Ton Truck Question

Bill VA

Well-known Member
Considering a flat bed ton truck for fetching literally 1-ton loads of fertilizer, maybe some local square bale hay delivery and other hauling chores. The road block in my mind is the 1-ton payload. I already have that with a trailer.

Question is - is the payload for a typical 1-ton truck typically 1-ton or is it something higher, like 1-1/2 tons?

What is your opinion/experience with this class truck?

What is a good older model 1-ton truck to consider? With limited use, not wanting to spend a "ton" of $$$ on it.

For the same $$$, am I better off going to a larger payload truck with higher tonnage payload? Any recommendations there?
 
I don't have an answer to your question about the one ton truck, but I do have a recommendation. I thought about buying a small dump truck. It's enough work to load something, why should I unload it when I can push a button and all the work is done? Then I researched insurance and licence plates on a dump truck. Thought about the repairs keeping an old truck running. That's when I looked into a dump trailer. How much an empty trailer weighs, payload, how much my truck can handle. Decided on a 10k dump trailer that empty weighs about 3k, payload 7k. I've found out I can very easily pull a 6k load at high speeds without getting white knuckles.

So, if you are thinking you only need to carry one ton, get a dump trailer. Mine has a 6x10 bed. I use mine all the time so much so in 6 years I had to buy new tires. My trailer came with a heavy duty deep cycle battery which only lasted about 30 months, second battery same story 30 months. I'm now experimenting using two car batteries instead of one heavy duty battery. I think I've made the right choice.
Time will tell how long they will last.

Check out a good dump trailer with twin cylinders and a combo tailgate. I'm glad I did.
geo
 
My "3/4 ton" 94 Ford F250 has weighs 5100 lbs. and has a GVWR of 8800 lbs. So it has a 3700 lb. payload cap. There are LD and HD 3/4 ton trucks. 1 tons come with different GVWR packages too. I'd just make sure the truck has a full-floating rear and not a semi-floater.
 
Any newer truck will have the Gross Weight capacity in the tag in the door,so take that and subtract the actual weight of the truck and you'll have the net weight you can haul.Typically
ton truck carry a 10,000 or 11,000 gross wt but people will over load them.My F-550 weighs about 9,000 lbs and has a gross weight of 19,500 so I can haul over 5 tons on it legal as long as I'm license for it.
 
He is in Virginia he can run a farm truck with no tags within a 50 mile radius of his farm,doesn't even have to have insurance but of course he needs to have insurance think the liability
only policies I have on the farm trucks run a little over $100 year.
 
I've been under the impression that "tonage ratings" were originally "off-road" ratings. The GVWR rating is the "on-road" rating.
 
Considering that gooseneck hitches are rated for 6,000lbs you should be able to haul that on a dual wheel truck evenly spaced on the bed. I used to haul 4,000lbs in a 3/4 ton all the time.
 
ADOT uses a variety of 1-ton trucks in different configurations. Some are flatbeds with disappearing balls for gooseneck trailers, some flatbeds but most are dump trucks. ADOT disposes of surplus trucks by auction. However, before the auction there is a separate auction for other levels of government. I've never seen a 1-ton dump truck make it to the public auction unless it was in really bad condition. The dump trucks are bought by colleges and school districts, small towns, irrigation districts, etc.

The 1-ton used sign trucks are sold as a stripped chassis as the sign bodies are just moved from the old trucks onto a new chassis. Those sign trucks carry a pretty heavy load of signs and equipment but I don't know how much they weigh loaded.
 
I don't know about the specifics in Va but in Pa a one ton truck usually has a g w t

of 9000 lbs.If the empty wt of the truck is 6000 lbs then you can haul 1 1/2 tons legally. As for the truck to buy for a low price you can't do much better than a used fleet truck. I bought a 1T 2000 Chevy that came from Verizon. It had 170 K miles, no rust, Only paid $1500 for it.
 
you should be able to haul close to 2 ton on the truck....dad use to haul scrap back in the 50s and I remember him putting 5 tons on his one ton and hauling to pittsburg. it sure was squatted down though
 
Research this, as other others said a trailer may be much cheaper to keep on the road. A one ton is great if you have much use and do other stuff like fire wood, plow snow and so on. If you have a lot to haul may be look at a bigger truck. But weigh the costs of it can you get a farm plate and so on. Tip trucks are very costly to keep on the road.
 
I have inspected a few "used home depot rental trucks for sale" they have a aluminum bed. Other than normal ware and tear they were good trucks other than RUST. Most any 1 ton used have the front end inspected ball joint ware is a problem on all makes. Those trucks have the receiver for the trailer hitch blocked of so they never towed anything, they weld a bolt in the hitch pin hole :twisted: They have a warring horn that goes off if overloaded what good it is I dunno.

My thoughts on what you can haul and not damage are blow tires 1/2 the GVWR on the door sticker. On a ton truck I do not like to exceed 4000 lbs.

