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Sixteen Footers In The Back

trouthunter

Full Member
Joined
Apr 8, 2003
Messages
226
Location
Tacoma, WA
I'm doing some work around the house - the result of framing houses through college is that even though I get to sit in a nice comfy air conditioned office all day now, my wife knows that I can swing a hammer with the best of them, so she won't let me hire anybody to do anything!

At any rate, I pulled the hardcovers off and headed to the local Home Depot. I started off with a dozen 2x10x16' boards and at the register had them add 20 2 cu ft bags of gardensoil for some raised beds we're putting in. They had a guy walk out to help me load them up. He took one look at the Av, glanced back at the boards and said, "We're going to have to cut those for you."

Ha! Nope. I dropped the midgate, dropped the tailgate and we loaded them in, no sweat. He couldn't believe it. I then headed over to the garden section and started tossing in the bags of dirt. The guy there came over, looked in the back and said, "Son of a B----, check that out!" Pretty soon I had three guys helping me load the Av (and giving it the full inspection). I've never had that kind of service before - Do you think there was an ulterior motive?

At any rate, unloading it at home was not as easy. My wife may be impressed with the Av, but not enough to come help me toss around lumber and dirt.

See, it IS a truck after all!



 
same experience for me at Home Depot - a disbelieving crowd gathered as I wheeled fourteen 6"x6" x 12' landscape timbers up to the Av - she swallowed em up no problem, barely had much sticking out over the tail gate. All the men that had gathered at the front of the store where the loading was taking place were very impressed.

Note to file, when REALLY loading the Av up like this (those landscape timbers are wet and heavy), do like I did and lay a 2x4 across the rear edge of the bed just before the tailgate - otherwise the slight up slope of the tailgate will mean that a good amount of the weight of the timbers will be carried at the rear edge of the gate, and it could deform or put the cables in jeaopardy. The 2x4 keeps the load off of the gate.
 
Been there done that!!

I loaded 4 rolls of carpet, 24ft in length. NO PROBLEM for my AV!!!

That's just the beginning.

Great post!!
 
Why would you put the midgate down to haul 12' lumber? I just stick it out the back or take the 1st panel off and stick it in.
 
I thought carpet came 12 or 14` wide-unless you roll it the otherway
 
I thought about that with the sixteen footers, but they were just too long, and I wanted them relatively flat for the dirt I was piling on top of them.

I forgot to mention that I had my wife and son with me. My son sat up front, and my wife rode in the back, sitting on the lumber with her back against the driver's seat and her legs sticking out into the bed. Probably broke some seatbelt laws there, but it couldn't be helped. She said it was a heck of a lot more comfortable than riding in the back seat of my old 1993 Nissan King Cab pickup. We just about needed a pound of butter some dynamite and a crowbar to get her out of that one!
 
The Dude said:
Why would you put the midgate down to haul 12' lumber? I just stick it out the back or take the 1st panel off and stick it in.

actually, why would you NOT put the midgate down Dude, since it takes all of 15 seconds to put it down, it gives you nearly trhee more feet of bed length, and I certainly needed bed length?

Do you find the operation of the midgate to be especially challenging, does it intimidate you in some way? I really cannot explain your thinking any other way . . . a bed-lengthening feature, unique to our trucks, exists, it literally takes a few seconds to accomplish, and the situation called for bed length (lest I wanted three more feet of timber sticking out behind my Av) - did you do something foolish, like put a big subwoofer on the floor of the backseat, negating your ability to use the midgate?
 
This thread needs pics!!!!

I have hauled a bunch of baseboard and other trim that is 16'

Gotta love the avy for that.
 
The week after I bought my AV, my brother started building a 24x32 garage. The lumber yard that he got the wood from delivered the wrong length studs. He needed 100 10 foot studs that day and the yard was closed. We went to another lumber yard with the AV, covers off, gate down and glass out. We loaded up all 100 (neatly stacked on a tarp so nothing got scratched) and off we went. It was a short trip and the boards didn't even hang over the edge of the tailgate. I would like to see someone do that with a SuperCrew. ?;D
 
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