Hey all,

I am moving my mother over the weekend and she has a John Deere 100 series lawn tractor. Has anyone hauled something like this in the back of your truck? Just curious if there are any concerns about putting that much weight on the tailgate while loading it in the box. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

 

Tailgate will handle it no problem. I had a heavy kubota diesel mower drive on my tailgate with no issues. Although it scratched the heck out of the plastic on the tailgate, that stuff its so soft.

 

Advice....Loader up..

 

I've had one of my 600lb ATVs in the bed a couple of times. It fits well even with the RamBox, you just lose some of the extra room to reach the tiedown points. The rear wheels sit about 4" onto the tailgate - no problem. And no problem driving, but it did ush my headlights higher as it squatted a good inch plus.
I did have issues trying to keep the ramps from damaging the plastic tailgate cap - used a piece of wood slat (but it fell out). Eventually will need to replace cap with Rhino Lining like in the bed, but since the RamBox means matching plastic caps all-around I didn't want to get into that yet.

 

I've loaded my son's Honda TRX atv at least 50x as well as a Craftsman 22hp yard tractor in the bed using a set of folding aluminum ramps to drive them into the bed. Already had to foam tape the top of the ramps since they would rip into the tailgate cap on any truck. It is no problem at all though.

However, the bed on these 09 Rams with the coil setup is real spongy, you can really see it when my bro and I sit on the tail gate ( 220 lbs me and he is about 235lbs ) this truck totally sacks out compared to my F150. There is a cost for that smooth ride, you can take a speed bump at 40 mph without flying off your seat now but sacrifice payload.

Heavy duty coils need to be an after market option in the future here.

 

Yes I agree with everyone else. I have a Honda 400 EX in the back of mine right now, fits fine. TRX 4 QC

 

I take my riding mower to my grandmothers every other week and cut her grass. My only suggestion is to put towels between the tailgate and your ramps so they don't scratch. My Ram doesn't squat at all with this.

 

Thanks for all the tips, fellas. I'm glad you all weighed in. Heading out this morning for the big move and taking along plenty of stuff to protect the tailgate cap.

 

hopefully everything works out well for you and you don't have any problems. what good would a truck be if you couldn't haul anything in it?

 

It was a piece of cake. I picked up a set of aluminum ramps from WalMart, threw a blanket down over the tailgate and drove the tractor right up. The ramps are pretty nice too, they have a strap that secures them in place (I hooked them to the tow chain retainers on the hitch). Thanks again for the tips.