BTW a Ford gasser with a 6.2 will get'er done :D A GM with a 6.0 will also but Ford has it beat...
 
The insurance question would be a big deal with my insurance company. You can have a one ton pickup and get standard insurance no problem. Buy it with a flat bed and you have to pay for commercial insurance because that it is now not just a passenger truck. Happened to my brother in-law. Stupid. Now if you buy a truck and then put a flat bed on it then you might be able to do it. I think it is how it is titled. I have a tractor pulling bud that bought a smaller Kenworth to pull his goose neck with. His insurance went through the roof because it was a commercial truck. His solution was to get the bed off an old dually pickup and hang it on the back of the KW. Made the insurance company happy, because now it is just a "pickup".

OTJ
 
Have a 1981 F350 dually with a crysteel dump bed with a fold down side. Handiest truck ever. No way would I ever have a regular factory bed or a flat bed. Door sticker says 10,000 gvr or gvrw ? IIRC truck empty weighs around 5,500 ? Hauling 3 ton of stone in the back is a nice load to put in there. That being said when I left the gravel plants hauling mainly driveway limestone I would get up to 5 ton in the bed ! Truck handled it and did not break in half. It was a LOAD but all went fine. I just stuck to more back roads and did not try to get in a hurry. I have also used it to pull a gooseneck trailer. I have no idea how heavy of loads I had on it ! There were a few big ones though. The trucks made today like 450 and 550 with disc brakes all around should really be able to handle loads well.
 
Not sure what this weighs on the truck but no problem with weight. The truck had 15000 original miles when I bought it two years ago - had always been stored inside.
a155377.jpg
 

If one ton is heaviest your looking to haul just find a F-250 or 2500 (3/4 ton) and put some good D or E rated tires on it, a flat bed with removable side makes it easy to load and unload from.
This would give you a truck to drive anytime rather than have it sitting around waiting on that occasional heavy load, later you could get that dump trailer if you feel the need for it.
Nothing wrong with a F-350 or 3500 dually if you feel you have enough need for one, insurance is normally a little higher, more tires to replace and they need more room to park.

I got tired of climbing in and out of the bed to hook and unhook my gooseneck trailers, a new tandem dually trailer also had us hauling heavier loads (6-8 tons cargo) so I decided to get a flatbed dually.
Didn't really need the F-450 cab and chassis I have now but the price was right and it had the features and drive train I was looking for in a used truck, I did have a full skirted custom flatbed installed.
 
I bought one of these for hauling hay.Paid a thousand dollars for it.1975 IH loadstar 1600.345/5 speed with 2 speed rear and a hoist only had 51,000 miles on a working odometer.Had to do a little work to it but it runs great.Yearly registration to much tho in my opinion.
Paul
a155384.jpg
 
check the MGW plate to see what its rated for, then subtract the empty weight of the truck---my ford f250 is MGW of 8800 and the empty truck weighs 6100---so it can carry about 1 1/2 ton
 
Single rear wheel 1 ton usually has 4000 lb payload
Dual rear wheel 1 ton usually has about 6000 lb payload

If you bump up to a f450/4500 the payloads take another big jump with the proper truck tires on them.
 
I looked at the same options, even looked at bigger old flat bed trucks to haul more bales (they go cheap at auctions around here). But in the end, after considering the Insurance, license fees, repairs to an old truck, I decided to use a 16 flatbed tandem trailer. It will haul 80 to 90 bales, or a couple tons of fertilizer or gravel or fence materials.
I decided the money was better spent on my primary truck.
 

I can't answer all your questions, but I can tell you I hauled 3/4 or more of a ton of sacked feed in a 4 cyl, 4wd, 91 Toyota PU, what they'd call a Tacoma now, for years. Hauled a trailer with 120-140 bales over 100 miles through the mountains 3 -4 times a month for years. I've put 2 tons of wood pellets in the back of my F350 and it just smooths the ride out nicely. Maybe I'm immune to what others feel, but both trucks seemed to do fine to me. Of course I did grow up filling the back of Dads F100 with bank run gravel to the point we'd ahve t hot the brakes to get enough traction on the front tires to make a 90 degree turn at a stop sign...
 
I have run a one ton with flatbeds starting with my dads 1973 Ford 350 he bought new in 72. I still have a 96 dodge cummins(its probably worth $5000)and a 04 chevy 6.0 gas. The payloads are are around 4000 - 6000 lbs. The best ton truck I have ever had is my Dodge and I am a die hard Chevy man, go figure. A two ton truck will cost more to run and a tad more cumberson to get around in, but they will haul more, I just don't care for that size,it wont fit through Dairy Queen's drive thru. I have had 6 different one ton flatbeds over the years and have had good luck with all three brands. I will give up my flatbed one ton when they pry the steering wheel from my cold dead hands! Still waiting for Chevrolet to come out with a Cat 6 cyl turbo diesel/Allison auto cab & chassis! JBD
 
Dual wheel one tons around here regularly hauled 120 bushels of wheat, 60 pounds to the bushel, 7200 pounds or over 3 1/2 tons.
 
