Hey guys, I was thinking about putting a salt spreader on my 07 f150 with the 5.4L. I tried looking in other forums and posts but cant seem to find anything that isnt related to just plowing, which I don't plan on doing. I was just wondering if any others out there have put one on their trucks and how they handled.

The kind of spreader im thinking about getting is one that sits in the bed of the truck, not the hitch mounted ones. Any thing I should think about before buying one like upgrading my rear suspention or should i just get a 3/4 ton truck to do it with, I don't plan on plowing at all so I figured my f150 should be able to handle it, right?

 

How much does a salt spreader weigh full of salt?

 

salt usually weighs in about 1 ton per cubic yard and the spreaders by them selves weigh in about 500lb so I would say that the truck wouldn't carry more than 1-2 tons of salt including the hopper unit. I'm sure the truck by its self wouldn't have any issues with the weight as the GVWR is 7050 pounds with 3850 over the rear axle. A hopper I looked at from snow-ex has an empty weight of 500 with a 3240lb capacity which ends up being about 3740 pounds, which is rather close to the weight rating of my truck and an other that when all is said and done weighs in about 2500lbs.

My only question is, is there anything that I can do to the suspension or the rear end of my truck to keep it from squatting too low and to be able to maybe carry the heavier load (the 3700lb load) without too much wear and tear on my axle?

 

I've done my fair share of both salting and plowing, so I hope I have some credibility here. And please take my thoughts / opinions as just that.

My first question would be why the heck you'd want to ruin a nice truck by putting a salter in it? I drove a 2008 F-550 for a number of years starting when it was brand new. We ran a Smith stainless steel salter in the dump body and I generally weighed out after filling her up at right about 18,000 pounds. I got to watch the whole truck disintegrate around me - and we're not talking slowly here. Even spots you'd never think of - such as under the dash - rusted to hell from the salt. (Think about it, you're in and out of the truck all the time and can't avoid tracking salt in.) We sold the truck last year and the dump body was throw away. The cab looked ok, but closer inspection showed holes everywhere, including one through the roof above the windshield. Yea, it's that bad.

The second question I'd have is why you'd even consider putting a slater in a half ton truck. We ran a tailgate salter in an F-350 many years ago and although the truck could easily handle the weight, the truck rotted out in short order. (Not to mention you couldn't salt much of anything before having to reload.) If you try to put a hopper style salter in the back of a half ton truck, you won't be able to carry crap for payload. And trying to beef up springs, shocks, rear axles, etc. is a total waste of time and money. I've seen numerous one ton trucks attempting to run hopper style salters up here and they're all waaay over loaded. Trust me, a half ton truck is not what you want to put a salter in or on.

Hope that helps.

 

Thanks for the reply, This is just something I'm on the fence on, you do bring up some good points, the lawn care company I work for in Indianapolis does snow removal during the winter time and the trucks we use are Chevy C5500s and not only are they old as **** and need replaced but from being used as salt trucks are rusted to crap from not being cleaned out after each event, the dump beds in them have holes the size of my head. Luckily I was given an International Durastar as my salt truck with a hopper that held 6 tons of salt for two years and held up rather nicely.

Anyway the only reason this question popped up was that I'm thinking about starting my own lawn care gig and just trying to figure on what to do during the winter season. I just figured putting a salt hopper in my f150 would be cheaper than getting either a 250 or 350 and put a plow on them to push snow.

Most of what you brought up were things holding me back to begin with and reading them just makes me want to hold off until I can get a truck good enough for winter work.

 

You would be WAY over your max payload capacity! That's what you have to go by. You need a minimum 1 ton truck (F-350).

Your max payload on the F150 is probably less than 2000#. You can't go by just the axle capacity. Your GVWR of 7050# has to include the weight of the truck, which is over 5000#.