What is the weak link?

For about 20 years, starting in the early 1980’s, I had an old 1975 Dodge half-ton, slant 6, 3-speed on the column. It was just an old beater with nothing in the way of special equipment for hauling. I abused that truck for driving in the woods hauling immense loads of firewood home, for carrying typically about 2500 to 2700 pounds of crushed limestone from the yard about 15 miles away so as to keep our long driveway in good shape, and for other similar tasks. Let’s say I didn’t know any better at the time and didn’t much care what damage I did to the truck. I did do the usual mechanical maintenance.

Anyway, I never had a problem with that truck, except that the body was mostly rusted away when I bought it and it was a constant battle to keep the body together.

In light of that experience, I’m a little surprised that I can’t safely coax a couple of hundred more pounds of capacity out of my current truck. I guess I am effectively limited to a TT of no more than 6000 pounds and 900 pounds tongue weight?

Wayne