in it


(broken image removed)

(broken image removed)

 

[snowleopard]

Elder, you already know how cool that truck is, but I'll say it anyway. Thanks for sharing those pictures--that's one cutie-pie truck. And the wood is impressive, too.

I have a 1981 Toyota pu, long bed, 22R, 325K miles on her. I have at least two people who want me to get in touch with them first if I want to sell her. Before I think about that, I want to use her to haul wood off of our property, as there's a lot of standing/laying dead wood I could be burning. She's so small that she'll fit in the trails that nothing else will get through on.

Danno, I was able to access your second link, and thank you--worth a thousand words and all that. I pictured a squared-off load, and wondering how that could be a good idea. Since I already have a rack(ette) on the flat-bed that's one 2x10 high, that would be enough to secure the bottom row. The place I'm planning on hauling the cabin wood from is about 8 miles away, and I can experiment with hauling over that distance.

Water-hauling is pretty commonplace around here. Lots of 150's carrying a 325 gallon tank; PO of my 91 subaru wagon hauled a 125 gallon tank home daily (about 20 miles), and claimed that the car handled better with the weight in the back. Here's a picture of folks lining up at the local watering hole to get their tanks filled: http://pdonovan.net/TPP/20070513.htm, and someone else doing it the hard way, one five-gallon jug at a time: http://pdonovan.net/TPP/20070513.htm. (The family that posted this picture rode from Kentucky to Fairbanks on a five-seater bike with their three young daughters, and were roundly criticized by many for their lifestyle and` irresponsible' parenting. Go figure.

The information in the blurb is dated--water now costs 8.5-10 cents a gallon for delivery, and .0175 to pick up your own. I'm trying to be as frugal as possible about what I put into this truck, because the savings in water hauling (about 200 a month) needs to pay for the truck and repairs/maintenance/etc., as well as fuel. If I can make one water run a week (with the 325 and 200 gallon tanks on the truck) that will serve our needs, keep the fuel costs down, and balance the books on the truck. Glad I went looking for a picture for you guys, as I didn't realize that you could fill through the valve--that'll be easier in the winter than climbing on the truck. Although I still might need to do that because the air displacement will need an exit.

Both tanks were CL finds, and I got them at good prices; tanks and valves and hose cost me $500, and the same setup new would have been three times that. Used tanks that are cared for hold their value, so the water-hauling doesn't have to pay for the tanks, so to speak. The seller of the big tank had a dozen calls on ita the day I bought--I happened to be first, and he was a gentleman about going down the list. He had it sitting on a 4x8 table with a full-sized shelf underneath, and I bought that, too, so I have a place in the garage to park tanks, hoses, valves and make it easy to load and offload in the winter.

Jay, you mentioned not wanting to fill these all the way up, but that's one caution I've heard repeatedly: partially-full tanks slosh back and forth, and make for a wild ride. That kind of hauling you talked about gives me the willies. I saw someone hauling doubles down an icy hill, and the rear load swung wide, swept a pickup off the road like a broom would sweep a dustbunny, and kept on going--never even knew he hit someone, I suspect. I have a lot of respect for truckers, but no way would I want that responsibility.

I hear what you're saying about the 500 gallons being a lot of weight, but this truck is going to burn a lot of fuel, I suspect, and I want to minimize trips to town. With another leaf and/or the Timbrens, is that weight more in line with what the truck could carry? Also, do I need Timbrens front and back, or just in the back? The GVW is 8600 pounds, twice what the load of water would weigh.

The Fill is right on my way to work, so if I make a habit of running one load a week, I'll meet our needs. I could do the same thing by driving in two times a week, and have my gear last longer, but I'd be putting more miles on it and spending more in fuel. Trying to work all this out in my mind, and some days it gets to be a bit much. I suppose I could just move to Cleveland or something and rent an apartment. People live in Cleveland, right?

