Big 'ole load

[LDobie]

Coming home last night, I met a 3rd Genner quad dually pulling a ~30' steel goosneck trailer with at least 10 round bales of hay on it, tooling right along at 60-65mph on a fairly fast and busy 2 lane road. Aren't those big round bales like 2000 lbs a piece?? So thats around 20K lbs of just hay, on a 3-4K lb trailer?? So, 24K lbs of trailer alone, is that possible or safe?? Seems pretty massive to me

 

[nick05]

i'm not to sure on the weight of the hay but your pretty close. i would say that would be about the limit, but you never know some guys just want to pull as much as they want. i don't pull near as much as that but am happy to hear its possible.



nick

 

[JApol]

I know that the "1 ton" square bales are about 1800 lb apiece and I'm fairly sure that the round ones are real close to 2000 lb

 

[NIsaacs]

There are different sized round hay balers. I would guess more like 800 lbs (small) and 1500lbs (large). Maybe some hay haulers will clue us in.





"NICK"

 

[sootgrinder]

Hay wieght

The native hay bales we role up are in the neighborhood of 1300lbs.

 

[LEnglish]

My 30ft tripple axle GN weighs in at close to 6500lbs. I pull 20-28k and have towed as much as 31k with no problems. With my current mod's done I can keep 60mph+ up most 6% grades weighing in at 23k. The largest load I have halled with the Cummins.



If you can belive it the last time I moved my Dads larger trackho 18k. This is the load that weights in at 31,500 I pulled it with my 6. 5TD. We move this maybe twice a year to different job sits



If you have all your breaks working right and know what is going on around you I feel you can safely pull larger loads.



These motor's are amaizing with some mods. I find my self going faster up hills than what I curse just because I can.



At the moment my turck is legal for 30k once I get my new Toyos rated for 3700lbs I will be good for what the tralor is rated for which is 24k.

 

[JLovas]

Its tough to get a large round bale that heavy. It would have to be alfalfa and a very dense bale to get close to that weight... an average weight, especially if it was just grass hay would be closer to 1300-1500 lbs/bale. I've hauled my JD 544A payloader (20,500 lbs) around before on a 30' PJ goosneck (6700 lbs)... and my pickup weighs just under 10,000 lbs with all my junk in the box which gross' out to 37,200 lbs. I haven't broke anything yet, but I think our Cummins motors are stronger than the rest of our pickups!

 

[JFortune]

The only way you can get a round bale up to 2000lbs is if it were silage, or Alfalfa JD 467 will only make a bale (unless you bale it green) 4'x6' and the heavest one I've ever bales weighed 1420 and yes it was slightly green, I bale an avg of 5000 bales a year with my JD 467 the 5'x6' bales beleave it or not (I'm not going to start a argument but this is from my own personal knowledge) will only weigh 300lbs to 400lbs more than the smaller bales. Anyway to get on with it, I have carried 22 round bales weigh avg, 1100lbs a piece (4'x5. 5') behind my Dually Dodge. Do I do it all the time No, but have on occasions when I had to. Didn't brake anything but a dang sure wasn't driving 65mphs. As stated by many people pulling it ain't the problem, stopping it is. .

 

[Cattletrkr]

Well I guess I'm just nuts. While it might not be everyday, it is at least once a week I'll pull 25-26K. I've got a 7' x 30' livestock trailer that I can get 14 head of 1500lb holsteins into. The heaviest load I've ever pull had 22,220lb of cattle in the trailer. Add approx 6200lb of trailer and 8700lb of truck and driver and I'm at 37K. "Normal" loads are 18-20,000lb of cattle. I'm usually right around 33-35K. I do this for a living so it's more than just every once in a while. I get weight slips for all the loads. I guess I could add in a couple hundred lbs. for the shyte that doesn't get weighed, but that's gettin a little nit-picky.



My truck handles this weight just fine. I usually drive 60-65, but every now and then I hit open spots on the freeway where 70-75 is not a problem. Just gotta keep up on brake maintenance. BD brake or some brand is a must!



I've been running with the Attitude on "stock" for the last week or so while I wait for a new lift pump to come in. I really don't miss the power. Yeah, I downshift more, but I don't feel like I'm going to destroy something. It's amazing what you can pull with a p/u.



