Need Loadmaster Help

[adis]

Wasn't sure where to put this question, so I just submitted it to general. I'll put out up front that I am a layman, and know nothing about loading trucks. With that in mind, I am slowly getting my 76 K20 into shape. It's going to be a work truck for projects in and around the house. I am using the standard of being able to haul a pallet of quickcrete or stone (3200 lbs) as my goal. What I'm doing now is, while I have the bed apart, I'd like to throw together some DIY tie-down anchors. The anchors should be easily installed on the fly, be able to safely secure my baseline load of 3200 lbs going up/down my driveway (maybe 8* incline,) be removable, and when removed not leave anything mounted on the bed that will ding up stuff that I slide into the bed (like drywall.) I've attached a sketch and pics of a mock-up I did. The idea is to use a 3/8" grade 8 bolt to tie a yoke made of 1/4" steel and a 3/8" clevis into the frame. Along each frame rail there will be two anchor points, one located inbetween the front two bed bolts and one inbetween the two rear bed bolts. I'd finish off the tie-down system with two anchor points left and right, over the rear axle for a cross-bed tie-down (although these won't be bolted to the frame.) I plan to cut the yoke out of 1/4" rectangle tube, and the clevis out of a gr.8 bolt, and use 2" ratcheted straps. So, I guess my questions are:

- what should the WLL of my system be - 6400, 3200, or 1600 lbs?
- if the straps anchor in front and behind of the load, is the WLL the sum of the individual straps - or the average of them?
- how can I calculate a WLL of each assembled anchor (best guess)
- is bolting the anchors to the frame a good idea or bad?
- do you think this system will do the job based on my requirements?
- is there a better product out there that will satisfy my requirements and be in the same price range (i figure my anchors will cost <$7 each, so $42 + labor)

thanks for any insight/help. - mark

[Baradium]

While that's a very interesting, and possible useful tie down anchor, why not mount recessed anchors into the corners of the bed at a low level instead? Then you can leave them in place and not be having to install and remove them.

[adis]

Thanks for the reply, Baradium. Originally I intended to do just what you suggest, I even bought a set of 5000 lb MBS recessed trailer anchors (6 for only $21 shipped.) My questions about them were:

- they have a 1666 WLL at a 90* angle to the clevis and significantly less off-angle, is this enough for my 3200 lb requirement? (I was hoping that my anchors were more like 3200 WLL...)

- they are held in place by 4 bolts, even with gr. 8 bolts (or welded in for that matter,) I presume the strength of the entire anchor is determined by the 16 ga steel of the bed - is this sufficient? (This is was what got me thinking about bolting the anchors to the frame.)

There are other reasons I got away from the recessed anchor idea (clanking eyelets!) but these were my main concerns. Any thoughts, I'm not "tied" to any one solution!

[Dead Parrot]

First thing that I thought was that you are planning on carrying about 1.6 tons of payload in a .75 ton truck, or simply, more than twice the truck's design limit. I have driven way overloaded pickups before and its not a lot of fun.

My quick suggestion is to look at purchasing a surplus M1101 or M1102 military trailer. It comes with recessed anchors already built in and has a design payload of about 3000lbs. As a bonus, they have hydraulic surge brakes built in. The only difference between the 1101 and 1102 is the placard.

[adis]

Thanks for the reply D. Parrot, according to my truck's information it has an 8400 GVW. While I haven't weighed the truck (it's not reassembled yet), I'm figuring it to be about 5000 curb, which is where I come up with my 3200 lb figure. The rear axle is 5560 GAW, again not having weighed it, but I think my rear should come in under 2360 lbs curb(?) I'll definitely get the truck weighed before I load it though. Do you see a problem with these figures?

[Dead Parrot]

Keep in mind that the GVWR is a maximum legal weight. Even 1 lb over and you could technically get a ticket. Probably rare, but possible. Another thing to remember, in the 70's, the GVWR had a large impact on the kind of emission controls a vehicle had. In my case, I have a 75 1/2 ton with a 6200 GVWR which qualified it for a non-cat classification even though most 75 vehicles required cats and other emission stuff. I think 5400 GVWR was the standard that year. My truck weighs about 4100 or so with just me in it. So while I could legally carry about 2100lbs of bed cargo, the truck would be operating on the extreme edge of the 1/2 ton design. A lot of trucks were sold with the 'Heavy Duty Emission' package where the main difference was the higher number on the GVWR plate and the lack of emission equipment. They were not magically designed to carry twice the cargo during normal operations as compared to the 'Light Duty Emission' trucks.

You are likely tempting fate if you plan on your normal cargo being right at the max legal weight on a 40 year old truck.

[68Timber]

WLL is not something you can calculate, its a rating assigned to a securement device by some dept of bureaucrats. That's the reason flat-bed truckers can't use chains from Harbor Freight, they haven't been rated and thus have a WLL of zero. That said, the WLL of your securement devices is the sum, not the average. Set all that aside though, it's not a commercial vehicle and common sense rules apply. For what you want to do, there's a heck of a lot of 1-ton dually flat bed squares out there, and they generally go cheap. They are much better suited for what you want to do.