# 1.67 tons! Not strictly train related.



## wchasr (Jan 2, 2008)

Ok yesterday at lunchtime went to the local asphalt plant whcih is open finally and got a load of -1 crushed limestone on my poor little utility trailer. 1.67 tons doesn't look like much at all until you put your foot on the gas pedal to leave the gravel pit and all four tires spin a little.  Of course it was loaded by a big huge front loader but unloaded with shovels by a 45 year old and two little girls, who started out being really interested in helping daddy.  Anyhow this was so that we can continue to get my mother in and out of the house. She had been parking by the back door all last summer until diagnosed with lung cancer in October. Surgery should have been in November/December but with all the rest of my mother's health complications it was put off until January. She came thru with flying colors and has been home since March but mostly housebound. Pulling up to the back door all winter long has taken it's toll on the yard and this load of crushed stone went a long ways to helping folks from sinking into the mud. I am geussing at least 2 or 3 more loads will be adequate to get me thru until next Fall. I am aso going to get one load of "fines" for the trains too. Will get another load at lunchtime today. The gravel pit is only available for loading from 7am until 3:30 PM and they close for 30 minutes at lunchtime. Many lunchtime loads in my future I think. My poor trailer and back!

Chas


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## jake3404 (Dec 3, 2010)

Is your trailer a single or double axle? 

If it is single can you ask them to load you towards the back so you can tip up the front of the trailer and push off the material instead of having to shovel it off. 

I remember when I had to fill in for the yard loader operator and guys come in with thier pickups and say "Fill'er up to the top." I always had to explain a 1/2 ton truck can probably hold about 2-3 tons of material and it would way over stress their axles which could snap. But some wanted it anyways and they would drive away loaded up with the springs resting on the overload blocks. 

I always thought it was funny when I would come up to a little truck with a 980 Cat and say, "How much you want?" The surprised look on their face was priceless.


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## Scottychaos (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By jake3404 on 29 Apr 2011 09:03 AM 

I remember when I had to fill in for the yard loader operator and guys come in with thier pickups and say "Fill'er up to the top." I always had to explain a 1/2 ton truck can probably hold about 2-3 tons of material and it would way over stress their axles which could snap. But some wanted it anyways and they would drive away loaded up with the springs resting on the overload blocks. 



I have a 1999 Chevy S10..nice truck, but definately on the "light duty" end of the pickup truck family tree! 
I get loads of top soil occasionally from the local garden center..Half a yard at a time is about all it can handle.
they dump it in with the bobcat thingy, and I can feel the truck sag..
I wont "fill it to the top" with anything!  not even mulch..gotta know your limits..

Scot


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## wchasr (Jan 2, 2008)

Jake, 
It is a single axle 5x10 BUT the gate is not removable. Honestly the old guy running the bucket loader pretty evenly loaded it. Both front to rear and side to side. He stopped about 2/3 of the load originally and asked if that was good. I wasn't on the rubber suspension bumpers but close. i can remember an old co-worker at Niagara Hobby telling the story about getting fines from an actual quarry in the Buffalo NY area. Following the HUGE trucks and the BIG laoder down the ramp to get his Dodge Dakota filled up. His comment was his truck would fit in the bucket of that loader.  His moment of clarity was to close the rear sliding window in the truck before the laod was dumped in! 

Chas


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## flats (Jun 30, 2008)

I go to the quarry about 12 miles from where I live, and let them load my pickup 
looking at the tires. When they start flatting out I have them stop. I usually end up 
to a ton and half of gravel. The tires are what you want to know if overloaded, for if 
they go you are in trouble. Done this many times, in fact 36 pickup loads of dirt that 
I load by hand and unloaded by hand, with 8 loads of gravel so for, got to go again 
soon. Did this between the age of 62 to 69, next will be 73. I could tell the different 
between age 62 and 68, glad I did my layout when I did. 

Ken owner of K&K the road to nowhere


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Ha ha... I love to tell this story on my (former) brother-in-law. He was re-building/enlarging an old garage by building new walls, one at a time, to the outside of the old structure, tying it into the roof and then removing the old, now interior, wall. When he was done with that he dug out the old dirt floor and was making his own concrete for the floor in a home-made mixer. He would go to the quarry in his old pick-up to get sand and gravel for the mix.

He got tired of the multiple trips so one time when the scoop operator had dumped part of a partial scoop load in the back of his pick-up, he stopped the fellow and said to dump some more in. The fellow obliged by tipping the bucket a bit more and a quick shake. But that was "not enough" so my brother-in-law motioned for still more. The fellow shook his head, no. My brother-in-law persisted, "MORE, it'll take it!" The operator again obliged a couple of times and then refused to add any more (even though the scoop still had plenty in it and he would not even have to go get more).