Thanks again, guys--this stuff might seem pretty elemental, but it's not if you don't know. I feel a little more confident about going into this now.

 

[salecker]

Hi
I would look into air bags to add for extra wieght.Easy to install and you can add as much air as required for your load.Firestone makes kits for specific trucks so they are bolt in.
I haul my own water as well and use a 450 gal tank mounted on a trailer,i have it high enough that it gravity feeds into my basement,we don't have anyone in our town that delivers water so here there is no choice.Used to be a delivery service ,was $150 per mounth.I allways hauled my own,so i figerd i was paying myself $75.00 an hour,i need to haul twice a mounth two loads,which takes almost an hour to load and unload two tankfulls,i have 1250gal storage in basement.

 

[snowleopard]

Thanks, salecker. I have a few questions, if you don't mind.

How do you fill your tank? Does your town have a similar water set-up like the one in the link? And how big a hose do you have? I had thought that a tank would empy into the holding tank in pretty short order. I imagine that I'll still call the water delivery folks sometimes--maybe at -30 and below. I have a holding tank under my porch, and fortunately, the hose that came with the last tank is long enough to easily make the stretch, so I got lucky with that.

I couldn't understand why they picked that location at first--now I realize it was well-thought out.

ETA: The fellow who was working on my truck brought a buddy out to help him wrap it up, and his family, and they got 'er done, and we had a nice lunch and visit together. Pulled my truck into the garage later, and went to work. Started on some shelves that haven't been touched since I moved in, and kept going. It's now at the `clean enough to clean' point--some boxes and stuff to go through, a workbench to be cleared off, but it is at least organized and decluttered enough so that my next shade tree job can go on rain or shine. Have a truckload of clutter and such to go to the dumpster station tomorrow.

I can tell by the smell that my propane bottle is almost empty. Last year when it needed filling, I drove 40 miles to borrow a truck, drove it out to my house, picked up the bottle, drove it into town and filled it, drove it out to my house and dropped it off, and drove out to the owner's house to drop it off--it was an all-day, expensive ordeal. This time it should take me about an hour to get it filled, and I'll be good to go for another year. It's a good feeling.

 

[salecker]

Hi Snowleopard
We have a simialr filling station,our town's water is stored in a tower and it's about 70 degrees F.I have a 2" hose for unloading,which is the same size as the loading hose.My tank takes 2min 9 seconds to fill,used to time it to know when to hit the stop button,now there is a meter to count the liters.It takes about 20 min's to gravity feed it into the basement,which i have done at 40 below F with no problems,just remember to drain the hose and leave the valve of the tank open,no bugs to worry about in the winter,in the spring i start closing the valve so no nests get built in our tank.So long as water is moving it will not freeze,the guy that delivered water had two plastic tanks on his truck uninsulated and never froze them,he would even stop for coffee with the tanks full of water sitting there in the middle of winter always looked like a disaster waiting to happen.
I know a guy in Fairbanks that has a small wrecking yard/parts business if you'r still looking for tires.PM me and i'll give you his #
Thomas

 

[snowleopard]

Thank you, Thomas--sent you a PM.

Good to have the info about the temps and timing re: hauling.

For right now, I'm going to stick with the 325 gallon tank until I'm confident in the suspension, and maybe beef it up a little. It my prove cheaper to make six runs a month with the 325 instead of four runs with the 325 and 200 rather than spending more on the suspension. OTOH, I may need more help for wood hauling. Step at a time. So even if you have a little water sitting in the bottom of the tank that freezes up, no problems, right? I'll have a garage where I can keep the tank, but I'd still have it sitting outside at work on water-run days.

Do you strap your tank down? How far do you have to haul it?

 

[salecker]

Hi
My tank is a galvanized steel one so i built a trailer with a high cradle,and used chains and binders to hold it down,i haul about a mile.
In your case i would get a couple of good ratcht straps,a must have if you are hauling anything in the back of your truck anyhow.
Have a safe trip
Thomas