2000 mile trip in 1990 F250 with 2,400 lbs in bed?

[scsmith42]

Later this year I need to make a trip from the East Coast to Phoenix Arizona and bring back a 100 year-old 15 hp Fairbanks Morse flywheel engine. The engine weighs approximately 2,400 lb and physically will fit into the bed of my truck.

My problem lies in the fact that 2,400 lbs is greater than what I'm comfortable with loading the rear suspension and 2000 miles is an awfully long trip. Granted, the truck has the heavy duty full floating axle with 4:11's and brake sizing which I recall is the same as the F350 single axle Truck of the same year. It's a 7.3 idi with a ZF5, single cab 2WD.

The rear axle rating is 6,084 lbs and the GVWR is 8,600 lbs, so I'm within those limits. I'm just thinking that putting 2,400 lbs on 36 year old rear springs may be asking for it on a multi-day cross country trip.

The suspension components and brakes have been recently overhauled so I’m not concerned with any issues there either irrespective of the age of the Truck. And the load range E tires are in good condition as well.

I have a small single axle trailer with a 5000 lb rated axle that the engine will fit on so that is one option but I’m wondering if I would be better off to augment the rear suspension on the F250 with some type of airbag system

My reason for wanting to transport the Engine in the bed of the truck is that I think it will have a smoother ride than on a 4 x 8 trailer with a 5000 lb axle. But, since my long-term plan is to mate the backend of a 1982 F350 Dooley flatbed dump to the front end of my F250, I’m hesitant to spend many hundreds of dollars on a suspension upgrade that I would be removing within a year.

So I thought I would query the Group here to see what the collective wisdom is on what you would suggest that I do?

TIA.

Scott

 

[Clb]

Not sure I follow the later conversion.
But given the f250 is only a basic spring swap away ( not counting the dually) why not perfect the swap first?
In for the details...

 

[scsmith42]

Good question. My bottom line is time. The F350 is a cab/chassis truck, so transferring over the hydraulic dump bed is going to require cutting and welding the two frames together. This is not going to be a fast project because they are different widths behind the cab and considering everything that I have on my plate for this summer I don't think that I can get it started / completed before I need to make my trip. And I don't want to start it if I can't get it completed in time.

Whereas the F250 is just about rebuilt to the point where it should be dependable on a trip of that length.

 

[scsmith42]

I just cruized Amazon and saw that air bag suspension augmentation kits have come way down in price. For only a couple of hundred bucks I can source something that I can use on the 250 now, and later transfer over to the F350 back end.

Hmm....

 

[Greenie]

I'd check rear tire temperatures at fuel stops - either with your hand or an IR contactless thermometer. That will give you a good idea of overall conditions. If you'll be driving at night aim the headlights lower counting the turns so you can return the headlights to their previous adjustment when you're done moving the engine. It's an easy adjustment under the hood with a very small 1/4" drive socket and driver/ratchet. Oncoming nighttime drivers will appreciate the adjustment which otherwise would look like your high beams are on.
Brake pads should be checked too - that weight will take more effort to stop.

 

[Nero]

My in bed camper weighs more than that and I drove it with single rear wheel for years. Add air bags and you'll be fine.

 

[rreegg]

Unpopular/lazy option is to fly one way and rent a uhaul for the way back.. That’s a looong drive

 

[Clb]

Those airbag kits are good.
So verify your tires load capacity and temperature...

 

[headhunter38]

Back in February I did a 4k mile trip in my 91 f250. I brought my own supply of motor oil with me, about 325 gallons in the bed alone. That weighed in at almost 2500lbs in the oil alone. Probably almost another 1000 lbs in weight from my toolbox, my metal auxiliary bed tank, tools, batteries and pumps etc. Also i had some super old tires on there, a pair from 2016 and a pair from 2019. Still have the original leaf springs and the bushings were original. It did perfectly fine(she chooched rather slowly uphill, but she did it). Imo youre overthinking it. As long there arent any glaring problems in the suspension you'll be fine. Bring a tool box and plenty of fluids just in case though.

 

[u2slow]

I wouldnt have any problem with a ton in a F250 with a fullfloater. The axle can handle more. It is de-rated for the stock tires.

Load E doesnt say much. How many actual pounds? I try to run 3500-4000# tires on my trucks - the rear anyway.

285/75R16E is usually 3750# rated and fits nicely on a 16x7 wheel.

