Must Have Been A Beer or 12 Involved

Farmerjon, I think the bigger 1/2 ton vehicles were referred to as "Heavy Duty" 1/2-tons. As I recall, all "Heavy Duty" 1/2-ton vehicles had five (maybe six) lug wheels. None had full floating axles, which were eight lug.

The primary issue (simplified version) was the fact a 1/2-ton axle bearing failure could possibly cause axle failure resulting in an axle braking and the wheel/axle stub would fall off. The full floating axles were and are a totally different design. The axles and bearings did not depend on each other. You could damage one with no effect on the other. You can break an axle on a full floating axle, and the wheel/bearings will still be intact allowing the vehicle to stay on all four (or 6) wheels. There are other considerations, but this was the most obvious to most of us.

In 86 or 87 I was in a Ford show room and saw an F250 with a semi-floating axle. I was shocked. It was not available with a diesel or 460 and they kept it around for about 10 years. I thought it confused things since I felt semi floating rear ends belonged on cars and 1/2 tons, not on the heavier trucks.
I feel that semi or full floating is a dividing line between 1/2 ton and 3/4 ton.

twodownzero wrote:
3/4 ton trucks from that era often had semi floating rear axles, just like 1/2 tons. They had bigger axle shafts, tubes, and wheel bearings, but they were nothing but glorified 1/2 tons.

I do not think this is true. What do you base it on? I have personally worked on both axles, and will say your experience is very different than mine.

twodownzero wrote:
Those of you who advocate completely ignoring door stickers and deliberately overloading trucks far beyond what the people who designed the trucks intended them to carry are reckless, not "free thinkers" who refuse to surrender your liberty to "attorneys literature." Those who support this kind of recklessness are just creating ammo for the future nanny-staters who will, one day, successfully lobby government for severe restrictions on RVs and their drivers--of all kinds--who have for decades lived in a gray area of the law because the use is non-commercial. Openly discussing this sort of dangerous activity and admitting that you're doing it deliberately under the guise of some kind of "personal responsibility" calculus just makes it worse.

My only hope is that the manufacturers continue to build stronger trucks that are rated for more weight. Then, perhaps, the vehicles we use to carry and tow our RVs will have sufficient capacity that people will not be tempted to think this way.

The engineering factors in these vehicles are there for a reason. It isn't an attorney who decides how big the engineering factor must be--it's a professional engineer.

Respectfully, there is very little in the above post I agree with. As we go through life, things are not always what we think they are. It is important to keep an open mind.

3/4 ton trucks from that era often had semi floating rear axles, just like 1/2 tons. They had bigger axle shafts, tubes, and wheel bearings, but they were nothing but glorified 1/2 tons.

Those of you who advocate completely ignoring door stickers and deliberately overloading trucks far beyond what the people who designed the trucks intended them to carry are reckless, not "free thinkers" who refuse to surrender your liberty to "attorneys literature." Those who support this kind of recklessness are just creating ammo for the future nanny-staters who will, one day, successfully lobby government for severe restrictions on RVs and their drivers--of all kinds--who have for decades lived in a gray area of the law because the use is non-commercial. Openly discussing this sort of dangerous activity and admitting that you're doing it deliberately under the guise of some kind of "personal responsibility" calculus just makes it worse.

My only hope is that the manufacturers continue to build stronger trucks that are rated for more weight. Then, perhaps, the vehicles we use to carry and tow our RVs will have sufficient capacity that people will not be tempted to think this way.

The engineering factors in these vehicles are there for a reason. It isn't an attorney who decides how big the engineering factor must be--it's a professional engineer.

languiduck wrote:
I think my sarcasm was lost in my crazy talk statement. I do agree with you. I think there's too many sheople that let too many other people do the thinking for them.

We are on the same page, not to worry.

Wayne

Reddog1 wrote:

languiduck wrote:

Reddog1 wrote:
Actually, we were more creative and less concerned with the sky falling back then. No need to weigh it, cause we were going to haul it anyway. Personally, I totally ignored the door stickers then, as did all of my camping friends. We did not have air bags, not required to have helmets while riding a motorcycle, it was common practice to have passengers in the TC while traveling. We actually even drank the water from the TC tank.

That's crazy talk!

Not at all. I question any value in an in-depth discussion, but I will stand by my statement. Depending on you age, you will find as time progresses, we tend to think we have too be dictated to by others for various reasons. There was a time, we were responsible to think and be responsible for ourselves. As time passes we tend to think the sales people and attorneys literature is the only truth. Simply stated, one size does not fit all.

