Trashed a truck bed with overloaded rack
I am curious if anyone else has trashed a pickup bed by overloading your lumber racks?
I just had to replace the bed on my toyota pickup because the top of the bed had developed some fatal cracks/tears in the sheetmetal.
I know I bent the bed rails right behind the cab 12 years ago putting a 35foot telephone pole on it and transporting it 15 miles on a windy mountain road (and repeating the process with a second telephone pole). That stunt also bent the removable rear crossbar on the rack.
Later I made some side racks like a glass truck uses that I hung on the racks and bolted the lower end the truck frame. I used those to transport granite slabs when I first started fabricating countertops. I think the heaviest slab I put on those weighed around 800 lbs.
Having just removed the bed for the first time I was amazed at how light it was. It is pretty impressive that a bed that doesn’t seem to weigh more than 200 lbs can stand up to the kind of abuse that mine went through over the years.
Also it was quite an eye opener how much dirt, gravel, etc had collected under the bed liner. There must have been 30lbs or more under it.
I finally realized I needed a replacement bed when the tailgate started flexing as the arms that attach it to the top of the tailgate opening were moving as I stood on the tailgate. One side the corner of the bed had a tear in it and the other side the spot welds had torn loose allowing it to flex.
This may have been a result of unloading at the dump by placing sheet goods at the bottom and loading granite scraps, concrete, etc on top and reversing at a rapid clip and hitting the brakes. The system worked well but a lot of weight passed over the tailgate as the load slides out.
I found a used toyota bed for 140 dollars and $750 dollar paint job for the bed and cab and I should be back to where I was in 1992 when I put the rack on in the first place.
FWIW the rack is called a “rack-it” and has been a great asset to the trucks versatility.
Replies
I once had a rack that stood on tall legs that rested on the bottom of the bed (as opposed to most racks that use the bed sides for support). 1979 Toyota long bed 3/4 ton
Loaded it up with 30 pcs. of 1/2" x 20' rebar and headed down the road at about 50 mph., hit a wash board section of pavement and the bar started dancing up and down.
Next thing I knew my windshield exploded, the top of the cab came down toward me and I could here an awful scraping noise from behind me.
When I finally got stopped and calmed down I saw that the legs of the rack had been driven right through the rusted bed and hit the pavement, and the front cross piece of the rack (over the cab) had come down into the windshield.
So I guess you could say I trashed the bed of the truck ... and the windshield ... and the cab.
Oh yeah , my shorts as well.
<<So I guess you could say I trashed the bed of the truck ... and the windshield ... and the cab.Oh yeah , my shorts as well.>><<LOL>>
Karl, you're a man among men. The faithful owners of old Toyota pickups who will not let them die! Mine's a '91 that I've had since new.
Got rear-ended by a hit and run one rainy night. Cloud with a silver lining though. I discovered that the old step bumper was rusting out from the inside.
I'd been planning to tow a fairly heavy trailer load across the country, hitched to that bumper. So we torched the mounting bolts and yanked it off. I got a frame mounted receiver from Hidden Hitch which is far superior.
The right rear corner of the bed and the tailgate were pretty crunched up, near the bottom. I was able to pull most of that out using a come-along and a telephone pole out in the alley. Tailgate works perfectly again.
As you say, it's surprising how lightweight that bed is, considering how strong it seems to be.
Edited 11/10/2007 10:34 am by Hudson Valley Carpenter
Scary stuff. Also a Rack-it fan here and recently had mine modified, added a headache screen and a pivot so the rear bar swings to the inside rather than being removed when I want to climb in and out without ducking. I have heard other stories of overloaded racks splitting open truck beds when crossing railroad tracks, turning sharply, etc. I try to put less than 500lb on mine. A telephone pole would not qualify.
You should post that Q here as well:
http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=80
A good web site w/ lots of good info traded.
Thanks for the link to the Toyota truck site. I lurked on a similar site for a while, a few years ago, just to learn a little about Tacoma 4X4 mods, but this site is way more specialized with a much bigger bunch of members.
Karl.
Everytime I see a heaily loaded rack on one of those small pickups I cringe..
Yes as you pointed out you got away with it for a very long time before it failed on you. But what about those that don't. Putting that much weight up that high is scary at a minimum.
I see wrecked vehicles on a regular basis and the number of rollovers with racks is amazing. while on occasion a well built rack acts like a roll bar, too often the racks fold like a cheap accordian and the pivot point is the drivers head..
