I had an unpleasant experience this past weekend hauling gravel in my screw and was curious about how I was "supposed" to handle it.

I went and had a scoop dumped in the bed but when I got home and tried to drop the tailgate, the trouble started. When I did, gravel fell between the tail gate and the back of the bed and
jammed the tailgate. Couldn't open or close it. I started trying to pull it out by hand and the right hand side of the tail gate popped out. I eventually cleared enough away to pop it back in and lower the tail gate, but all kinds of gravel fell in between the gate and the bed duruing unloading and it was a pain to get out.

So what should I have done?

Crack the tail gate, pop of the cables and remove it?

Put something in the gap before going to get gravel? Like foam?

Don't haul gravel?

 

Well, it's over now so forget about it.
If you need more than what you got, you should of had it delivered.

You just aren't going to listen to me, are you?
OK, here:
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/te...ite=DDI%20Link

 

I always use a small trailer for hauling anything like that. I once hauled some sand in a previous truck and I thought I would never get all of it out. It actually got inside the tailgate. A trailer is nice because if it gets abused a little its not your truck bed.

 

In a word...

TARP!

Place a tarp over the tailgate before loading and this will prevent junk from getting in there... As I write this, I can think of more and more things to use - cardboard, wood, blanket/sheet, your wife's favorite tablecloth...

 

Another vote for the tarp. I lay the tarp down on the open gate and then get loaded. you can then push it all forward to close the gate. The tarp is cheap and also makes for easy cleanup in getting all the gravel back out without excessive scrathing of the box.

And I have had the gate come off as well. It is not hard to do if something gets between it and the box.

I now also have a utility trailer which will make it even easier than putting it in the truck.

 

I just can't get over the fact that you guys actually haul stuff like that in your SCrews. Man, if you're gonna haul messy, destructive stuff like that, buy an old truck for Pete's sake.

 

Get a load handler:
http://www.loadhandler.com/



(sorry, I couldn't find a very good picture of it)
Get one of these. I've never used one yet, but my Dad swears by it. I'm actually headed over to borrow his F350 and loadhandler tonight. I'm going to get a few loads of gravel for a landscaping project in the next couple of days.

 

All of the above mentioned stuff is great. Tarp, Cabela's item posted. Of course the trailer is the best, espcially since its lower to the ground it makes it easier to load and unload.

By the way, here is a bigger pic of the loadhandler.

Jag

 

I would say

1) use a trailer to haul the gravel. The truck is designed to pull it, and the trailer takes the beating. I use the back end of a 1949 Chevy 1 ton truck converted to a trailer. My best moments are pulling that thing out of the sand pit loaded with a yard of sand.

2) I have heard the tarp idea works good.

3) 4x8 plywood pushed up against the tail gate.

 

I'm not sure about the trailer thing. So, you go buy a trailer. Then you sign up at F150trailersonline.com. Then you start adding the righteous trailer mods, like carbon fiber springs and LED tail lights and a projection DVD player that plays on your rear window.

Pretty soon you don't want to haul gravel in that cherried out trailer. So, you buy another, beater trailer to haul gravel. Then you take the old mods out of the first trailer when you get better ones and put them in the second trailer. Pretty soon that trailer is too good to haul gravel.

So, you buy a third trailer....

It's going to be expensive...

 

Pullin' two trailers at the same time is a lot harder than you think.
I even tried putting one on the back and one on the front with a front reciever and that didn't work too good either.

(If I see you at the DMV gettin' two trailer tags, I'll know you didn't listen to me.)

 

a friend of mine has a 18 foot enclosed trailer with a receiver hitch on the back of it, and he has used that to haul a car trailer behind. I will tell you that it is one hard thing to do, don't even try backing.

 

Now I hope this does not start a war, cause it is not my intention...but trucks are made for hauling things, things you would not put in your wifes car/minivan/suv. Now that I am in the market for another truck, my wife initially had reservations about me buying one....she said" your gonna spend $30,000 on a truck and you will scratch it, dent it, abuse it".... Now in my defense, the drive train on all my vehicles is IMMACULATE!! I degrease the engines every couple weeks, they are shiny, never miss a service and always have the oil changed at 3000. So in order to distract her from her insane thoughts, I bought her the SUV she wanted...now she could give a damn what I get. I know, My truck just cost me $60,000, but i look at it as a payoff

 

Why does it always seem like we're bribing them, and they always get what they want and we only get what we want about half the time? You don't think women really do run our lives, and we aren't in as much control as we think we are?

Nah, can't be! Umhhhhh??????

 

Ahhh.......the ever-present Raoul now has competition in the "smarty-pants" arena!

--> KentC