73-87chevytrucks.com
General Site Info => General Discussion => Topic started by: English on April 12, 2016, 02:02:42 pm
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First let me insert this caveat- remember I'm in the UK, these trucks aren't very common over here and the ones that are are usually show trucks, not used for work.
So, the question, how much can I carry? Truck is a 1979 K10, 8ft bed, lifted two inches, on 15x10 Cragar Soft 8s with 33x12.5x15 BFGs.
According to the literature I think I should be able to put something in the region of 1600lbs in the bed. But is the official literature conservative? And does the fact the truck is 37 years old count against it? And the lift?
I'm doing a bit of groundworking at home, I want to load as much as I can onto the old girl. But without breaking anything, parts aren't so easy to get over here!
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GM is notorious for their conservative ratings.
1,600lbs should be no problem.
The closer that you can load to the front of the pick up box the better the truck will carry the load.
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Make sure your tires are rated for the amount of load you intend to support.
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Make sure your tires are rated for the amount of load you intend to support.
That's usually the big deal on the 1/2ton trucks. Folks use 15" & 16" Passenger car tires rather than light truck tires because they are cheaper. The sidewalls flex a lot more on the Passenger car tires.
A lift kit can adversely affect the load carrying capacity. How much is dependent on how the lift was done and how high it was lifted. 2" or 4" lift is not enough to make a difference. 6" and beyond are another story.
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your gvwr shouldnt be no more than 6k (matve a few hundred over) and knowing your brake system would tell you or if you still have a sticker on the door. once you find that out then look at the tires and go with the lesser value.
http://forum.73-87chevytrucks.com/smforum/index.php?topic=28592.0
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Cool, thanks for the tips! Good to have a bit more confidence in what the truck can do.
Position of load- I thought it was better to carry directly over the rear wheels?
Brakes- the truck doesn't have any stickers on the door jambs, presumably where it's been resprayed. I'll try to work out what brakes I have from the master cylinder.
Tyres are rated at 2,225lbs, wheels 2,200lbs.
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Weight position is good over the rear axle too. You want the heavy stuff either over the axle or if it's real big, as close to the front as you can get, you just don't want heavy stuff to be at the very back or tow with a tow ball on the bumper, using a frame mounted hitch is always preferred and better.
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If you're willing the spit the VIN# out (understandable if you don't want to) someone here can go to a dealership and they can look up exactly what your GVWR (gross vehicle weight rating) is.
Or do you have Chevy dealerships over there?
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This site has a VIN decoder on the home page.
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This site has a VIN decoder on the home page.
http://73-87chevytrucks.com/VIN.htm
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Went on the VIN decoder but I can't see where it tells me the GVWR, only that it's a 1/2 ton
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Went on the VIN decoder but I can't see where it tells me the GVWR, only that it's a 1/2 ton
Brakes digit indicates the GVWR
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Brakes digit? Are you referring to the page that indicates which brakes you have based on what the master cylinder looks like?
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If you're willing the spit the VIN# out (understandable if you don't want to) someone here can go to a dealership and they can look up exactly what your GVWR (gross vehicle weight rating) is.
Or do you have Chevy dealerships over there?
VIN is CKL149J162138. If anyone can get to a dealership and look the vehicle up I'd be very grateful! We do have Chevrolets over here, but only the Daewoo ones.
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Brakes digit? Are you referring to the page that indicates which brakes you have based on what the master cylinder looks like?
what does your master cylinder look like?
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From the VIN Using the 1979-1984 parts books
C Chevrolet
K 4x4
L 350 with 4 barrel carb
1 1/2ton
4 Pickup
9 1979
J Janesville, Wisconsin Assembly Plant
162138 Sequential Serial Number
GVWR: Gross Vehicle Weight Rating: The maximum allowed GVW for a vehicle.
GAWR: (front or rear): The Gross Axle Weight Rating
Curb Weight: is the actual unloaded vehicle weight.
From the 1979 Chevrolet Trucks build information on the GM Heritage site...
1979 K10 only had one GVWR: 6,200 lbs, Gross Curb Weight: 4,686 lbs
1979 K10 Front GAWR: 3,520 lbs, Front Curb Weight: 2,884 lbs
1979 K10 Rear GAWR: 3,520 lbs, Rear Curb Weight: 1,802 lbs
You can likely put around 1,500 lbs in the bed as long as your tires are in good shape and rated for the full GAWR. If you have passenger car tires you'll have to derate your carrying capacity to match your tires weight rating.
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^ Nice one, thank you. Although I've just realised the thread has gone a little astray from my original question- I'm more interested in people's real world experiences,i.e. if the factory ratings are conservative and I should be able to carry more, or if the lift and age of the vehicle mean I should carry less.
Bear in mind I'm in the UK, these trucks aren't common here. For all I know all you guys are regularly carrying way more (or less!) than what the factory says you should
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Like most questions, the answer to yours is: it depends. If you are driving on flat, empty, well-paved roads at low speeds, you can load it pretty heavy. If you are driving down steep grades or over rutted cattle trails, then load it lighter. A lot depends on how you drive too. You can break stuff with the truck completely unloaded if you hit a pothole just right. If you know what you're doing, you can drive a heavily overloaded truck without problems. You have to use common sense. If the truck has a serious reverse rake, groans over every undulation in the road, the tires suddenly look underinflated and the brakes don't seem to do much, then you're too heavy. Maybe you can get away with it if you're careful. You probably aren't going to have a scale on site, so you'll have to listen to what the truck is telling you and use common sense. What you're hauling also makes a difference. If you're hauling bark, then load it as high as you want. If you're hauling gravel, a half-full bed will be too much.
It all depends...
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Haha, yeah bringing in some gravel is on the job list. I've been playing it safe and only getting about 300kg at a time...
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Haha, yeah bringing in some gravel is on the job list. I've been playing it safe and only getting about 300kg at a time...
300kg is @662lbs
1/2 ton is 1,000 lbs or @454kg Technically that's the rated weight.
You can load 600kg in the bed without damaging the suspension on a K10 but be aware of your tire load rating. Overloaded tires tend to heat up and delaminate internally. Lower speeds help but it's best to be careful.
This is applicable to tires in North America. http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=35
Here's some more info from Goodyear on European tyre markings... https://www.goodyear.eu/en_gb/consumer/learn/how-to-read-your-tire-sidewall-markings.html
Here's a load table from a UK Tyre distributor. https://www.ctyres.co.uk/general/load-index