Since the human neck isn't really designed to carry thousands of pounds at speed the results are usually fatal..
For long loads when the bed is not of sufficent size I recommend a good trailer..
Frenchy,
Good point. I have had an inordinate amount of good luck. I did buy a F350 a few years ago with a flatbed dump and now I find myself even overloading that. The toyota is just so much fun to drive, so fuel efficient and so willing to take what ever I throw at that I can't give it up.Seeing the damage to the bed that the bedliner concealed was a big eye opener and I really don't have any desire to mangle another bed. At this point the f350 does the heavy work and the toyota is great for commuting and picking up small loads.Part of the problem for me is the brakes and suspension on the little toyota are so good that it is not as easy to recognize a load has exceeded the trucks capacity.Karl
Karl
I recently purchased a little Toyota myself.. The Yaris.. for my youngest daughter. I find my self with a big smile on my face.. Very much similar to a Mini Cooper at less than 1/2 the price and zero maintinace need thus far (10,000 miles) (LOF excepted of course) So I understand your pleasure.. $12,000 for a little two door another, $800 for A/C and power windows plus bigger wheels and ties and how can I go wrong? 40 MPG (heck my oldests daughter's Saturn only gets 34 MPG)
While for heavy work I will continue to use my Chevy pickup, it's got 275,000+ miles on it and the total of repairs on it wouldn't make two months payments on a new one. Plus it's still unblemished by rust which here in the rust belt is a major deal
4X4 and big V8 loaded and I still get 19 MPG and 17 in town..
I haul home 1000 bd.ft. of wood at a time with it from the sawmill and while the headlites check out the tree tops for squirrels it takes it in complete stride. Origninal shocks and no sign of deterioration, guess that Z71 package is a little more than a decal..
How have you managed to keep your truck rust free?
Jon Blakemore RappahannockINC.com Fredericksburg, VA
Jon,
Regular car washes? There is a really good car wash nearby and for $35.00 a month I get unlimited washes.. I come home and it's covered in salt I go through the car was before I go home..
I do have a tuck undergarage with a drain so if it's really sloppy and needs a wash to clear off the salt in the couple of miles from the car wash I'll grab the hose and hose it off before heading upstairs. Mines a step side which has fiberglas fenders so they won't rust anyway.. GM's been pretty good about rust lately, My wifes car gets a monthly wash ....sometimes.. no sign of rust on it..
Karl,
No profile. Where are you? I want to stay away from the roads you take. First the Toyota, then the F350. Hire someone or buy a semi. What don't you understand about safety?
It does affect strangers when #### falls off vehicles. A dear friend of mine was seriously injured due to someone doing what you describe. I don't find it amusing or macho. Think about it. Especially if you are running your company name on the side....The unspoken word is capital. We can invest it or we can squander it. -Mark Twain...
Be kind to your children....they will choose your nursing home.
...aim low boys, they're ridin' shetland ponies !!
That will definitely ruin your day!
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One of his DW behind the wheel......
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Oldbeachbum.
I am in Santa Cruz, California.Good Point about safety. I am sorry for the risks I exposed you to. Karl
PS. When you say
"A dear friend of mine was seriously injured due to someone doing what you describe." can you be more specific about what I was doing.
""A dear friend of mine was seriously injured due to someone doing what you describe." can you be more specific about what I was doing.""
A heavy piece of furniture, not secured well enough on a rack, broke loose, flew into a following car and that in turn hit my friend head-on going the other way. The guy with the bad load wasn't hurt and all he got was a ticket. Lawsuits followed but when you're crippled.......all the $ in the world won't make up for anything, least of which is time and suffering.
By your own admission, over loading. I'll try to stay off Hwys 17 and 1 when I go to Watsonville. I'll take 101, instead. There are probably several reasons why power companies usually move their poles on trailers. I won't even comment about the granite slabs or equipment disregard. But, hey..to each his own until you endanger me and mine....The unspoken word is capital. We can invest it or we can squander it. -Mark Twain...
Be kind to your children....they will choose your nursing home.
...aim low boys, they're ridin' shetland ponies !!