Each one of us work off from a knowledge base. Sometimes it is from experience, sometimes from research, and ideally from both. My preference is both, with the understanding that experience usually will be more valuable than theory. In my opinion, a sales person or attorney typically have little to no experience on a given subject that that they were educated in.

I think my sarcasm was lost in my crazy talk statement. I do agree with you. I think there's too many sheople that let too many other people do the thinking for them.

Reddog1 wrote:
Actually, we were more creative and less concerned with the sky falling back then. No need to weigh it, cause we were going to haul it anyway. Personally, I totally ignored the door stickers then, as did all of my camping friends. We did not have air bags, not required to have helmets while riding a motorcycle, it was common practice to have passengers in the TC while traveling. We actually even drank the water from the TC tank.

Yes we were and I like it.

Reddog1 wrote:

languiduck wrote:

Reddog1 wrote:
Actually, we were more creative and less concerned with the sky falling back then. No need to weigh it, cause we were going to haul it anyway. Personally, I totally ignored the door stickers then, as did all of my camping friends. We did not have air bags, not required to have helmets while riding a motorcycle, it was common practice to have passengers in the TC while traveling. We actually even drank the water from the TC tank.

That's crazy talk!

Not at all. I question any value in an in-depth discussion, but I will stand by my statement. Depending on you age, you will find as time progresses, we tend to think we have too be dictated to by others for various reasons. There was a time, we were responsible to think and be responsible for ourselves. As time passes we tend to think the sales people and attorneys literature is the only truth. Simply stated, one size does not fit all.

Each one of us work off from a knowledge base. Sometimes it is from experience, sometimes from research, and ideally from both. My preference is both, with the understanding that experience usually will be more valuable than theory. In my opinion, a sales person or attorney typically have little to no experience on a given subject that that they were educated in.

Agree! The older I get, the dumber the younger generations get. It still blows me away to see so many so willful to surrender their independance and let federal laws and yuppy activist groups strip away our ability to be self thinkers expecting everyone to embrace their values and so many blindly don't care. I do miss the days of skinny dipping in the creek, drinking wAter from that same creek, and having parents that taught us there are always reprocussions for our actions, both good and bad. And some times those wrong actions resulted in a very bad discomfort on our little sassy butts. Those experiences taught us to be respectful of authority, and to take responsibility for our actions istead of blaming everything else in the universe for our stupid and irresponsible behavior. Divorce,being involved in any kind of legal lawsuit, having children outside of marriage,sexual freedom, all carried a scarlet letter of embarrassment that no one wanted to carry. These were social stigmas that no one wanted to carry. Today, if someone is going through something like that, it's a badge of glory! You end up on a talk show, or worse, Jerry Springer, and somehow are proud of abandoning any kind of self controlled behavior and morality.

Give me the days before the internet. Life was much more clearly right and wrong then. I'll take that camper and truck any day. They will both probably outlast my current rig.

Super_Dave wrote:

Reddog1 wrote:
Actually, we were more creative and less concerned with the sky falling back then. No need to weigh it, cause we were going to haul it anyway. Personally, I totally ignored the door stickers then, as did all of my camping friends. We did not have air bags, not required to have helmets while riding a motorcycle, it was common practice to have passengers in the TC while traveling. We actually even drank the water from the TC tank.

And the gray tank was a short garden hose that stubbed on the outside of the camper.

Yep! That's what we did. My campers were only 8footers but I always had either a horse trailer with 2 horses or a flat bed with 3 or 4 bikes in it tagging along behind.

languiduck wrote:

Reddog1 wrote:
Actually, we were more creative and less concerned with the sky falling back then. No need to weigh it, cause we were going to haul it anyway. Personally, I totally ignored the door stickers then, as did all of my camping friends. We did not have air bags, not required to have helmets while riding a motorcycle, it was common practice to have passengers in the TC while traveling. We actually even drank the water from the TC tank.

That's crazy talk!

Not really just a difference in the times
I remember riding in the camper ,the view from the front cabover window was awesome @ 50 mph plus when I was a kid about half a decade ago , kind of like flying

For that matter my mom had a wooden spoon she used on us kids if we where bad, better than the backhand my father got from his , all done with love , now we would all be in foster care with parents in jail
Glad I was a kid then and not now
Governments keeping us all safe now