What a lovely addition to the great Rugby lineup this body is. Incredible weight savings finally has it making sense to put a dump on a 1-ton truck. Back when I started selling upfitted trucks, the maximum GVWR before going to the medium duty was 10,000 lbs. It was always a concern selling a 2-3 yd steel dump on a 10k GVWR truck, considering that one yard of plain old dirt would pretty much overload the truck. Three yards would be craziness. So, when Ford came out with the Super Duty at 14k and others eventually followed suit, we hardly ever sold a metal dump on a 1 ton. It was a good thing.
Now, that has changed. The 11' Rugby for the 84" CA truck (GM would use the 10') weighs only 975 lbs compared to the steel dump at 1,695 lbs, a savings of 720 lbs. That's a tad over 40% savings. Now take an average chassis at 6,000 lbs empty weight, plus the dump at 975 and hoist at 550 and the package weighs in around 7,525. Most 1 tons now have 11k to 13k GVWR, so that gives a typical payload of up to 5,475 lbs! Three yards of dirt will still overload it; however, this is a serious improvement and now it makes sense for many uses to put this body on the one ton--at least I would feel more comfortable about it.
Some Rugby Aluminum Specs:
- Floor, front, sides and tailgate constructed of 3/16" 5052 Aluminum
- Double wall side design with 6" vertical side braces
- Sides include 22" high front board pockets and 6" rear pockets
- Side design incorporates fully boxed dirt shedding top rails and sloped bottom rails
- Seamless one-piece front design with window and 3/4 cab shield
- Cross members constructed of 3" I-beam 6061 aluminum interlaced on 16" centers
- Long members constructed of 8" formed 1/4" 5052 aluminum channel
- Full height 11.5" wide rear corner posts contain concealed lower latch hardware
- Stainless steel EZ-LATCH (TM) upper tailgate mechanism
- Dirt shedding fully boxed perimeter tailgate with 6" vertical braces
- Auxiliary stop/turn lights in upper rear corner posts
It's all a very nice package. The only issue I have is that this is stated in their literature as a 3-4 yd body and I am absolutely certain I would be telling my customers it's a 2-3 yd if it were going on a 1-ton. But, that's just me. I've had first hand experience at overloaded trucks. The good news for me is that it's not a service body, so it isn't loaded all the time with whatever load it is carrying. Put it on a 4500/5500 and it's no problem.
I have long loved Rugby products. I have sold so many I cannot count them and never had a problem one. You gotta love that. Great company and great products. Check out their website at www.rugbymfg.com. They even have a Stainless Steel dump! We'll talk about that another time. Thanks Rugby for building great products and keeping our customers happily working!
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