Math Question

[Nyboy]

I was told my truck can safely carry 1,000 pounds. All bulk material is sold by the yard. How do I figure out weight of something sold by yard. Does a yard of mulch weight same as yard of gravel?

 

[seedcorn]

No, mulch much lighter. A yard is 3' X 3' X 3'.

On mulch, fill the bed up. On gravel, about one small skid loader dump. When over loaded, bed will drop. Don't ask how I know.....

 

[ducks4you]

I would fill with mulch. I would NEVER fill it with rock! That will rip up and scratch your bed!!!!
I investigated "gravel", which in our part of the country is really crushed limestone, and a local company sells it by the ton, $14.00/ton. Delivery for 25 miles is $110.00
DD's need it in front of their cement, in front of their garage, and along the easements (they live on a corner.)
I also need it for a project. They will delivery up to 11 tons at one time, same delivery price.
My great neighbor will have a Bobcat in the next two weeks and has promised to help spread it for both projects.
Get a friend who has a trailer. Just like a horse can Pull 4x what he can carry, your truck call pull more weight than you can put on the bed.
Save your truck for transporting that 55 inch plasma on super sale, where the owner of the mini car would break it.

 

[bobm]

When I built our last house in Cal. the sheetrockers loaded my Chev. 3/4 ton Silverado with a tow package with scrap sheetrock to take to the recycle center while I wasn't on the construction site at the time. The pickup was so full that the front wheels barely touched the road. At the scales the sheetrock alone weighed in at 2470 lbs. No resulting dammage to pickup.

 

[canesisters]

... I have hauled almost 1000lbs of gravel in my S10...
I would not recommend it - but it CAN be done

@Nyboy , just as a 'guide' you can load up with a known weight - several 50lb bags of dog food or top soil or whatever and see how it rides - how low the body sits over the back tires. That is NOT anywhere near a perfect guide, but when watching them load something loose in your truck - like mulch or gravel - if you know what 500lbs 'looks like' then you can stop them when they get too close to your 'flinch point'.

 

[ducks4you]

I used my trucks to transport animal feed and animal bedding and garden supplies--DD's just bought a bag mower and we put in on the bed of the truck. If they break it won't damage the truck bed, and that includes big loads of hay and straw.
I like to consider if I'm going to damage my truck doing the job before I do the job. I transported the chicken coop kit last Fall, one big box housed in a 2 x 4 and particle board, probably 1,000 pounds, but they carefully lifted it on the bed, and we carefully took it apart.

 

[Nyboy]

I do have my eye out for trailer.Cane that is good advice about 50 pound bags of dog food.

 

[Ridgerunner]

There is no clear cut answer on a lot of this. There are different kinds of mulch. Are you talking about wood chips, wood shavings, straw? Wet mulch may weight more than twice as much as dry mulch per cubic yard.

Different materials will weight different amounts, depending mostly what is the parent material. I found this in the internet just to give you an idea.

Sand 1.10 - 1.25 tons(2,200 - 2,500 lb.) per cubic yard

Planting Mix 1 ton (2,000 lb.) per cubic yard

Lawn Dressing .90 tons (1,800 lb.) per cubic yard

Compost .40 tons (800 lb.) per cubic yard

Landscape Gravels 1.20 - 1.35 tons (2,400 - 2,700 lb.) per cubic yard

Washed Gravel 1.35 tons (2,700 lb.) per cubic yard

Washed Limestone 1.20 tons (2,400 lb.) per cubic yard

Limestone Base 1.35 tons (2,700 lb.) per cubic yard

Lava Rock .50 - .65 tons (1,000 - 1,300 lbs.) per cubic yard

Learning your equipment and the sag is a real good idea. You might even paint a mark when you get to 1000 pounds if you have something you can mark. Oceangoing freighters do that, paint a "Plimsoll" mark on the vessel so when it sinks in the water so far they know it is loaded.

 

[baymule]

It's a truck. Load it.

I had a 2007 Dodge Calibur, very small SUV type car. I loaded 1,000 pounds of horse feed in it. I had a Ford Focus and loaded up to 750 pounds in it, although it "wallowed" a bit, 500 pounds was better. Yes, I abused my cars.

@ducks4you I don't think Nyboy is too worried about scratching the bed of his truck. Remember, this is his beater truck. My DH nearly died when I loaded up his truck, a 2004 Ford Lariat diesel, but he got over it. His truck still looks brand new, just don't look in the bed, LOL.

 

[Ridgerunner]

When I lived in suburbia a city-boy neighbor asked to borrow my wheelbarrow, I'd just bought one so it was new. He was working on a back patio. A few days later he gave me a brand new wheelbarrow. He was mortified that he had scratched my pretty wheelbarrow with those bricks and chunks of concrete and just had to replace it. In his mind, he had ruined it. I just could not convince him that a wheelbarrow was supposed to be scratched inside.