Do you need a ½ ton, ¾ ton or 1 ton pickup,
with a short or long bed? July, 2002 by MrTruck The size of the truck you need depends of course on your needs. ½ tons and light duty ¾ tons are for light duty work, loaded part-time. Heavy-duty ¾ tons, 1 tons and above are designed to be loaded all of the time. They have twice as many tapered bearings in the rear axle. It's called a full floating axle, similar to semi-truck eighteen-wheelers. While ½ ton pickups have a semi-floating axle similar to a car, with just 2 bearings. ½ tons and light duty ¾ tons will have a flush axle housing matching the wheel. With the heavy duty ¾ ton, 1 ton trucks and larger, the rear axle housing will actually stick out past the wheel and have an additional 8 bolts on the end of the hub holding the axle into the differential. This Full floating axle provides a more even weight distribution over the axle than a semi-floating axle. By removing a rear axle hubcap, you can determine if the truck is a ½ ton, light duty ¾ ton or a heavy-duty ¾ ton, 1 ton. On the 1rst two pages of my web site, I show pictures of the different axles at http://www.mrtruck.net. Heavy-duty ¾ tons, 1 tons and larger will have heavier springs, shocks and in some cases thicker, stronger frames. In recent years pickup truck manufactures have designed a different look between the ½ ton and HD ¾ ton. The majority of the time, if you compare a ½ ton to a HD ¾ ton pickup with the same gas engine option, the price is very close. And the ¾ tons will usually have more rear axle ratio and tow package options. Because of the resale value of a ¾ ton verses the price of a ½ ton, I usually recommend a heavy duty ¾ ton. But keep in mined because of a slight weight difference and the higher axle ratio in a ½ ton pickup, that a ½ ton can have better gas mileage. The EPA doesn t test fuel mileage on most ¾ ton trucks if they are over 8500# GVWR, (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating,) so you won t find a mileage rating on HD ¾ ton and higher trucks. Here is the break down of manufacture models.
I have pulled a lot of different trailers and remember how glad I was when I could afford to go from a bumper pull type trailer to a gooseneck. Fifth wheel or gooseneck trailers pull so straight with very little whip if loaded correctly compared to bumper types. And talk about backing a trailer. Bumper type trailers seem to react twice as fast as an easy going slow reacting anybody could back-it, gooseneck trailer. Come by for a visit at www.mrtruck.com, Good Truck n. MrTruck Article index March 02, April 02, May 02, June 02, July o2 |