Hauling compost, how full can I fill the bed?

Stock suspension '13 4x4 DCSB V6.

Initially I loaded it up almost to the bed rails, but the sag concerned me. So I dropped down to about the top of the wheel wells.

*I'm visiting family and a good friend has some great mulch and compost on his land that worked wonders in my garden last year. He said "load up" so I need to haul it about 350miles back home one way and wanna know how full I can fill the bed in my double cab without ruining anything. I read the manual and know weight capacity for my truck is around 1,000lbs but I have no idea how to estimate the weight of the soil to be honest.

Thanks for the help.

*edited for those asking why I'm road tripping with it.

 

Airbags help if you are worried about squatting. But on a side note, I don’t think I would want compost in the bed of my truck. If I had to I would rather use or rent a small utility trailer

 

Well it sounds to me like OP already had the poo in the bed... so once pandora's box is opened, why not again, eh? It's a truck, after all... go pull your fertilizer trailer with a Ridgeline.

My answer is, as much as it'll hold, and still steer and stop safely. GVWR is, like, a guideline, man. I piled dried split oak a little over cab height in my 1st gen once... OK that's a bad example actually, it was lifted, and it definitely had sketchy handling, and lots of people noticing my headlights that were aimed way up.

My technical answer is I don't have an answer, it's going to depend greatly on how dense and how moist it is.

 

All depends on moisture content. My Kubota could lift a full bucket of spend mushroom substrate when desert dry but could barely curl the bucket when wet. Same with a load on a friends dump trailer. No problem dumping until we got caught in the rain on one load and we ended up shovelling half the load by hand to get it to lift.

 

I think I would rather have the trailer full of poo than the ridgeline

 

My big concern is the highway for extended distance. Should that be factored in any different?

 

You want answers yet have no data. As mentioned above weight is variable. The volume you fill your bed to is only one variable as to the actual weight of your load. The weight per cubic yard or meter is the first thing you need to figure out. Who cares what the actual load capacity of your truck is if you can’t calculate the weight of the load. Without any data a guess is a guess is a guess. I guess you are overloaded. I guess you are within your capabilities. Both are 100% accurate and neither can be proven or disproven because you have no data to make any calculations.

How long your trip is is irrelevant for the most part.

 

Best answer so far. In my 2015 DCSB 4.0 V6 4WD AT with myself (200lb), some emergency equipment (50lb), sliders and front bar (150lb), and stock tires at 29/32psi, I calculated a "safe" bed weight at around 700ish pounds in order to abide by GVWR.

 

Ah, yes... the old Schrodinger's Truck Bed Full of Cow Poop conundrum.

 

As long as you don't have it sitting on the bumpstops, or where you pound the bumpstops if on a bad road, you'll be fine.

Must be some magical stuff if you want to haul it 350 miles. Most folks I know acquire stuff like this locally, load heavy and creep home 5-10 miles.

 

Highway or country road? Smooth roads you just need to be sure you have not bottomed out. Rough road you need more spring travel.

Why are you moving mulch 350 miles. Get local crap. Less chance of moving insect pests and fungi not currently in the environment.

 

What Billy said...that must be some magical sh!t to justify a 700 mile round trip. What is it and where can I get some?

 

Loading the bed by the deflection of the leaf springs makes sense on the surface but seems like a bad strategy when you consider how the bed is constructed on these trucks.

We've seen posts here of guys whose beds were loaded so heavily (and regularly that way), such that the bolts holding the polymer bed to the frame wallowed out the holes in the polymer.

Not saying this will happen to the OP on his compost haul, but it's something worth considering. If the bed on these Tacomas was made of steel, I'd feel differently on the matter.

 

Mulch is generally agreed to weigh 6-800 lbs./ cubic yd.
Dirt about 2000 lbs / cubic yard
Sand about 2600-3000 lbs. / cubic yard.
Screened stone about 3000 lbs/ cubic yard.

I have carried one yard of mulch which filled the bed right to the top of the sides and I could cover it with the roll up tonneau.
I have also carried about 1/2 yard of screened stone many times. Distances under 10 miles on side roads.

Wet compost can be very heavy depending on moisture . I would not take that kind of load 350 miles at, I would assume, highway speeds. I try carry about 1200-1300 lbs. as my maximum.... springs, bags, or otherwise. I would say 1/2 yard maximum of anything loose AND dense should be at the maximum payload. That, of course, depends on how your truck has been modified and what it weighs at the curb. My sticker payload is 1260 lbs. I took two full loads of branches and wood from some Bradford pear trees I cut down to the dump. That filled the bed and I used a bed extender too. Weight on scales, 700-800 lbs. each load. This truck is a half ton pickup equivalent to an older F-100. I just saw a parked late seventies early eighties step side F-100 tonight. I looked at the springs just to see. It had a thin main leaf and two thin, shorter leaves, just like what most of us have but without the overload.

For the safety of others and the longevity of your truck, please follow the posted payload ratings.

 

Not magical, just free when visiting family. Just figured I'd load up to re soil my garden. 350mile one way.

 

It is a lot heaveryer that others will lead you to believe have a look at this, moisture is a big factor mulchstoremn.com/faq.html

 

I guess a better question would have been what is the estimated volume of a shortbed loaded with low-to-medium moisture compost/mulch? Is the consensus I'm gathering a yard?

Thanks for all the help and suggestions everyone, I don't do alot of bed loads so it's why I'm asking.

 

It would be better to rent a trailer. It would also be easier to load and unload the compost as well.

 

And a cheap tarp to put down BEFORE the compost is dropped on. Won't lose any product into the nooks or cracks of the trailer.

 

Buy a trailer.

1. Easier to load and unload.

2. The trailer can be dropped before it's empty if you need to use your truck for something else.

3. You don't have to worry about somebody crunching your taco with a loader.

Just my $1.98