My brother-in-law then paid (the charge was not "per weight", but "per load" for small amounts like a pick-up could carry) and left, feeling a bit cheated for not getting as much in this load as he wanted.

About half way home the route was under a multi-track RR underpass, where the road took a sudden dip down to get under it and a sudden rise on the other side, back to the usual street level. He didn't even make it to the rise on the other side! The sudden dip down stressed the truck beyond its capability and it broke in half between the bed and the cab!

He left the truck there to go call a tow truck. When he got back the police were there, and said, "You have to move this truck.". He told them a tow truck was on its way.

When the tow truck arrived the driver took one look and said "No!" and left. The police said, "You have to move this truck."

He called a 2nd tow truck... They didn't even stop to say, "No"... They just drove by. The police said, "You have to move this truck."

He called a 3rd tow truck and they said, "Are you the guy in the underpass with the truck broken in half? Yes? NO!" and hung up.

The police called an industrial towing company and the truck they sent, although they could lower their boom to get under the underpass, could not lift his truck while it was down. They had to park at the other end of the underpass and drag the truck out from there. They managed to get a set of dolly wheels under the middle of the truck and towed it to where he was working on the garage, parked it there and recovered the dolly wheels.

I don't know what it cost him (gravel, pickup truck and tow), but he finally had enough gravel to finish his garage floor!

I'll leave it up to you if you should trust your local scoop operator as to whether you have enough in your pick-up bed or not.


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## wchasr (Jan 2, 2008)

Another trip from work to the plant and then home. 1.4 tons this trip. I could tell the difference this time. Trailer had a little more spring to it. I'm only going about 2 1/2 miles from the plant to my home. Next week they will be loading only Asphalt so no gravel until next Friday. Maybe I'll get some topsoil and then some mulch? 

Chas


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Well, back in 85, I had a little Dodge "S10" size pickup, and I spent the summer in the inner city helping the pastor of a little church. One day the people at another church called, "We have lots of extra commodity cheese to distribute, can you help?"

So we hopped in Norm's little station wagon that he usually used to pick things up for distribution there, but when we arrived, the lady said, "Oh, honey! You brought the wrong car." So we went back and got my tiny pickup. Net Wt, 1,100 lbs. Driving back, I did some quick math and figured about 35 of those cases. 


When we got there, the people were elated we had brought a truck. "Stop at 35," I said. That would have been about 1/3 the bed full. They didn't. They didn't stop at the top of the bed. They didn't stop till it was stacked as high as the roof of the cab. "Um, this is a little bitty truck." I had to put the truck in 4L to get out of their driveway and back onto the street.


I never took the time to figure out how many boxes there were, or what they weighed, I just hoped not to discover any new pot holes. The little truck made it with no problems, and it took less than an hour to get it all distributed. Norm explained that people could store the stuff well and it would cut their grocery bills almost in half for weeks. They did have lots of interesting ways to serve this heavy cheddar type cheese. "You made this from commodity cheese? I would never have guessed."


Yep, you guys overloaded your trucks with gravel from the asphalt place, but I did it with Government Cheese from Jesus People U.S.A! 


The truck served me well all through college and grad school, then developed some odd problem nobody quite figured out. I sold it to a guy who used it to haul feed around his farm. Hog feed is much lighter than Government Cheese. I still think there was something wrong with that clutch, but a couple guys who looked in there said the clutch looked fine.


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## Ron Hill (Sep 25, 2008)

I have a Ford Ranger and have no problem pulling 2 tons home from the bulk aggregate yard. I use a friends tandem axle trailer, but you have to have the front end loader dump the limestone from the rear axle forward. I have at least 5 loads in the back yard. 
Ron


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## jake3404 (Dec 3, 2010)

A Ranger will pull 4,000 lbs. But try to put 4,000 lbs in the bed of it. I admit that you can put more weight in the back of a truck than what its rated at and I do. But, it was always funny to see guys pulling away from a pile with the tires almost rubbing on the wheel wells. 

As for the size of the loader. Yeah a 980 loader is pretty big compared to a Chevy S10 or a Ranger. I cant remember the size of the bucket, but I know I could get about 7.5 tons of clean rock in one bucket. 

I have to tell you another story, 

The 980 was getting an oil change so we had to use our 988 to load trucks. The 988 Cat is even bigger, we used it to load haul trucks with shot rock. If I remember correctly I could get about 12-15 ton of clean rock in the bucket. I was filling in loading trucks, and a little Nissan pickup needed some rock. When I cam around the corner of the pile and he saw what I was going to use to load his little truck...well at first he wasn't going to let me. After i told him I was going to be careful and not damage his truck he let me. But he was sure watching me to make sure I didnt crush his truck or something. 

I sure miss things like that with that job.


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## Ron Hill (Sep 25, 2008)

Jake, was that guys eyes big as a half dollar when he thought you were going to crush his truck? I bet you had a good laugh when he left! hahaha


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