Rear Dana 60 Hauling Ability

[tanusfarms]

Howdy All!
I currently have a dana 60 under the rear of the truck. I know from previous discussions on my truck that when hauling extremely heavy loads in my truck that the dana 60 would be the weak point and not my springs. I need to pick up a large quanity of top soil and am needing to know at what weight do I risk damaging my axle. This info will help me to figure out how much I can haul in one trip.

The second part of the question may seem like a dumb one. What would I gain by eventually swapping the rear axle out for a dually axle, hauling wise?

the truck this would be for is the truck seen in my signature

thank you for your time

[averagef250]

Weight doesn't effect the gears. Past a certain point a thicker housing and larger spindle bearings are needed. The failure you will most likely see is a bent spindle/housing. It would take 70,000 pounds sitting on the axle to bend the housing, but what will bend it is having a heavy load in the bed and hitting something like a curb, rock, pothole with the tire.

In different terms the material your axle housing is made of has a yield strength. The yield is the loading threshold past which it cannot return to it's former shape. The axle housing isn't rigid, just like nothing in the universe is rigid, everything bends, moves, gets acted on by outside forces. The more weight you put on the housing the more likely a shock load is to bend the housing/spindle past it's yield point and it will stay bent and weakend from it's former strength. Where that actually happens could be figured out by a sharp engineer doing a bunch of calculations or you could just avoid potholes and rocks when you've got more than a couple ton in the bed.

A dually axle is not much different than than the dana 60 you have in respect to the hubs it uses. You can bolt dually wheels on your dana 60 if you want more tire. Twice the rear tire on the ground equals about 2/3 more tire load capacity.

[Racer Z]

I don't know the upper limits of the Dana 60. It was used in quite a variety of trucks. A more important question to me is: What is the GVWR of the truck?

If you overload it to much, you stand to break or bend (bend is broke to me) other things. If you're so heavy that your riding on the bump stops, or bottomed out, you will break something. Maybe not the axle, but something. We've all seen trucks with bent frames from being overloaded.

What about the brakes? Can they handle being grossly overloaded?

[survivorman]

The Dana 60 is one hell of a rear, and just got replaced by Dodge a few years back on there 2500.

The new Dodges probily weigh 1000lbs more then your truck and they can carry about 2000 in the bed.

So if you have the proper spring and overload assemblys 2000 would be well with in the axles range.

If you need more gear or the 60 goes south. Upgrade to the 70. That way your well into the safe area.

[tanusfarms]

here is a pic of what the rear springs are



As for the brakes they will be for now the stock breaks with front disc setup.

I have no clue as to what the gvwr is. I could actually use help figureing that out. I do know that my truck has several modifications but the bulk of the chassis is a 1975 high boy. I know what the abbreviation means i just don't know what the rating is on my truck.

dustin i was always under the impression that the hubs were different on the duallie rear. thanks for letting me know the aren't. i do like the idea of having more tire in the rear. is the dual rear rims and tires all i need or is the other components i should keep in mind if decide to go that way?

[survivorman]

GVWR rating is dictated by the frame as much as the axles

[tanusfarms]

i understand the gvwr is based on various elements of the truck as a whole. What I don't have is a clue as to what sort of a range the gvwr on my rig would be. i know that the frame hasn't been modified other then the dump bed being welded between the frame rails.

Basically I have 2 acres of pasture that I need to fill 2 feet. I am obviously going to have to do a buch of trips and it is going to take me a very long time. but i would like to get some kind of idea as to what weight is reasonable to haul.

according to this website
http://www.reade.com/Particle_Briefings/spec_gra2.html
dense earth is listed as the heaviest for "earth" at 125lbs per cubic ft. 125
that makes 1 cubic yard of dense earth weight 1125lbs. obviously i would preffer to haul the largest loads that are safe for me to do so. Just need some help determining what that limit is.

[averagef250]

The rated GVW of your truck was 7700. Those rear springs are F-350 cab chassis springs, same springs I have under my 70. Those springs are used under trucks with 10-15K GVW ratings. They will be quite happy with 3-4 ton on them. If you can get the axle on the bumpstops with those springs I'll buy you a beer!

Your truck's frame will handle all the weight you can pile on it. There's more steel in it than most any other 1 ton 4x4's.

If I was in your shoes I'd be pondering two things:

1) how could I extend the sides 4 more feet in the air to haul twice the dirt

2) will the hoist lift the bed with that weight on there.


Go have fun hauling dirt.

[tanusfarms]

Thanks dustin thats the info I was looking for. I do have plans on extending the sides but that is mainly for wood hauling purposes. I also have a test idea for the hoist. My friend has a loading dock in his pasture we can use to load his samuri into and that will give me a idea of how it will handle some weight if it does ok we have a tractor we can drive up into it that weight more than the samuri.

[knightfire83]

That is a nice looking truck.

Curious to know though, looks like the walls of the dump bed are wooden. Hate to see a loader dump a few buckets of soil in there and the bed sides split, or worse yet on the road.

Of course you probably all ready thought of that, but it came to mind...

[tanusfarms]

thank you. I picked the truck up for $300 with all the mods currently done to it already. I'll have less then a grand invested when all is said and done including the front axle i replaced.

currently the sides are wooden. it is 3/4" cdx plywood at the moment. i will be changing the sides on it. I'm thinking on using 2x material such as 2x12 perhaps. Metal would be ideal but isn't in the budget at this moment in time. there are steel supports welded inside the bed currently. so for now i figure I'll have to increase the number of supports and just live with the wood.

[Mancar1]

I agree with haul all the dirt you want that truck will handle it. I've hauled full loads of gravel and dirt in my 68 CS with no problems. Yours has more capacity that mine.

[1972hiboy]

here is a pic of what the rear springs are

[ Image ]

As for the brakes they will be for now the stock breaks with front disc setup.

I have no clue as to what the gvwr is. I could actually use help figureing that out. I do know that my truck has several modifications but the bulk of the chassis is a 1975 high boy. I know what the abbreviation means i just don't know what the rating is on my truck.

dustin i was always under the impression that the hubs were different on the duallie rear. thanks for letting me know the aren't. i do like the idea of having more tire in the rear. is the dual rear rims and tires all i need or is the other components i should keep in mind if decide to go that way?

Daaang, thats alot of springs! Those are off a f-350 of similair vintage truck and they bolted in?? If so im going to get me some of those for my truck I tell you what!

[tanusfarms]

I was told when I was tracking down the actual owner that the truck has a brake setup from a ambulance. they never knew what year range it was. Judging by the springs I am assuming that the whole axle and spring setup is from that ambulance.

[averagef250]

The standard wheelbase single wheel F-350 2wd from 67-79 used the same rear springs as the 67-77 F-250 4x4. The cab and chassis F-350 2wd's from 1967 through 1997 All use that identicle beefy spring and overload pack.