What Makes a Truck a 1/2, 3/4, or 1 Ton?

Back in the late 70's-80's Toyota came out with a 2 wheel drive 1 ton pick up truck. I've been told our Tundra's are closer to the 3/4 ton rating. I know the difference between a Ford 3/4 and 1 ton is adding leaf springs. For our trucks to be able to haul 3/4 to 1 ton rated loads would we beef up the frame, weld stronger steel for the tow package, or something else? Just curious.

 

That was a 1 ton? Thats pretty cool.
This is pretty interesting. Ill have to follow this one.

 

Even came in a Dually..

 

back "then" the rating meant how much it could carry, today it means literally..nothing...

https://www.topspeed.com/trucks/truck-news/what-does-1-2-3-4-and-one-ton-mean-ar170528.html

 

Combination of axle, leaf springs, brakes.

 

Has anyone in our group "built" a one ton Tundra?

 

Here's the dually I found. Pretty sweet.

 

Uhaul used to have Toyota pickups for their moving trucks. They were all 1 ton, V6, dually models.

 

I rode dirt bikes with an old guy in the 80's that had one ofthese and pulled a 25' 5th wheel camper. He said it would maintain 55 on the flat but 45 was pushing it up hills. Looked like an ant pulling a watermelon. Very impractical in my opinion. It could not have been safe. No way it had the stopping power of a full size 3500.

 

I thought the frame is also taken into account when it comes to those ratings. You can have one-ton axles and diffs, but if the frame is designed for 1/2 ton loads, it’s likely to bend or crack if it’s subjected to one-ton loads. At least that was my understanding.

As an aside, my friend owns a trucking company with a fleet of about 70 or so rigs. His mechanic had to beef up the frame with fish-plating for a specialized tow rig designed to piggy-back tow other rigs that break down on the road. He showed me the work done to the tow rig and explained that although the engine, transmission, suspension, etc., can handle the added load, the frame needed strengthening.

I imagine the transmission would also need to be more heavy duty and with extra cooling capability to handle the type of work usually associated with one-ton loads.

 

There were several aftermarket companies stretching Toyota P/U before they came out with their own Xtra Cabs, Access Cabs & Double Cabs.

 

The add on cabs were made of fiberglass & of course required stretching the frame & cutting out the rear bulkhead. The interiors were finished in different ways.

 

Several companies made mini-motorhomes out of them. Chinooks were probably the best

 

Toyota didn't do much of anything when it came to rating it at 1 ton other than stiffer leaf springs. The dually had a full floating axle and slightly different brakes in the rear but otherwise it was the same frame and same 3rd member. They didn't even change the gearing. I worked for a glass company that had an '86 dually before the V6 came out and I swapped the gears out with the 4.10 gears from a 4wd to give it more grunt. The 22RE would struggle to get over 55mph.

 

Yeah, I knew about the axles and diffs and suspension components. I figured all the other components would’ve also had to be strengthened. I figured the frame, being the backbone of the vehicle, would be as well, but I admit I haven’t had a chance yet to look at and measure frame differences between 1-tons, 3/4 tons and 1/2 tons.

 

So you’re the one who took my mother in law home last night.

 

These are so awesome. I want one!!

 

As I recall, on ih8mud.com there was someone adapting one of the wider ones to an FJ-80 Land Cruiser.

 

Oh badass.

 

At this point the main reason the 250/2500 series trucks exist is to have a GVWR of just under 10,000 lbs and avoid some DOT requirements and lower registration costs.

 

I used my '86 4Runner to tow a 19' Prowler RV 800 miles from Houston to El Paso (necessity is a mother). I had the 4Runner set up for towing the RV with a Class III receiver, weight distributing hitch, and electric trailer brakes. It held highway speed fairly well until the Davis mountains. To get up some of those grades, I had to pull to the far shoulder of I-10 and slow to 25 mph in second gear. I was young and stupid, but the 4Runner kept my chestnuts out of the fire .

Thirty years later, the last thing I towed with the 4Runner was a Kubota mini-skid steer on a tandem axle trailer. Rental guy took one look at my setup and hitched it up. The tow load had to have been 5000 pounds. It was a short haul with some highway speed. The 4Runner (1/4 ton) never hesitated. They don't rate them like they used to.

 

I've been considering buying a pop up truck camper and they are around 2,000+ lbs loaded with gear. I've read that the Tundra CrewMax payload capacity is 1,760 lbs. So.... I imagine some suspension upgrades would be needed to improve cargo capacity.

 

Suspension upgrades don't do squat for legally raising your truck's GVWR. If you want a 2000+ lb camper - go get a heavier duty truck.

 

Obviously you have all the answers. Suspension upgrades in the domestics makes a difference in GVWR. But not in Toyota's evidently.