Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong

[kozal01]

I don't know about the 7.3 power stroke being slow. A company i worked for years ago coverted a regular cab, short bed F250 with naturally apirated 7.3 to a dually with 4.11 axle.

Since it was a short box, this was by far the goofiest looking truck you have ever seen.

That truck would easily roast the tires with a pallet of concrete in the bed on a gravel road when shifting to 2nd gear and flooring it.

Every new employee with that company experienced it the first time they drove that truck. And everyone was out watching them take off with it the first time

I hooked onto the 30ft gooseneck trailer and went to the northeast corner of Vermont for a load of cedar boards. I had the trailer rounded with lumber.

I hit some pretty big hills and would run up them without having to downshift.

I pulled off into a truck stop and had two vehicles follow me in wondering what I had for an engine in that truck

By todays standards they are slow but they were pretty quick for back in the day. I used to borrow my dads 97 350 with the 7.3 to plow with, it had an aftermarket turbo, straight pipe and a banks 6 gun tuner and it was quick, even with a front back blade on it and it would push snow like a bulldozer. The quickest powerstroke I drove though was when I was still in the Army, my unit's maintenance had a standard cab long box with the 6.0 and that thing ran like a r@ped ape. We used to fight over who would drive it, that thing would move! No emissions BS and Im pretty sure the guys tweaked it a bit too.

 

[Jstpssng]

Now that you mention it, these Daihatsu HiJets have a load capacity very close to the lowest rated 1/2-tons.

700lb payload the last time that I looked at them. It's been a long time since I've seen a pickup with that low payload. Heck, DigginIt hauls more in his Taurus.

Also, off-road only in the US.

 

[Too many Kubotas]

700lb payload the last time that I looked at them. It's been a long time since I've seen a pickup with that low payload. Heck, DigginIt hauls more in his Taurus.

Also, off-road only in the US.

I think it's 350 kg.

Either way, they can indeed be registered in the USA. I never bothered to register mine since it's not driven much on public roads.

 

[WinterDeere]

Lots of kids running around my area with trucks like that. Jacked up 2wd models talking smack about how their trucks will out pull anyone.

Kid starting talking smack to my coworker at the local truck stop.

Kid said his truck would out pull anything. Let's go out and hook up right now and we'll settle this!!!

Coworker said "Your on!!!"

He then proceeded to walk out to his dodge dually diesel and said "Let's go Junior!!!"

Kid started back tracking in a hurry

Kids tend to confuse horsepower with torque and traction. His truck may indeed climb a hill the fastest, but when it comes to pulling a dead load, weight and gearing are all that matter.

 

[4570Man]

Back when F550's came with the 6 speed manual transmission, you just put the truck in granny gear, eased off the clutch till it caught and then let off the brake and got on the throttle.

Granny gear would pretty much idle up a hill, even with a heavy load on it.

My Ford dually with a manual 6 speed and 3.73 rear end gears isn’t geared as low as I’d like really. I usually pull it in 4low when I’m pulling a trailer off road until I get back on the pavement. I don’t have power lock hubs so 4 low isn’t actually 4x4. My trailer has 17.5 tires which pull hard on dirt but it requires more clutch slipping than I like to get going without going on 4 low.

 

[WinterDeere]

I had a 1978 Ford with Dana 60's front and rear, wearing 5.38:1 gears, and powered by a little Ford 400 cid thru a C6 tranny. I could lite up the Ø40" x 17" tires on dry pavement, with that gearing, but it did not get great gas mileage. Highway speed was 60 mph... when you were feeling dangerous.

 

[Too many Kubotas]

Kids tend to confuse horsepower with torque and traction. His truck may indeed climb a hill the fastest, but when it comes to pulling a dead load, weight and gearing are all that matter.

It's not just kids.

When doing 60-120s with our Challengers my girlfriend has 90 hp over me, yet it's not until around 100 that hers start pulling away.

And you'd be hard pressed to find even a 50 year old Redeye owner that won't claim his is much quicker than a pedestrian 707 hp version. Which on a prepped surface and with drag radials they definitely are.

 

[Too many Kubotas]

I usually pull it in 4low when I’m pulling a trailer off road until I get back on the pavement. I don’t have power lock hubs so 4 low isn’t actually 4x4.

That's what I do with my M1008. Put it in 4 Low to be nice to the transmission.

Its 4.56s are low, but it's still a strain on the transmission to get moving with a load behind it. And I'm lazy, so the right front hub is usually locked. That way I only need to lock in the left one when 4WD is needed.

 

[Grumpycat]

I was surprised to find that I can't get my truck from Ford anymore: F350 XL extended cab/long bed. I paid $27,000 for my truck, ordered with everything I wanted on it in 2004. Now, (if I read their website correctly) the cheapest F350 extended cab/long bed is now the Lariat, starting at $63,460 (and for that I would have to get a lot of extra stuff I don't want, like carpet).

Good thing my current truck will last until I die.

What cab do you consider to be "extended"?

SuperCab or
SuperCrew?

 

[Runner]

What cab do you consider to be "extended"?

