David Hall wrote:
(Robert Bonomi) wrote in message ervers.com...
In article ,
David F. Eisan wrote:
I went to an auction on Saturday and bought a little bit of ash. The auction
listed it as 500 BF of 10-12' 8/4 ash. I couldn't take it home on Saturday
because it was at the back of a barn behind other piles of lumber. My little
Ford Ranger was in for service today so I borrowed a 4x4 5.4l F150. I don't
know what the truck is rated for,
*THAT* is easy to answer. a '150' is rated for 3/4 ton -- 1500 lbs. An F250
gets you another thousand pounds of capacity.
but I am sure I had over 2000 lbs of Ash
in it today. Hand loading that by myself was quite laborious, thankfully my
Dad was at the other end to help me unload. I think there is more than 650
BF in the pile.
lessee. 500 bd ft is 41 2/3 cu ft. 650 bd ft is 54 1/6 cu ft
At an arbitrary specific gravity of .75 , it's going weigh 46.8 lbs/cu ft.
500 bd ft comes in at 1950 lbs, 650 bd ft at 2535 lbs.
Yeah, that would have been an uncomfortable ride on a 1500 lb-rated suspension.
I am not used to driving a full size pickup, and driving one
loaded to the gills was quite a challenge. It was dancing with a fat chick,
every little bit of motion in the steering wheel caused the truck to jiggle
from side to side as it settled out. I was leading a parade for 150 KM on a
back highway as I actually drove the speed limit (80KPH).
On the one hand, let me say that you SUCK. On the other hand, remind
to NEVER lend you my truck. 
Dave Hall
Whoa! Don't know where you got those ratings for a 150 and 250, but
they are not true. The ratings for 150's and 250's vary all over the
place. You have to look at a weight rating book for various cab
engine and drive ratings. Some 150s are rated as high as 2700 pounds,
much higher than most 250's. but some 250's are rated at over 3300
pounds.
Granted that the pickup in question was was way over capacity, the
main problem was that the rear wheels were carrying all of the weight
of the wood plus way over half of the weight of the truck. One
wonders why the rear tires didn't blow out, or the axle break. The OP
might feel a gentle tingle when he looks at the sidewalls to check
the maximum weight rating of each tire or the weight rating of the
rear axle and compares that against the estimated load plus slightly
more than 1/2 of the empty truck weight.