I never heard of Indiana having a law like yours. Our county has a wheel tax, state has an excise tax. To get plates we have to have insurance.
I heard of a story where a man had three cars in his yard, no tags. He spent the winter in Florida. Came home cars gone. Called the cops to report they were stolen. Come to find out the county towed his cars, no tags. I think the count put a notice on man's front door giving him so many days to respond. He never seen the notice, he was in Florida. Storage fees and towing. Had his car's been out of site in a garage nothing they can do about it.

I know two other people who were given notices to plate their vehicles or get rid of them. I got calls from both wanting me to haul their vehicles to salvage yard. I told them all they have to do is call a salvage yard and they will pick them up.
 
I bought an "84 Chevy 1 ton platform bed with a power tailgate. I put a winch behind the cab, handiest rig I ever owned. I pull logs to the tailgate, lift and pull to put a layer on the bed. Rigged a pulley on the back, cable to the front to a false aluminum headboard and pull a whole load of hay to the back as I unload. Hook a pulley to the shed and pull logs off as I cut them into firewood. Besides pulling stuff onto trailer behind truck.
 
Bill,
I have a Chevy C-30 1 ton and routinely haul 3-4 tons with it with no problem. I hauled 4 tons of 20-10-10 fertilizer with yesterday. It weighs about 7,000 lbs. empty and I have it licensed for 16,000. It is a long wheelbase version (84 inches cab to axle) with a 12 foot flat dump bed. It has two foot high sides as well a set of one foot sides. They are a very handy size of truck for me. Mine is a 1977 model. I also haul 1-ton totes of cattle feed on a C-2500 (3/4 ton) Chevy pickup with no problem.

Garry
 
1/2, 3/4, 1 ton are old traditional terms from back in the day when trucks actually had payloads of 1000, 1500, and 2000lbs, respectively.

Now they are just colloquially used to refer to 15-series (i.e. F150, Silverado/Sierra 1500, Ram 1500), 25-series, and 35-series pickup trucks respectively.

You could haul 1 ton of fertilizer with an F150 if you wanted. Most of those trucks have a payload capacity of about 1500lbs, and if you're just going a short distance and don't plan on leaving it loaded long-term, you could get away with it. You'd still be within axle and tire ratings.

A dual-rear-wheel pickup, a dually, generally has a payload capacity of 5000-6000lbs from the factory, though some advertise as much as 7500lbs . So you could actually haul 3 tons of fertilizer pretty handy with a dually.
 
It would need to be a "newer" F150. I wouldn't try that with older (1990s and earlier) without doing some work on the rear springs. The 2004+ F150 with a long bed (reg cab or ext cab) is rated over 2000 pounds payload standard. If you do go to maxing out the payload I would start with the tires and have at least D rated (E rated would be much better) on all four corners.


I have a 1997 ext cab long bed with E rated tires and helper springs on the rear and about 1800 pounds is all I feel comfortable and even then I take it nice and easy. That is what it was rated "standard" from the factory. Before I put the helper springs on the drop hitch with occasionally scrape with 1600 pounds.
 
(quoted from post at 20:44:43 03/27/17) 1/2, 3/4, 1 ton are old traditional terms from back in the day when trucks actually had payloads of 1000, 1500, and 2000lbs, respectively.

Now they are just colloquially used to refer to 15-series (i.e. F150, Silverado/Sierra 1500, Ram 1500), 25-series, and 35-series pickup trucks respectively.

You could haul 1 ton of fertilizer with an F150 if you wanted. Most of those trucks have a payload capacity of about 1500lbs, and if you're just going a short distance and don't plan on leaving it loaded long-term, you could get away with it. You'd still be within axle and tire ratings.

A dual-rear-wheel pickup, a dually, generally has a payload capacity of 5000-6000lbs from the factory, though some advertise as much as 7500lbs . So you could actually haul 3 tons of fertilizer pretty handy with a dually.

Off topic, Ford change from F100 to F150 The split was in 1975 as a move by Ford to work around emissions equipment requirements based on weight ratings.
 
Depending on where you are at in VA I would stay with the pickup and short trailer. Some of the terrain is not acclimated for long vehicles like single axle trucks with longer beds and such.
 

If you are really wanting to haul just 1-ton, 2,000 lbs, any full sized pick up truck should be able to do that. I used to haul 1-ton of sand and rock in a Chevy S-10 10-miles or so. It was all that old Chevy could handle, but it never failed.

I've loaded 3-4,000 lbs in my '01 1500 GMC with a 6.0, and multiple V-6 F-150's at work with no problem at all. for 2,000 lbs worth of fertilizer on a pallet or loose, hay, and other odd ball items I would recommend a 1/2 Ton truck with a flat bed or a simple utility trailer. A 1/2 Ton will handle 2,000 lbs with ease plus its low to the ground so its easy to load/unload, insurance/tax/purchase price is fairly low.
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top