Heavy moving with a DRW pickup ?

Scott Moore wrote in article ...

Your friendly Ford salesman ought to be able to look in the F-350 brochure and tell you - in numbers - the exact difference in load capacity between the single rear wheels and the duals.

It is my personal experience that a " one-ton dually" seems to haul a fully laden race car trailer - 3000 pound race car plus spares and amenities for a weekend's worth of oval-track racing - better than a near-equally-rated, "one-ton single axle" pickup.

Check the numbers - GVWR, individual axle ratings (GAWR), combined tow ratings. Some "duallys" appear to be built with dual tires, and not much else. I've got a 4x4 1-ton with a 6000 lb rated rear axle - and single tires. I had it in at the shop one day and my mechanic wanted to check the load sticker, as he'd bought a dually to tow his horse trailer, and then found that it had something like a 4000 lb rear axle on it.

Personally, I don't like duallys as I'm not at all comfortable about having the butt of the truck sticking out wider, and I'm concerned that I might fail to compensate for that and clip something with the fat butt. Your driving may vary. It can also affect your registration and insurance options (4 wheels can be personal/passenger, while 6 wheels must be commercial, some places).

In any case, I think a pickup truck bed is a bit high off the ground for most machinery moving - a low-bed trailer would be a lot better for DIY moving. Riggers come with much more than just a truck that will do the job.

I have a 1 ton Chevvy that I bought as a chassis/cab, I then had an alumin flat put on it. I don't remember by how much, but the track on the GM is narrower than the Dodge or Ford, which lessens the issue of wide butt. Steel flats are around $800 here and when there are upfit allowances you can get ALL that back from the manufacturers. I really LIKE the flat, for me it is MUCH better than having to deal with the narrow bed between wheel arches, etc. Sure its higher, but I can load/unload from the sides. On tolls (in New England) I pay the 3 axle rate, so that adds 50c on the RARE occasion that I go through a toll gate. In Mass I was able to register it at car rates, though it seems there is a difference ofo pinion between (some of) the local police and the state registry on this (-: I think the key is whether you're using it for commercial purposes.

There's two kinds of loads you're talking about here. Not a usual user of the capacity of my 1 ton truck, but there's the capacity your truck itself can support in the bed itself, which is the GVWR. Then there's the load that it can carry in a trailer. Actually, if it's rated for a 10,000# trailer (that's five tons!) that means it has to be able to STOP itself and the trailer in a reasonable amount of time and space. How well it gets up to 60mph is another story. My F350 4x4 automatic has a mere 351 in it, and it takes awhile to get up to speed fully loaded, but it stops just as well as the thirstier ones. My old F250 camper special with a 360 four speed that I prefer to tow with because while the trailer rating isn't as high, it has awesome brakes (the rears are the same size as the F350, and the fronts just about the same) and a granny gear I'm getting better at not grinding. Bit of a tradeoff, though; the F250 is a serious gas hog!

"Scott Moore" wrote in message news:9N8Ad.815854$8_6.720009@attbi_s04... | I am buying a new pickup. There is only about $300 difference between the SRW | (single rear wheel) and DRW (dual rear wheel) versions of the F350 I am | looking at. | | Lots of people in my neighborhood drive DRWs for the apparent hell of it. | I seriously doubt many need it at all. | | However, I typically pay $200 in truck rental costs to move my heavy stuff | (at up to 2 tons). I am wondering if having the DRW is worth it, and if anyone | here has tried to move a serious weight machine with a DRW pickup. | | Personally, I would not try to move a machine with a SRW, the idea of having | a flat carrying weight at 60mph is too scary. | | Thanks ! | | -- | Samiam is Scott A. Moore | | Personal web site: http:/

| My electronics engineering consulting site: | ISO 7185 Standard Pascal web site: | Classic Basic Games web site: | The IP Pascal web site, a high performance, highly portable ISO 7185 Pascal | compiler system: | | Good does not always win. But good is more patient.

When purchasing an f350 to haul a very large 5th wheel, I asked around and found that most people say dualies will pull better and keep the weight under control better. I can say that this truck does drive very nice with the weight, but better than SRW? I dunno.

The only down side to having dualies in my oppinion is when buying tires, thats two more tires I have to buy.

Scott

You don't get much of an increase in load capacity with a dualie. What you do get is a little better stability from the wider rear track.

No one ton pickup is rated to carry 2 tons. That said, I have carried 3000 lbs of steel plate in my 3/4 ton Ram 2500 Cummins 4x4. The frame was just hitting the overload springs. The net effect in driving it was it rode more like a car than a truck. Loading was no problem because the load was on pallets and forklifts were available at both ends.

It seems like GVWR ratings are chosen for liability reasons by the manufacturers. Check out the ratings of the individual components on some pickups and you will be surprised at what they will support.