I have hauled 31 bundles of shingles on a pallet and 3 rolls of tar paper in the back of my Dakota before and didnt have any trouble. That was well over 2000lbs. It was squatted down to where my towing package was about 5 inches from the ground. I have pulled a 20ft trailer with a 84 T-bird two engines and two trannys and another set of wheels also with no trouble. That was over 6000lbs counting the trailer. It all depends on how comfortable you are and how confident you are in your truck. Also your local DOT as mentioned above..

 

For your truck it lists a payload of 1,400lbs. Of coarse you can do more but by law and Dodge that is your max.

Here is the list https://dodgeforum.com/forum/1st-gen...ing-chart.html

 

Is there anyway to have the law amended? By upgrading and having it inspected at upgraded level?

 

No you cannot get a higher weight rating than the door tag lists, you can under rate for cheaper registration but never over.

 

1,400lbs is more than enough just a guess a typical V8 engine is 300lbs if so then you can carry at least 4 of them that is more than enough.

If you do load the bed that much the suspension will drop down considerably. You can get air shocks that will help up to 1,200lbs. Or coil overs that will help up to 1,000lbs.

 

when i cut down a tree in my yard i hauled some faily large chunks of the trunk in the bed. it sqauted some but not bad. it was 1420 lb's on the scale and it really didn't seem to phase it. mag 5.2 auto with 3.21 gears. i am however reinforcing the frame where the prev owner cunched it on a rock or something and let it go. my repairs are almost done and i can tell you that 12ga angle iron welded to the frame stiffens it signifacantly. if you are woried about the squating i would do bags since you can air em up or down as needed. i've also towed about 5,000 lb's with no issues at all. did notice it was a little tougher to get going but not to bad. stopping didn't seem to a issue either. keep in mind you have the 3.9 so don't just cram it to floor when you have it loaded. i've found half to 3/4 throttle (slowly rolling into it) gives me the best accel without overworking the poor thing.

 

A fully dressed sbc weighs close to 600 lbs. Most v8's weigh between 500 and 700lbs.
Anywho, I have had about 3000 lbs of concrete in the back of my truck along with a bunch of other supplies, probably close to 3500 lbs. It handled fine. Had it stacked as close to the front of the box as I could.
I also had around 2000lbs of rock in the bed and that was actually worse because it was an uneven load all over the bed, probably a lot towards the rear, however it didn't have much of an issue, just some sagging.
Now I have coil over shocks to help too.