Hauling firewood: Rear suspension issue.

Huh? Half ton is 1000 pounds, well within the payload allowance.

 

I wouldn’t say well within.
If you weigh around 200lbs and if you have one other person with you, some gear, maybe some tools, you can now only carry about 600lbs in the bed.

I’m not telling you not to do it. I think people should know that they’re possibly overloading their truck without knowing.

 

That may be true on paper but having tried it myself on several occasions the leaf springs are noodles and once loaded handling was terrible.

 

Uh huh, and WHAT ARE WE TALKING ABOUT HERE?

 

1490 pound payload, minus a few hundred pounds is still over a half ton.
And if you think that the payload sticker was set at a hard line where everything will suddenly crumple if you go 1 ounce over it, then you're seriously mistaken. There is at LEAST a 50% safety margin in there.

 

Any info on this? I’m genuinely asking, haven’t read anything about it.

 

You may want to consider a set of rear Sumo Springs they replace your bump stops.

 

We are talking about what needs to be done to the Taco rear suspension to haul a lot of wood in the bed. My opinion is it is not as simple as just slapping on air bags or stiffer rear springs. I think we agree the rear susp from the factory can't cut it. I found, based on my own direct experience doing exactly what the OP asked about, stiffening up rear ONLY did not work well, that having a small trailer is preferable, and that the cost of doing it right susp wise is greater than the cost of the trailer. It just so happens I eventually did both (upgraded suspension front and rear) AND bought a trailer. I prefer the trailer for heavy hauling and the upgraded susp for doing other fun Taco stuff. Plus I can haul way more wood in the trailer than I could in the bed, and it is far easier to load/unload.

edit: forgot this. I ended up blowing out the rear Bisltein OR shocks after hauling a few loads of wood in the bed, in addition to trashing the stock leafs. They just can't control all that extra weight very well. But then where I go to get wood is semi rugged SW CO mountains and hauling a big load out of there is a bit bouncy.

 

I’ve overloaded my truck once and it was a pretty scary drive. I won’t be doing it again. I got a 4x8 trailer for $200.

 

That was only scary because you loaded it dangerously. You should lose your driver's license for operating like that on a public road.
And its not the weight that made it dangerous, its where you PUT the weight -- looks like about 1600 pounds ALL BEHIND THE REAR AXLE!

If you want to carry that much weight, its weight center needs to be AHEAD of the rear axle.

 

You live and you learn. And I definitely learned that day.

 

Good to hear.
And you are at a bit of a disadvantage with the short bed... less space ahead of the axle to load it up.

 

Yeah that’s when I learned about weight distribution and tongue weight...

 

Then you shouldn't have got a Stihl with a part number ending in 1! 0 is where it's at. xx1 models are newer and have to comply with stricter emissions controls.
I have a MS260 and it runs better than my dads MD291

 

take the money you would invest in any suspension and put it towards a trailer, a good trailer. It will be much more versatile than your truck. Used trailers are hard to come by, they go quick. i found a used karavan 5x8 for $650. Its capacity is 2000 lbs.

 

Stock leafs springs suck..... this was the 2nd time... eventually went with Dakars....

 

DING DING DING!!! We have a WINNER!

 

spend your money on a real chain saw

 

^^

I will eventually get a nice saw. When I need it.

 

Eh, well.... to each his own, but I'm really not the kind of person to get all freaked out about a small variation resulting from more strict emissions requirements. *maybe* I might understand the perspective if we were looking at the biggest forestry saws that they made, but to put it plainly, if I needed something more *powerful*, I would have bought a bigger saw.

And you know there is a lot more to how well a saw runs than just one having more strict emissions regulations impacting it than the other. If you want to compare the performance of two saws that are pretty similar in size, then you are going to have a bigger variation resulting from who is better at mixing the fuel, and who is better at sharpening the chain than you'll have from minor technical details.