Firebrick weight?

[OvenBoy]

I am at the point where I am planning my trip to the masonry shop for my firebrick. How much does one firebrick weigh? In my first wave of construction, I only plan on buying 150 bricks. Can I load the bed of my 3/4 ton truck with offroad suspension for this job or should I pull my tandem axle trailer to load the bricks on?

[dmun]

bricks

A typical firebrick weighs about 8 pounds and is yellow.

From the FB brick info page. I had no problem carrying 150 firebricks in my little pickup truck.

I also carried 500 pavers in one load, way too much.

[Les]

Not a problem

At 8 lbs each that would only be 1200 lbs. I carried a pallet of pavers that was around 3000 lbs in my 3/4 ton. My record is a little over 3200 lbs of busted concrete, drove like a Cadillac.

[Chris]

140 bricks went in the back of my minivan just fine.

[james]

Trucks and Tools

We could create a thread similar to the "how do you look after your tools," called "what do you do to your truck."

I bought a Ford Ranger just for our last house project -- and we put it to a test. Concrete blocks for the ovens and pavers for the driveway were the limit (along with the roof joists). I knew I had pushed the edge when the Home Depot check out staff asked me to sign a waiver saying that I had overloaded my truck and they would not be responsible.

150 bricks seems OK, just watch out for the potholes.

DMUN, how is your truck holding up?
James

[dmun]

Trucks are tough



My brother works for GM, and at one time was in their division in Egypt. Now GM dealers are required to analyse the loads of their prospective clients, and recommend the correct truck for the application, which works fine in the US, but in third world countries the practice is to pile up a truck as high and wide as possible and this was not practical. Needless to say they never refused to sell a truck to anyone.

This S-10, Chevy's smallest truck, is rated for a huge amount of weight, and can be pushed beyond that on occasion. I wouldn't fill it with bricks on a daily basis, but you can get away with a lot occasionally. I've moved machine tools with it.

[james]

Exactly. I wish I had a couple of old photos. I can see that your shocks are just about bottomed out. They "take a lick, and keep on ticking."
James

[Les]

Cool

Awesome picture David - I can see it now, "GM, proud sponsor of Forno Bravo ovens"

[maver]

bottoms out

I carried the block stand blocks (extra for the side counter and a later fireplace) plus the concrete for the hearth in one load from the hardware store and carried the 400 firebricks (100 extra for fireplace, a rounded up to avoid a second trip) plus 3 bags of lime (too much) and 3 bags of fireclay (one too many) in my wife's town and country minivan. Decided to skip the freeway with this serious overload, stopping distances were severely affected, but it seems to ride ok after. Had it in for service shortly after and they told me my shocks looked like they were toast, but when I explained what I had done they said I had just knocked the dirt off the bumpers at the end of the shocks travel and that it should be fine. I'm glad to hear about GM engineering for small trucks, I think Chrysler is on the same page.