Any non-pickups or SUV's good for hauling stuff?

[EagleKeeper]

20 bags of mulch should be around 400-600 lbs. Unless your car can't handle 4 people inside of it, I don't see how that would be an issue.

I've had 400lbs worth of audi shortblocks in the trunk of my A6; no issues what so ever.

Weight there is where designed, between axles.

Put all that weight behind the rear axles and your front will start to float and rear go toward the bottom travel of the suspension

 

[Zargon]

Front was probably floating.

And you probably did nothing that afternoon after unloading the bags.

Soreness

no doubt, it was in the 90s and 80+ % humidity......I sweated through a shirt doing it and called it an afternoon by drinking a few beers

 

[halik]

Weight there is where designed, between axles.

Put all that weight behind the rear axles and your front will start to float and rear go toward the bottom travel of the suspension

Essentially all sedans have the axle behind the back seat, so by the time you fold the seats down you're balancing the load fore/aft the back axle. Unless you're doing something like this anyway

 

[desura]

I've got an 08 forester. Most I've carried is about 12 of the 3/4 sq foot bags of dirt. It was pretty wet, so maybe about 700 pounds worth.

I also regularly drive it to lunch with 3 co-workers (all over 200 pounds), and myself over 300 pounds.

It takes a little bit longer to get up to speed, but, the car has no issues with 1000-1500 pounds of passengers+payload.


it's rated to tow a ton or ton and a half, so, for bigger jobs, a trailer would be optimal, but, I'd just rent the truck at menards or home depot for anything truly heavy.

It was probably the oversize tires that were the problem.

 

[vitXterra]

2015 Xterra PRO-4X

27 boxes of bamboo floor, 64 pount each, 27 x 64 = 1728 pounds

did not go above 40 mph

 

[Brian Stirling]

Get a hitch and a trailer. Way better than basing your vehicle purchase around payload for an occasional visit to the garden/hardware store.

EDIT: Even better, pay $20 to lowe's/home depot to rent their truck for an hour. If you don't live by one of those stores, then go back to my hitch/trailer suggestion.

100% correct. Why pay more for a pickup or large SUV, then pay more for insurance and gas for the few occasions when a larger vehicle can haul more. I have a hatchback (2012 Ford Focus) that would be considered small but can carry quite a bit with the back seats down. I've not needed to rent a truck in nearly three years and have carried large things on a number of occasions.

If you need to haul a lot of bags of soil you can make more than one trip. I doubt there is many modern cars that can't comfortably handle 500 pounds in the back and probably a bunch more, but that payload will be less if the car is lowered or has larger wheels/tires.


Brian

 

[mizzou]

No, there are no non pickups or SUV's that are good for hauling stuff. All half-ton pickups are terrible for hauling stuff. Until you get into the heavy duty and super-heavy pickups, then you can start looking at hauling stuff pretty well.

It is much easier to tow a trailer and let the trailer carry the weight burden on a separate axle.

Every time I throw a yard of any material in my truck, I carefully ask them how much the product weights and then I try to figure out if I can safely do it. Dirt is one of the heaviest things you can buy (many don't realize that).