When the brochure picture shows the rear tires almost defying gravity, you have to ask yourself, is there any real payload rating on this payloader kit?
A tractor? Who needs a tractor. Back then, the tractor cabs and radios paled in comparison to what General Motors offered in their pickups (that single in-dash speaker admittedly sucked pretty hard, didn’t it? Seat was nice though.) Regardless of the fact that a pickup could apparently tow a plow like that, the truth of the matter is that whether or not it should tow a plow like that. I once saw a Ford Raptor, the off-road-iest of off-road production pickups today, do a full-scale, floorboard send through the air in the sand dunes. It landed as I expected a production pickup would, so hard that I don’t think the front doors could open anymore, and I can almost guarantee the airbags deployed. “Hold my beer, it’s okay, I bought the extended warranty,” or something like that, but unfortunately, there was no dash-cam footage for proof. Other things one shouldn’t do with a pickup? There are thousands. How about replacing more heavy machinery with a light truck? If a Chevy can tow a plow, certainly a Ford can handle a front-end loader, right?
Ford sure was proud of that twin I-beam front suspension they created, and rightfully so. Honestly, if I were to ever consider building an off-road truck for extreme situations like, say, launching it through the air in the desert or something, I wouldn’t bat an eye at using an old Ford. They’re built tough, there’s tons of aftermarket support for the parts that aren’t quite so tough, and they have miles of front suspension travel. They come with the Ford differential that I’d want to run anyway, and I’m pretty sure a Chevy V8 would drop right it, possibly after “massaging” the firewall with a big hammer for distributor clearance. Mailhot Hydraulique of Quebec chose a different way to use that tough front suspension, though, as they created a front-end loader that mounts onto an ordinary F-series. How does it work? Probably horribly, but it actually did work. There’s a hydraulic pump that’s driven off the crankshaft, and controls are in the cab. The frame of the loader appears to attach to the frame of the pickup around the front bumper, and around the front and rear of the door, so no additional stress is provided to the pickup frame. The additional stress provided to the front suspension, however, is huge. Sure, one could add some counterweight ballast to the bed, but that puts even more stress on the suspension and the frame between the axles. Was it a good idea? Considering I’ve never heard of it and it’s like forty years old, not to mention I’ve never seen anyone else try it ever, I’d say probably not. Still, though, a front-end loader on a tractor probably looked like a bad idea to some, but it’s gotta be tried to know for sure.
Have a question or comment for Kelly? Post it at lmtimes.ca/kirk