Selecting A Truck For Fishing Boat...

[Gavin]

Just got rid of a 2010 F-150 Supercrew 4x4 with the 5.4 V-8 and 3.73 rear end. Did 17-18 on the highway and 14 around town, around 11-12 when towing a 7,000lb camper. Did not even notice the camper except for the mileage decrease. Should be able to find a good 2010-2011 1/2 ton 4x4 in the high teens. Would have kept it but my wife wanted a bigger  camper, traded it for a 2015 F-250 with a 6.2 V8. Gas mileage is about a mile less all around, and towing 10,000.

[Haris122]

Honestly the full size trucks that have non-towing highway gas mileages in the teens I probably wouldn't really even consider. I'm not even sure how likely a scenario me having a boat is, much less one heavy enough to need the big trucks. That's kind of why I'm leaning towards the smaller ones (though if I see a good price, some of the newer year full size ones do come close to acceptable mileage that I'd consider it). So far, if the V6 Colorado's/Canyon's really can tow 7000 lbs I'd almost think that would be my top choice (how the  v6 gets twice the towing potential out of the same chassis as the 4 cylinder, I'm not sure, but that's what they claim). Cause that seems only a 1000 or so less than the smaller engine full size ones tow, and yet I can get one of them for a good 3-5k less than one of those extended cab full size one, and the gas mileage is still seemingly close enough to make driving it to work and such not too bad in gas costs.

[Haris122]

So this is not so much a fishing related question, as much as a general use question, but I've been having a heck of a time finding out anything really clearly explained about this, so I figured I ask you guys about it as well since you guys seem to know your trucks well.

About a month ago I finally bought me a new car, a 2017 2WD GMC Canyon with the 3.6L V6 and automatic locking rear differentials. So far been very happy with it. However, even after reading through the manual I am still not really sure of how much weight I can actually put in the truck bed, and yet still be within the "safe" limits listed on the door.

The GVWR for this truck is 5700 lbs.Curb weight seems to be somewhere in the 4100-4200 lbs range (I found the figure of 4158 lbs mentioned but doing the math with the payload max it would make more sense if it's something like 4120 lbs actually, in either case I'm not splitting hairs over less than 50lbs). Front Axle GAWR is 3200 lbs. Rear Axle GAWR is 3500 lbs. Max Payload capacity is listed as 1581 lbs.

So far so good I guess. Subtract my weight, the weight of my stuff in the cab, and any passengers from the 1581 lbs, and that should ideally tell me how much else I can have in the confines of the entire truck.

But here's the thing that throws me off, how does the location of the truck bed as far as axles are concerned, factor into this. the 1581 lbs is from what I understand across the entire body of the truck, is it not? The truck bed though seems to pretty much be centered over the rear tires, and hence mainly the rear axle, correct? It sounds like I couldn't just subtract the weight of the "contents" of the cab from those 1581 lbs and assume that's the weight that I can load into the bed. Would I actually need a close approximation of just how much weight of the empty truck is sitting on the rear axle, and then subtract that from the rear axle GAWR, in order to find how much more I can put in the bed? And if so, why wouldn't the GVWR be higher since the two axle ratings combined add up to more than the listed GVWR? Where is my understanding of this flawed? Could I actually just subtract the cab contents weight from max payload weight and be within safe operating loads if I let's say load up enough bags of concrete in the bed, that I then hover around that max payload, even if 70-80% of that max weight is just in the truck bed?

I would assume if the axle weight distribution idea is the right way to get a good maximum safe payload in the bed portion alone, that it would actually be listed somewhere in the manual cause there's no way I know how much weight sits on that axle as is, if they don't actually tell me that. Yet at the same time it seems to make more sense to me than just assuming I can put 75% of the max payload, in the truck bed and be good to go.

Thanks in advance for any help in making this more clear to me.

[nomolites]

I wouldn’t think you could safely go over 1000# in the bed under any circumstances and that would be for a low speed no sudden moves very short at your own risk trip.  Check your tire rating.  I think the payloads ratings are ambiguous for a reason - if safety is important you should not try to go to the max.  A half ton full size pickup is 1000# and you can tell when you exceed that(although I have for short hauls), the Canyon is “less than” by I would guess 30%....

