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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