Not your Daddy's half ton
Back in the eighties I used to heat our old home with a wood stove. I had a 1973 Chevy 10. I used to load it with wood, cut from private property, and haul it home. It was normal to load it 'til the s...
Forum Discussion
patnchris wrote:
The 73 had leaf springs. I actually got longer ubolts and added extra leafs to try and carry the weight. Plus added the old Add a leaf, setup...I also switched to load range "C" tires, on the rear. The interesting thing was, I never had rear axle or wheel problems.
Because the engines had so little power, you did not have the heat build up of driving fast while overloaded. If you drove that slow with the current trucks, I bet you could overload them by the same percentage without issues too.
I will not argue tires have come a long way. My friend has a 60's muscle car that has been in the family since new. The older tires would not grip as well and had much more flex. With new performance tires, that muscle car does not bark or smoke the tires nearly as easily. Because the tires hookup better, there are also more gear, bearing and case failures.