Mike

 

[snagged in outlet 3]

If the tires rub the wheel wells it's too much weight.

[tjm]

I have hauled 2700# a few miles in a C10 1/2T bed, the steering was a little bit light and I kept the speed down.  I have seen hundreds of loads of firewood weighing ~15-1700# hauled on 1/2 tons of every brand, but these were all full sized pickups with L6 or V8 engines. Since I'm still driving the '85, I can't say what newer models can do.  My '87 ranger I4 had ~7-800# bed capacity normally, mostly due to power train, but I hauled a load of scrap that scaled 1400#+ one time .

In general I think the engineers design so that a fair portion of the bed load is transferred to the front axle. It does help to position the load as far forward in the bed as possible.  If the load slants the rear down past the level it's likely too much.

[Haris122]

5 hours ago, nomolites said:

I wouldn’t think you could safely go over 1000# in the bed under any circumstances and that would be for a low speed no sudden moves very short at your own risk trip.  Check your tire rating.  I think the payloads ratings are ambiguous for a reason - if safety is important you should not try to go to the max.  A half ton full size pickup is 1000# and you can tell when you exceed that(although I have for short hauls), the Canyon is “less than” by I would guess 30%....

Mike

 

The tires apparently can carry about 2400 lbs/ per tire max (granted that's with the tires at higher pressure too). With the curb-weight at 4120 lbs or so,  divided by the 4 tires, makes it 1030 lbs per tire already (if weight were equally distributed, which is most likely not quite the case), I feel like another 1000 lbs/(~500lbs per rear tire) should still be doable (especially since the rear tires should even have less weight on them at curb weight with the bed being lighter than the front) with almost another 900 lbs to spare per tire. At least that's how it seems to me. That being said, I still don't know the weight on the rear axle at curb weight, and I don't know how much of an effect that has. Which is why I feel it's really dumb to list the max payload only, IF the GAWR for the rear axle is the more important consideration in this.

[Haris122]

11 minutes ago, tjm said:

In general I think the engineers design so that a fair portion of the bed load is transferred to the front axle. It does help to position the load as far forward in the bed as possible.  If the load slants the rear down past the level it's likely too much.

Can you elaborate on which level you're talking about slanting it down past?

[tjm]

I'm not familiar with that model, but most pickups sitting on a level surface slant up from front to rear while empty, the bed rail will appear  to run uphill from cab to tailgate and when loaded that rail will appear more nearly level.

I should caution you that 1/2 ton rating in the past ('50s,60s '70s) actually rated the bed load nearer 750#, but people I grew up with had a "load it til it breaks, then make it stronger" philosophy. My own philosophy after many years of fixing broken trucks is "buy the single axle 1T or the heavy duty 3/4T if you intend to haul loads on any frequent basis. Light duty  pickups have evolved into cars that are only good for occasional loading and towing.  My experience with more fuel efficient rated units indicates that a 25mpg empty unit will get 19 mpg at half load and 14-16 at full load and it will break down much more frequently. The manufacturers realized that 1/2T s could replace full size sedans and have less EPA hassles so they dropped all full sized sedans, the last being the Crown Vic platform  in 2007, Chevy having  dropped the Caprice in '96 or so.

Doing the math of 5mpg against repairs and lost time convinced me that I want a truck to get 15mpg max, if I intend it to be a truck. imo, any pickup with a rear seat and/or four doors is meant to be a car.

Big question is how do you know in advance how much the load will weigh? You  may be over thinking this.

[Gavin]

if its riding rear low their is to much weight in the bed. You could probably haul a bed full of mulch (about a cubic yard) w/o any issues, but a bed full of sand or gravel would cause some problems. You really don't need to worry about it unless your using it as a work truck to haul materials or you are towing a heavy trailer.. An occasional load of lumber, garbage, yard waste, furniture, or your camping gear is not going to overload your truck.