SuperCab or
SuperCrew?

 

[Renze]

Had a 2-door for a while and the first thing I did was to remove the bed since it served no purpose.View attachment 1389910

I remember building a gooseneck trailer for a Renault Master chassis-cab on which the dealer made a dropside bed. I thought it was the most pointless build we ever did, because the bed would be useless with the 2 foot 5th wheel plate exposed, and the cargo space above the gooseneck (with a 2 foot gooseneck to clear the dropside boards) would be so high that its pretty useless too. A conventional stepdeck in combination with a removable bed that locks into the 5th wheel coupler and two catches in both front corners, would be more practical, and he wouldnt be constantly overloading the truck. But thats what you get when an end user goes to a bodybuilder who wants some of the work himself but outsources the trailer, then you get unpractical contraptions like that.

Yeah i know a gooseneck is pretty common in North America, but in NA every pickup comes with a truck bed for the same price as a chassis cab without it, and you guys have ball couplers where here, only the 2 foot saddle has a type approval.

Here in Europe the default body is enclosed van, (not a pickup bed like in North America) and a chassis cab goes for about the same price.

 

[BigBlue1]

I see tons of pickups where it's obvious that nothing has ever been carried except people.
Large, jacked up, big tires, solid rear cover. Shiny.

I also see many being used as work vehicles.

So it's a split. Many are lifestyle as paying > 70,000 for a pickup seems a bit steep to shove dirty tools in the back.

Both of my prior trucks were used as trucks for hauling and towing. They both looked like new at 7 years old when I traded them off. Don't judge use by condition. Not everyone is a savage that destroys vehicles when they use them. And not everyone treats their own vehicle like they treat a business/work truck.

 

[Too many Kubotas]

Yeah i know a gooseneck is pretty common in North America, but in NA every pickup comes with a truck bed for the same price as a chassis cab without it...

Ram gives you a whopping $400 credit for a bed delete.

Okay, so you could sell that new bed for much more, but are still faced with the pickup frame which is trickier to build a well supported flatbed on.

The flat frame rails in the standard 34" width on a C&C makes adding things to it much easier. Also, with a Ram there's 74 gallon fuel capacity available, and I like that the rear axle isn't as wide as on a DRW pickup.

 

[WinterDeere]

Both of my prior trucks were used as trucks for hauling and towing. They both looked like new at 7 years old when I traded them off. Don't judge use by condition. Not everyone is a savage that destroys vehicles when they use them. And not everyone treats their own vehicle like they treat a business/work truck.

Same here. The inside of my bed might be a little messed up, albeit not so easy to detect under sprayed-in bed liner, but I try to keep the outside and interior relatively clean. I work my truck more than any 25 other weekend warriors I know, in fact they'll agree on that, but my truck is also usually cleaner after 10 years of use than most of theirs. I just don't go throwing chains and ratchet strap buckles over the side, and I vacuum it out and wipe it down inside at least 2x per year, or more when it's particularly messy out.

 

[Too many Kubotas]

There's indeed a difference between use and abuse.

 

[WinterDeere]

The ones I never got were the guys with caved in license plates and tailgates. As if backing up to a trailer without smashing into it, or running the right size ball for your coupler, is a bridge to far. It's not that difficult, guys!

 

[ning]

The ones I never got were the guys with caved in license plates and tailgates. As if backing up to a trailer without smashing into it, or running the right size ball for your coupler, is a bridge to far. It's not that difficult, guys!

If you have a drop hitch, you won't hit your license plate!

(how else am I supposed to know how far to back up? I have a shell on my truck, I go till I hit something, then pull forward 2 inches. about 50:50 I get it first try... maybe someday I'll buy a camera, but probably not)

 

[kozal01]

I dont have much use for my camera on my truck but for hooking up trailers it is a huge time saver.

 

[Runner]

(how else am I supposed to know how far to back up? I have a shell on my truck, I go till I hit something, then pull forward 2 inches. about 50:50 I get it first try... maybe someday I'll buy a camera, but probably not)

Camera is probably best way, I don't have one either. Those little magnetic wires with balls on top that you stick to your hitch and to the trailer would probably work pretty good too.

What I do is backup until I'm close (like within a foot or so), then stop, get out and walk to the back of the truck. Note how far the ball is from the trailer, then get back in the truck and leave the door open. Then, I look straight down and pick a spot on the driveway and use that as a reference point to see how far to back up. Works almost every time (I tend to be conservative and stop a little short sometimes).

Note: It also helps to keep the trailer tongue close to the height of the ball so that it is likely to hit the ball first before getting to some other part of the truck that you don't want to hit (just in case you do back up a little too far).

 

[kozal01]

Camera is probably best way, I don't have one either. What I do is backup until I'm close (like within a foot or so), then stop, get out and walk to the back of the truck. Note how far the ball is from the trailer, then get back in the truck and leave the door open. Then, I look straight down and pick a spot on the driveway and use that as a reference point to see how far to back up. Works almost every time (I tend to be conservative and stop a little short sometimes).

This is exactly how I used to do it.