My neighbor pulls an 8' x 36' tri-axle stock trailer. They don't pack it in as tight as I do, but they don't have to. I don't know what they can haul for weight, but it's absurd. Ford F350 is their drug of choice.



I've got a new trailer on order--8'x32'. :-laf :-laf At least the truck will get less miles. Maybe not easier miles, just less of them.



You guys with the big RV's shouldn't feel slighted. You may not pull the weight, but you've got an incredible amount of wind to push. My trailer doesn't pull any harder than yours does at freeway speeds.



BTW, dad puts 17ct 4'x5' bales when he uses a 32' trailer behind his '03CTD. Normally everything gets pulled behind a tractor. Then its 27ct behind an 80hp New Holland loader tractor on three wagons. Talk about too much weight. He's weighed the bales before, about 860lb ea. depending on what exactly they are.

 

[DPKetchum]

Seen 1st generations pulling those same kind of loads in years past. Just slower.

 

[jlasich]

These trucks are definitely more than capable. Last summer, I was a partner in a custom haying operation and I moved a lot of equipment. My heaviest load was 42,100 lbs GCW. This was the truck, 2 passengers, a Donahue 3-axle, expandable deck, gooseneck, flatbed trailer, and a Ford Genesis 8970 with duals attached. The truck pulled great, even though I did kill it twice and finally had to slip the clutch during one uphill start. Other loads I hauled during the summer were swathers and tractors, typically about 32,000 lbs GCW.

 

[SRadke]

Most round bales are closer to 1000 lbs than 2000. I moves some round grass hay bales that were only 4" long and they were only 500lbs each. Even the "1 ton" square bales rarely go that heavy unless it's alfalfa or something dense.



As for the weight, no it isn't safe to tow it with a pickup. I'm not saying don't do it, heck I crossed the scales last night at 15. 02 tons. Just beware that you need some time to stop and leave room for it. It's always better to error on the side of caution.



-Scott

 

[JFortune]

Totally agree, use caution, like jlasich I do custom hay work The weight gets pilled on. The only reason for me not driving fast is in the Texas hill country you never know when some of those dad gum bikers will be on the other side of the hill your topping on a FM road (2 lanes). Also when pulling those 22 round bales on my 30'GN they were stacked double on top as 12 on bottom and 10 on top. Normally just put 5 on top (in which case 60-65mph no second thoughts) but you do what you have to when you need to. Oh by the way crossed the Red river for the first time going to Ada, OK to pick a Pride of the Prairie hay trailer it will haul 14 of my 4' rnd bales and no more throwing out my back pushing them off when I have to delever them to someone without a tractor. . truck 21. 35MPG Very Pleased. . 88,000 mile almost all pulling something, Never been to the dealer for any work heck never touched it expect for Oil and Fuel filter changes. . Brakes are still good. I Love it. .

 

[LDobie]

Holy moly, I'm humbled by what you gentlemen are hauling, it really boggles my mind how far the trucks have come and how great the CTD package is. Guess I'm a big time wimp, if when I finally get one, I haul 2 or 3 sleds in a 12' enclosed aluminum trailer :-laf



The biggest load I ever moved was back when I was young and dumb and worked at a hardware store. It was a '93 1 Ton SRW Cheby, 350 auto, 4. 10s but very much gutless. Hauled on a tandem light duty equipment trailer, 6 pallets of lime and fertilizer and 1 in the box of the truck. I'm guessing the pallets were around 2000 lbs each. It made the trailer and truck squat quite a bit, good thing it was just about 12 miles thru town, never got over 30mph and put a ton of trailer brake in it. Damn scary, the truck wouldn't move very well at all, let alone stop well



So it just blows my mind that you guys are pulling over twice that weight and at much higher speeds and are doing it repeatedly and safely. Keep on truckin!!

 

[bmoeller]

The Cummins "B" is also used in the Spotter trucks. They pull loaded semi trailers all the time. Most, if not all have Allisions, or some other auto behind, them and they no trouble flying around the yards with loaded trailers. Those guys run them hard and put them up wet.

 

[jwduke]

We have one in a Ottawa shag truck, nothing to pull 70,000 lbs.