 

[scsmith42]

Thanks all for the feedback. Tires are Michelin LTX - around 3,800 lb rating as singles as I recall. I've been running these on some of my trucks (F350's and diesel Excursion) for 25 years with great results, and also on some of the tandem axle and dual tandem axle gooseneck trailers.

I have a standard thing that I do whenever towing or carrying a heavy load and that is whenever I stop, in addition to checking my strap tensions I'll feel all of the truck and trailer spindle hubs for temps, and place the upper sides of my fingers against the sidewalls on all of the tires. I've found that the upper sides of the fingers are more temperature sensitive than the other parts of the hand, and what I'm looking for is not only a high temp, but also inconsistencies between the tires. I expect that all tires on the same axle should have a similar temp. Also, whenever towing / hauling heavy, I'll always inflate my tires to maximum recommendation inflation in order to minimize heat buildup due to sidewall flexing.

It had been a few years since I priced out air bag kits; the last time I did so they were way on up there in price. Yesterday I was quite surprised to see several options for my truck listed on Amazon for around 200 bucks. That makes it a total no brainer. I have a Milwaukee M18 compressor that I travel with so there is no need to spend the extra $400 on a truck mounted compressor. My new kit will arrive tomorrow. Fortunately I own a Hougen mag drill that I can use to drill the mounting holes in the sides of the frame rails above the axle. I would not look forward to drilling those by hand and I damn sure am not going to torch them....

@rreegg your suggestion is not a bad option save for the fact that I need to take a large item with me to AZ. Fortunately it only weighs around 500 lbs but it's bulky. I'll also be able to stop at the mid point in Central Texas and visit with friends for a day or two going both ways.

@u2slow Thx for the confirmation about the axle derating. I figured as much but it's nice to hear it from others.

@Greenie - that's a good suggestion regarding the headlights. I've recently been through the entire suspension and brakes - basically everything is brand new including rotors, drums, MC and WC's (and of course shoes). Front seals are new and OEM Timken bearings regreased. Wheel bearing grease is Lubrication Engineers, and both seals have been replaced in the rear floating axle, bearings inspected and then retorqued per FoMoCo specs and new gasket and LE differential lube installed. The lube that came out looked great though.

@Nero thanks for sharing your experience. That's a helluva camper in your avatar!

@headhunter38 Thx for the insight. My truck has dual factory fuel tanks, but I'm considering bringing a 55 gallon drum or two of diesel in the bed to provide me with a little extra distance in-between fill ups. Do any of y'all use the Gasbuddy app? I've found it to be a great asset in finding the best price on fuel.

@Clb One thing that I haven't figured out yet for the conversion is the PTO. I'd like to source a good, used PTO drive for the passenger side of the ZF5 to run the driveshaft back to the dump bed. Before I do so I need to study everything under the truck and figure out my exhaust routing (since it presently goes through the location that the PTO would occupy) as well as the driveshaft routing. My initial research reveals that most PTO's for ZF5's in these trucks were on the drivers side, but my existing pto driveshaft in the F350 is located on the passenger side and I figure that it will be less hassle to redo the exhaust system than to try to reengineer the PTO feed and pump on the dump bed.

I know that I can go with electric if needed, but would prefer to stay mechanical due to the large size of the lift cylinder on the 10' bed. With electric, I'd either have to put up with a very slow lift or spend major bucks on a mongo sized power pack.

All - thanks much for sharing your advice and real-world experiences with these trucks.

 

[Clb]

How bout a hydraulic drive off the zf's driver drop, back to a remote gearbox drive for the dump bed drive?

 

[Nero]

Sounds like you have a good game plan.
The frames on these are pretty soft, I was able to drill the mounting holes for mine with a battery Milwaukee just fine.
I typically run my bags between 60-70psi, really helps stabilize the load.



If you can believe it, newer aluminum frame campers weigh even more... I see them come into work for generator work all the time, and out of curiosity I always check out the weight tag on them... Heaviest I've seen was 5200lbs... On a 2019 SRW F250!

 

[Black dawg]

2500 really isnt that much in one of these trucks, especially if it has the overload on top of the standard spring pack. On my truck, with the standard springs and with the overload on top, 2000 pounds just brought the overloads into play, and leveled the truck.

Get it shoved forward as much as you can and it should drive pretty nice.

 

[u2slow]

235/80R16 trailer tires migt be 3800#, but 235/85R16 truck tires are typically only 3050#.