Oldbeachbum,
As you are so eager to point out, I do not lack for faults but I am not sure what leads you to believe I secure my loads inadequately.If I were superstitious I would knock on wood as I have yet to have a load come loose on me while underway. It is clear I somehow struck a sensitive nerve as you need to link your friends tragic incident involving a poorly secured load to my own scenario involving an overloaded rack.The whole point of this post is to share first hand experience with the LIMITATIONS of a pickup truck rack (and to praise the durability of a sheetmetal pickup bed) not to romanticize the abuse of construction vehicles.Let me emphasize the point to eliminate additional misunderstandings.I put a rack on my truck. I put heavy things on my truck. The bed started showing signs of damage. I learned from the process and bought a truck better suited to carrying a heavy load.You write as though you possess the ability to know a products limitations without ever exceeding them. If so you are to be commended.I unfortunately have had to learn a few lessons about the limits of a product by breaking things and in the process have acquired a better understanding of when to stop.Ideally this message thread would open a dialog about safe use of lumber racks. I am not sure why you percieve it to be amusing or macho.Sorry to hear about your friends misfortune.Karl
Edited 11/12/2007 1:44 am ET by karl
Have you seen the video from the BBC show Top Gear, where they tried to kill a Toyota pickup and failed? Hit it with a wrecking ball, left it in the sea, set it on fire, and finally dropped a building on it and the darn thing kept running.
part 1 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3366786787492753177&q
part 2a http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3366660439957595021&q
part 2b http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7058903907118124377&q
Try one of these.
http://www.uteltd.com/
Mike
I have to agree, Toyota trucks are fantastic. I'm on the second one, first had 400,000 on it and was beginning to need some serious rework. It still ran but needed a new radiator, radio would only get one station and the heater stopped working. They do have great suspensions but the early models were a bit light on load capacity.
Owner of a Toyota miself. Watching this news, with intrest:
Last Tuesday the Toyota Tundra was kicked off the Consumer Reports "Recommended" list for achieving below average predicted reliability scores from its own owners. It appears, however, that the Tundra's week is about to get worse. With the help of Mike Levine from Pickuptruck.com, we're following two separate stories about Tundra quality issues that have surfaced recently. The first involves the Tundra's transmission, with at least ten owners at TundraSolutions.com reporting that their trannies experience rough shifts that make the truck feel like it's riding over rumble strips. The 'rumble strip' transmission issue has been acknowledged by Toyota North America and traced back to the torque converter not disengaging properly. Owners report having their transmissions replaced with new or remanufactured ones, though Toyota told Levine that going forward the automaker would only replace the torque converter itself. Toyota did not say, however, how many trucks are affected, just that the transmission problem is not a safety or design issue.
The second quality issue sprouted up this past weekend, also on TundraSolutions.com, and involves tailgates that have been failing or, in some cases, even falling off. The most common experience seems to be the tailgate itself forming cracks and the metal buckling when under load. One owner reported that his tailgate failed when loading an ATV into the bed for the very first time. The tailgate being such an integral part of owning a truck, members of TS have begun an online petition, which they hope will force Toyota to recognize the issue and do something about it. The petition has attracted 125 signatures so far. Levine from Pickuptruck.com has also asked Toyota about these potentially failing tailgates and is waiting for a response.Yes, the Toyota Tundra has had a very rough week, but it's no more difficult than the time Tundra owners spend with trucks that don't work as advertised.
[Source: Pickuptruck.com, TundraSolutions.com]http://www.autoblog.com/2007/10/22/t...uality-issues/
The earlier Toyota trucks in the U.S. were the same ones sold worldwide and were developed to handle the type of abuse that they got in the third world. The last generation of U.S. Toyota trucks, I have read, are no longer the same sold in the third world. It will be interesting to see what the "domestication" of the Toyota pickup does to its ruggedness...
If Toyota pick ups are good enough for the Taliban they're good enough for me. How many time have you seen a bed load of insurgents carrying RPGs and AK-47s pile into a Toyota truck and head off down the road? On TV-News that is. They don't have those foo foo Land Rovers or the outrageously expensive Hummers, just plain vanilla Toyota PUs. PS I wonder if they get them serviced regularly or do they service them themselves! Are they still covered by warranty?
Never wrecked a truck bed, but I wrecked a rack once.
I had stopped at a job site and unloaded whatever was on the rack and tossed the nylon ratchet strap onto the roof of the truck. When I left the job I forgot about the strap. Shortly later I heard this loud POW that scared the #### outa me, and had no idea of what happened. I got out of the truck and saw my rack collapsed like a tree limb had fallen on it, but the cab of the truck was un touched???
After some more carefull examination I figgered out what happened- the strap on the roof was still anchored to the rack on 1 end, when I headed down the highway it got blown down between the cab and the bed, got wrapped around the drive shaft and pulled the whole thing down.
The bed was fine, amazing how tough those straps are.